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Worried about buns new accomodation - drainage issue U/D help please

sacol4940

Warren Veteran
Well the slabs have been down for a couple of weeks now, and the ground used to be boggy before the slabs were laid, but I thought it'd be ok. It's been raining a fair bit lately and now the area around the edge of the new slabs is really bad. The OH has dug a bit of a hole and it just keeps filling with water. Every time it rains, he empties about 10 buckets of water out :?

I'm now really worried that we'll have to keep emptiying it out with buckets or it's going to overflow into the aviary (when i eventually get it)

What can I do? I need to get P&P outside but dont want to buy the shed if I can't have an aviary attached cos it'll flood :? Do I just buy a hutch/run or something else?

Here's a pic of the garden (excuse the mess, the piles of earth are from where we dug the ground up for the slabs and also out of the hole)

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And the boggy area is on the left hand side at the top and also in front of the slabs on the left:

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Help me RU! :wave:
 
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Hmmm.... that's pretty bad isn't it? My beloved says with that amount of water he can't help but wonder if there's a spring under there.... there are springs on a couple of estates near us that always have water running down them because of natural springs.

I would say you'd need to call in a professional builder and see if they can dig a soakaway / drain of some sort for you. I would be wary of putting a hutch down there too as it could simply get soaked through and rot.

I really hope you find a solution of some sort.
 
I'm not sure if this would solve the problem but it might be worth looking in to - could you put down gravel and then a layer of turf on top so that water would drain away from the top layer of ground?
 
i agree with the builder idea, itll need to be drained somehow or youll need to build a higher platform for the bunnies? maybe a concrete plinth again a builder could sort something out.

how gutting :(
 
I doubt ill be able to afford a builder :( i've only got about £200 saved away which was going towards the cost of the shed and its taken me ages to save that :oops: If i spend that on a builder then it'll probs be xmas before I can afford the shed, and then i need to save for the aviary as well :(
 
Are you friendly with your neighbours? Why don't you see what designed gardens they have....something maybe suitable to you. OR.....(don't know if it would work) how about a raised decking area. So the ground underneath can be left as is and drain away naturally with out affecting your rabbit set up?????? Good Luck.
 
Are you friendly with your neighbours? Why don't you see what designed gardens they have....something maybe suitable to you. OR.....(don't know if it would work) how about a raised decking area. So the ground underneath can be left as is and drain away naturally with out affecting your rabbit set up?????? Good Luck.

The garden to the left of ours has decking at the bottom of theirs and they've just left a trench running down the side of the fence to drain the water away, but it seems worse on our side :(

How expensive is decking?
 
maybe you could buy your own concrete and make a raised area yourself?

whats behind your gate? was the ground all boggy before the slabs were laid? can you move the bunny home further up the garden and leave the bottom for the rain water to drain away natuarlly?
 
maybe you could buy your own concrete and make a raised area yourself?

whats behind your gate? was the ground all boggy before the slabs were laid? can you move the bunny home further up the garden and leave the bottom for the rain water to drain away natuarlly?

Behind the gate? Do you mean behind the fence at the bottom? It's someones front garden from that road at the back

Yeah the ground was boggy before, but it seems worse now :(

I dont think the OH will be happy to move it further up the garden as it's going to be 16ft by 8ft and it'll look a bit a silly in the middle of the garden.

I could just buy a hutch/run combo and put it on the right hand slabs as they're ok, but i dont think it's big enough for them as at the moment they live in a 6x4 ish pen during the day and then have the run of the kitchen/diner at night
 
so you cant really stick a pipe in the ground and get the water out that way then :(

i dunno what else to suggest :( i would think a raised area would solve it but its all bloody money aint i :evil::evil::evil:
 
so you cant really stick a pipe in the ground and get the water out that way then :(

i dunno what else to suggest :( i would think a raised area would solve it but its all bloody money aint i :evil::evil::evil:

tell me about it :evil: the shed and aviary will cost me nearly £500 as it is
 
I asked my boyfriend whether my gravel suggestion would be any good and he said that a gravel layer is good then mix together soil and sand until you have a very sandy soil and put that on for your top level. It may not fix the problem but often you get boggy areas due to the type of soil that's there so replacing the soil with a better draining type as well as putting some drainage (gravel) underneath should help a little.

