Are you looking for a way to improve your garden’s drainage once and for all?

It’s never any fun when your garden is constantly soggy, with muddy grass that makes it unusable for children and pets all year round. And with all the rain we get here in Scotland, it really can become a big problem. Especially as natural grass can take ages to dry out!

It’s sad when the choice is saying ‘no’ to your children or pets, or having them drag mud and mess all through the house afterwards.

The good news is, there IS a solution.

Having helped many customers with exactly the same problem, I’m going to tell you the most effective way to improve your garden’s drainage.

The most effective way to improve drainage

If you’ve already been looking at your options, you may have already heard of installing:

  • Artificial grass
  • A drainage system (often involving drainage pipes and soakaways)
  • Permeable paving (e.g. a resin-bound surface)
  • Paving which includes a linear drainage system

The solution you choose will really depend on factors such as your budget, and how you want to use your garden.

If you want to enjoy your garden with your children or pets, paving or permeable paving may not be the best solution. After all, it’s not particularly aesthetically pleasing, and isn’t an ideal surface for children to play on. Drainage systems can often involve installing pipes and soakaways which may be expensive and could also disturb the neighbours.

Not everyone thinks of drainage when they hear about artificial grass, but due to the installation process, we’ve found that artificial grass is by far the most effective option when it comes to improving your garden’s drainage.

For example, one garden we installed in Edinburgh was a constant mud pit. The garden was quite large, and suffered from drainage so bad they couldn’t get to their garden shed. It usually meant welly boots! Measuring in at 104 square metres, it was going to be costly to install any new system in that size of garden.

However, the customer opted for artificial grass due to the fact it would combat all drainage issues and because we would do a full dig-out of the garden to level out the area (as it was at different levels), then install our fully porous system and product. It would mean that once it was down, our customers knew it would last.

It also allowed them a large space for them and their children to use all year round – regardless of the weather!

Why artificial grass is the best solution for drainage problems

Drainage issues are one of the main reasons we install artificial grass for our customers. When you hire a reputable company to install artificial grass, they should carry out a full excavation of the existing surface, and install a fully porous system on top of the soil sub-base.

This allows water to drain straight through, eliminating drainage problems and making the entire surface fully permeable.

Each garden requires a different depth of base preparation. This is usually judged based on the severity of the drainage issue. The good news is, we’ve had no recurring drainage issues with our customers in over 8 years of installing this solution.

NOTE: In very extreme cases, there’s also the option to install a drainage system below the permeable sub-base for your artificial grass, resulting in a double drainage system. Water would come through your artificial lawn and permeable sub-base, and then into French drains, for example.

It’s true that no drainage system is 100% guaranteed to work. However, having fitted many different drainage systems throughout the years, I believe that artificial grass is without a doubt the best solution in most cases. It can be a bit of an investment, but its life expectancy can last you a good 15 – 20 years.

Conclusion

I hope you found this blog helpful when looking to improve your garden’s drainage. Remember, no drainage solution is 100% guaranteed to be effective, but artificial grass is one of the most effective solutions on the market. And in over 8 years of installing it, we’ve never ran into any issues.

Do you have a question about about artificial grass I haven’t answered above? Feel free to leave a comment below, or alternatively browse the CLS blog! We may have answered your question elsewhere.

 

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