Drainage problems/ high water table

Hi
Have moved into a bungalow 12 months ago which has a sizeable garden, have noticed that that throughout the winter and even occassionally through the summer the lawns and soil would waterlog and become soft quite quickly. making the lawn a no go area for much of the time. After a chat with the neighbour it would seem that this is because of a high water table and a mainly clay heavy soil.
Have thought about french drains, but some say this wouldn't help if you have a high water table, so not sure there

Have also planted a small amount of golden leylandii in an area of the garden (not a fan) as need privacy thick and fast onto a busy road, just wondering if they will die if the ground is particularly wet and are there any ways i could successfully divert exccess water away.

Any advice would be welcome

 

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Sorry, I'm no expert on this, but I reckon others will be along at some point.

It seems to me though, the water table is close to the surface where you are, then a field drain isn't going to help, as invariably they don't really go anywhere, they are just aimed at letting surface water soak away more quickly but if the drain is already full of water, it isn't going to swallow any more.

There are always solutions though. Could you post some pics so we can see what we're dealing with?

 

Drains is the only answer to waterlogging / flooding, but they do need somewhere to go to - a downhill slope, or a storm drain (if you are allowed to connect to it).

You can make a soakaway (deep hole, filled with rubble), and route the drains to that, but once that is overloaded you will still have a problem - but the land will drain more quickly than at present.

For the "drains" you dig a trench, put perforated drainage pipe (comes on a roll) in the bottom, cover it with gravel, and then fill the trench back in. You can put gravel up to the top of the trench in places as that will enable surface water to get down into the drain more quickly.

Some good info here: www.pavingexpert.com/drainage.htm