My other idea was to just make a pond?
 
Can the shed go on the boggy side, but put it up on sleepers so its raised several inches off the slabs, and put the enclosure on the dry side?
 
Can the shed go on the boggy side, but put it up on sleepers so its raised several inches off the slabs, and put the enclosure on the dry side?

Not sure if that's work as the 2 different areas of slab slope different ways, so there's kind of a peak which would be in the middle of the aviary so it wouldnt sit on the ground properly, if that makes sense? The slabs on the right were already there when we moved in and arent level, the ones on the left we added and they're perfectly level. It would have been ok with the shed on the right as the edge where the shed would meet the aviary would have been right on the peak




My OH has filled the hole in with rubble and then some good soil on the top - not the clay like rubbish that he dug out of the hole. So we're just going to see how we get on. He is worried about it flooding over the winter with all the rain that we'll have so I think we've decided to put the shed/aviary set up on hold until next year to see how we get on over the winter.

With regards to moving P&P outside, I think what I'm going to do is to buy a 6x2x2 hutch with a 6x4 run under and attached another 6x4 on the front, this will go on the slabs on the right. Will that be ok do you think? It'll be less room than they get in the house, but I think they'll be happier. I've put them in the new run outside today and even though the run is smaller than our kitchen/diner where they play normally you can just see that they prefer it - theyre moving around more in the run than they do in the kitchen and just seem happier :love:

I just want my babies to be happy
 
Hope you don't mind a suggestion but it looks a fairly virgin garden ie no plants or trees. Is it a possible to bring the flags forward a bit and plant moisture loving plants and trees behind? They should as they grow take quite a bit of the water out of the land and maybe provide shade for the buns and birds eventually. :)
 
Hope you don't mind a suggestion but it looks a fairly virgin garden ie no plants or trees. Is it a possible to bring the flags forward a bit and plant moisture loving plants and trees behind? They should as they grow take quite a bit of the water out of the land and maybe provide shade for the buns and birds eventually. :)

There were 12 conifers behind the slabs and downt the fence on the left, but we dug them up as they were taking over the garden :oops:
 
Which is probably why it's so wet now with nothing taking up all that water. You'd be surprised how much water some trees n shrubs soak up.I do totally sympathize with you as we have a big field at the back of us about 2 meters higher than our gardens and when it rains we get it all :cry:
 
It's not going to work :(

The OH filled the whole with stones at the bottom and then good non-clay soil non top, but it's still filled to the top with water again now that it's rained

I don't know what to do. I havent got enough money to get a professional in. I need to get Paddy and Peaches moved because they love it outside, I dont want them to be unhappy.

My only option I suppose is to just use the right hand half of the slabs and hope that if it floods it doesnt flood that far. This will meant that i've got an area of approx 10ft x 10ft to work with. Any ideas? I need all the help I can get as I'm started to panic that I'm never going to be able to move them out :(
 
We have a similar prob but all ours is flagged (fortunatley not near buns) but we have field at the back and the council had to put us a drainage system in, was ok for a good 5/6yrs but may need doing again.
Wonder if you need one? Can you ring the council and get an inspector out to assess?
 
OK You can get 4"x2" wood from a builder's merchant's I think it's 10' long. Bolt 2 pieces together to a 4"x4" as a base for the shed. Shed joists are usually 2" so that gets the shed floor 6" above the ground. You'll need to wire off the gap so rats don't go under, (or bunnehs.) I also suspect that the pavers will get uneven very quickly. I'd put a low broad shelf for the bunnies in the shed with ramps up - more room for them & safe in torrential rain.

From what little I can see I think you've got a tricky drainage issue. If the neighbour's shed to the right is brieze block, the foundations could be obstructing underground water flow. If the neighbour to the left hasn't put in drainage for the patio at the bottom it could be tipping onto your land with no where to go. Does the house at the back have water issues too?
Hope this helps a bit.
 
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