Specialists in drainage and earthworks to create high quality seeded and turfed Lawns based in the South Hams, Devon

Morleigh 2010 - Drainage and relaying of turf lawn

Many of our projects involve making good poor quality by other companies and this project was a typical example. Although not clear from the first photo the grass was very poor and the lawn uneven with major drainage problems and water pooling during wet periods. Some time after the initial work the company came back and land drainage was installed. The land drainage was dug too deep and the trenches backfilled with clay that had been removed essentially waterproofing the ditches and rendering the drainage useless. To make matters worse the trenches were inadequately compacted as they were backfilled so after 12 months had sunk by up to 6 inches leaving dangerous depressions hidden by the grass.

The first step for us was to remove the grass. It was immediately clear there was no topsoil to save (as is often the case with unscrupulous excavation work the topsoil is simply mixed with subsoil and lost) so we removed 8-10inch layer of poor grass and compacted subsoil. We then dug and exposed they clay sealed drainage trenches, filled with additional gravel to the correct level (just beneath the porous topsoil layer) also adding many new spur's to make the drainage much more comprehensive. The whole site was then re-graded removing high areas and filling depressions to achieve a consistent shallow plain. We then imported 200 tonnes of topsoil from a nearby local source giving the site a generous 10 inch layer able to absorb heavy winter rain and retain moisture during dry summer months and support a high quality lawn. Finally the new turf lawn was laid to complete the project.