Drainage

[Nemo]

Would it be reasonable to expect drainage in the garden of a new house:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... atios.html

[Arborbridge]

Would it be reasonable to expect drainage in the garden of a new house:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... atios.html

Yes.

This looks like another example of the trend for building houses in the wrong place. If they must do so, then adequate prvosion for land drainage should be made.

What are the local planners who gave permission saying about this? one wonders.

[bungeejumper]

This looks like another example of the trend for building houses in the wrong place. If they must do so, then adequate prvosion for land drainage should be made.

What are the local planners who gave permission saying about this? one wonders.

Indeed, I'd have thought that a land survey, including drainage needs, would have been an integral part of the process for getting planning permission in the first place?

Of course, there's a lot here that we don't know. Is the water running off from another neighbouring property, and is that property also a new development? Is it an artesian spring, of the kind we have in the fields around our garden? Or is it just that the builders dumped a lot of clay spoil from the foundations into the garden before they hurriedly laid down what they laughingly called a lawn?

Land drainage isn't complicated, or necessarily expensive - we drained our garden swamp in a couple of days with a french drain which cost us a few drainage pipes and about five tonnes of loose scalpings. But it shouldn't fall to the housebuyers to make up for these sorts of preventable shortcomings. Not fit for purpose. Harrumph.

BJ

[Mike4]

Presumably the buyer's surveyor picked up the drainage problem with the garden but was ignored...

[bungeejumper]

Presumably the buyer's surveyor picked up the drainage problem with the garden but was ignored..

Might not have been physically obvious if the survey was in the summer months - or indeed, at any time except for the wettest 18 months since the 18th century.

Mind you, drainage can be difficult to judge in advance. One dark and stormy night, our near-neighbours had to call out the fire brigade to pump out their newly-built extension. It subsequently emerged that that they'd built their concrete foundations straight through an ancient land drain that had been keeping the area safe and dry for more than 200 years. Oops.

BJ

[Mike4]

Presumably the buyer's surveyor picked up the drainage problem with the garden but was ignored..

Might not have been physically obvious if the survey was in the summer months - or indeed, at any time except for the wettest 18 months since the 18th century.

Indeed. And the subtext of the whole article is the builders were short-cutting bar stewards stiffing the buyers with their penny-pinching.

It could be they had no more idea about the tendency of this garden area to flood than the buyer, their surveyor or anyone else!

[bungeejumper]

And the subtext of the whole article is the builders were short-cutting bar stewards stiffing the buyers with their penny-pinching.

It could be they had no more idea about the tendency of this garden area to flood than the buyer, their surveyor or anyone else!

Could be. I'd always supposed that the ten-year NHBC warranty would step in to cover a buyer against these sorts of post-purchase issues. But then, about one in five new houses doesn't have the Buildmark sticker. Silly me.

BJ

[Urbandreamer]

Presumably the buyer's surveyor picked up the drainage problem with the garden but was ignored...

Alternatively the buyer ignored the obvious. Now what was the development called again?
Oh that's right.
"Rivers Edge"

It's all well and good complaining that builders are building in the wrong place, but don't people think about these things before buying?

[kempiejon]

Chum of mine bought a flat in a new development on a flood plain. We all knew that area had flooded in the past but as they said the building had mitigating design. All the flats were on the first floor, with parking below. They'd only been there a year or so when the wet winter came - might have been spring, river flooded and area was underwater. When they were evacuated the garages were in a couple of feet of water and the plumbing didn't work, nothing would drain away and sewerage was bubbling in the drains. I think the car was OK, they sold up later that year. You can build on a flood plain I guess but you need a boat to get to and from the front door.

[bungeejumper]

Alternatively the buyer ignored the obvious. Now what was the development called again?
Oh that's right. "Rivers Edge"

Thanks for the prod. Here it is, on a slow bend of the River Mersey south of Warrington. Street View might provide further enlightenment. https://www.google.com/maps/place//@53. ... ?entry=ttu

The development seems to be ten metres (or more) above the river level, which in itself ought presumably to be flood-safe. But my word, what a promising spot.

In further news, the developers had to install a gas membrane under the soil because of old industrial workings. https://www.warrington-worldwide.co.uk/ ... tion-work/. Not that that could have impacted on drainage patterns, of course?

BJ

[Arborbridge]

Presumably the buyer's surveyor picked up the drainage problem with the garden but was ignored...

That's a bit unfair, and presumptuous isn't it? There have been nothing untoward to see at the time, or in the plans, or in the history of the land.

[Dicky99]

I've been walking the local countryside along my favourite routes for more than 10 years and following the unrelenting rain of the last 6 months there are a number of places which would look, to a person unfamiliar with area, like established lakes. These are places which have never flooded to that extent before as far as I'm aware.

It's unfortunate timing for these buyers but hopefully it is a once in a lifetime event and not an annual event.
The media love a pearl clutching story but as far as I'm aware the planning process for new developments, which any developer knows, is rigorous and would take flood risk into account using information collected by the Environment Agency.

[Mike4]

Presumably the buyer's surveyor picked up the drainage problem with the garden but was ignored...

That's a bit unfair, and presumptuous isn't it? There have been nothing untoward to see at the time, or in the plans, or in the history of the land.

Might the exact same charge be levelled at the newspaper article?

[Arborbridge]

I've been walking the local countryside along my favourite routes for more than 10 years and following the unrelenting rain of the last 6 months there are a number of places which would look, to a person unfamiliar with area, like established lakes. These are places which have never flooded to that extent before as far as I'm aware.

It's unfortunate timing for these buyers but hopefully it is a once in a lifetime event and not an annual event.
The media love a pearl clutching story but as far as I'm aware the planning process for new developments, which any developer knows, is rigorous and would take flood risk into account using information collected by the Environment Agency.

One would hope so, but last time I moved I because quite nervous about some long established properties that had a potential flood risk - even at the once in 100 years level. Why take that risk if other places are available?

[AJC5001]

Presumably the buyer's surveyor picked up the drainage problem with the garden but was ignored...

I've never bought a brand-new house. Is it normal practice to have a survey on a new property? Do the buyers not rely on some sort of guarantee?

Adrian

[bungeejumper]

I've never bought a brand-new house. Is it normal practice to have a survey on a new property? Do the buyers not rely on some sort of guarantee?

My parents bought a brand new house once, in a select little development in a suburban close. The flat roof in the integral garage failed after ten years and two weeks, and the warm air heating was so poorly designed that every house in the development eventually swapped it for conventional radiators.

The builders also had their own ideas about garden drainage. My dad hired a rotovator, in an attempt to improve the unremitting subsoil clay, and he immediately struck solid metal, which wrecked the rotovator blades (and could have taken his foot off). It turned out that the builders had buried about twenty scaffolding poles just below the surface. A metal detector would have been a good starting point for a surveyor.

BJ

[Nemo]

It makes me realize that we have been lucky over the years. It is something that I had never thought about until I saw the article.