Constructing drainage in the garden

Climate change is causing increasingly heavy rainfall. Because of these heavy rainstorms, there is also a greater chance of flooding. This may call for measures to better protect your home from flooding. One such measure is to install drainage in your yard around your home.

What does installing drainage in your garden involve?

If water often stands in the garden, basement or house and creates a nuisance, this water can be drained by means of drains in the garden. Drainage or dewatering is the removal of water from the soil, through and over the ground. After a heavy rainfall, the drains drain the water quickly, lowering the groundwater level. This prevents crawl spaces and the basement under your home from filling up with water. When installing drainage, you place drainage tubes between 50 and 60 cm below ground level. Around the tubes, depending on the type of soil, comes a casing. This casing acts like a sponge, allowing water to flow more easily into the tube and keeping soil particles out. For sand and peat soils you use a drainage tube with coconut shell, for clay soils polypropylene shell. In the trench, first apply a 3-cm layer of shells, sand or gravel. Then place the pipe. Then fill the trench to 20 cm below ground level with shells, sand or gravel. Backfill the top 20 cm with soil.

Cost

A landscaper costs on average between € 35 and € 55 per hour. Drainage tubes cost between € 80 and € 170 per 50 m. Material is also needed to fill the trenches in which the drainage tubes are laid. This costs, depending on the material, between € 80 and € 165 per 1000 kg. There may be additional costs for resurfacing the garden.

Space use

This measure makes sense if (ground) water flows into your house or basement through the walls.

What do you need.

To install drainage around your basement or home, you can hire a landscaper. If you have experience working in the garden yourself, then a landscaper is not necessary.

Tips

There are different forms of drainage. To combat flooding in your home, different drainage is needed than if you just want to dewater your garden. Look carefully to see which type of drainage is appropriate for your situation.