On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 14:04:09 +0100, kevinspiller
wrote:

Thanks to all for their valued advice on building the soak away. I dug
down 4 feet in one afternoon but was still not free of the clay. The
next day it rained and the whole completely filled with water and has
overflowed into the garden. 4 weeks later the whole is still full of
water and shows no signs of percolating. My options as I see them are
to drain the water and carry on digging? (Or are there any other
options?)

If you drain the water then it is likely to fill back up again - so it
doesn't seem like an ideal solution to me.

You might gain something in terms of knowledge if you can get some
information about the structure of the land around your property.
Perhaps someone has done surveys in the past which you could get
access to? If you keep on digging you currently have no idea whether
you are inches away from breaking thru the clay soil, or have a couple
of miles to go.

One thing you could try instead of digging with a spade is to use a
post hole borer. That might give you an indication of whether you are
close to the bottom of the clay or not.

Another possible issue that that you may be close to the top of the
water table in the area. If so then no amount of digging is going to
relieve the water arriving in your soakaway.

The only other solution as I see it would be to lay pipes from the
soakaway to a lower area so that the water can run off freely (until
the pipe silts up....).

I guess you don't have a problem with moles in your garden.

Andrew