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I don't know the answer to your question but one thing I do know is make sure that you log this with the builder before 2 years since you took the house is up. Any faults that occur before the 2 years is up the builder has to put right.
Angela
In the first six months/whilst the agents are still on site they should perform any of this work as part of snagging-I'd be in their face straight away.One of the neighbors down from us, where all the water seemed to gather, had the builders in more than once because the back garden was constantly soaking.They eventually put in drainage and re dug the garden-but only because he kept on complaining.
Take photo's of standing water etc, get a statement from the landscaper you have spoken to then have a word with the solicitor that handled the sale for you. If the builder/developer laid the turf then you have a much better case. If you laid it on badly prepared ground then it could be argued that you accepted the state of the ground as being satisfactory.
Keith you may have a problem here even bigger than you think and if it is the case you need to take it up with the Planning Department of your local Council. If you have a Parish Council take it up with them too, but in both cases IN WRITING.
Your house may be built on a flood plain.
Your house may be built in an area where there are just too many houses, car parks, roads, paved areas etc to take away the rain water which 'did' soak into the ground, but now has to go into inadequate sewers.
It is this latter situation which has caused the pair of houses opposite me to flood to above skirting board level, 4 times in the 16 years I have been here. This always happened after torrential rain and the sewers could not take any more. The village is downhill and once the drains were full, the sewer backed up, water came OUT of the manhole in the road and into the gardens, thence into the houses via the air bricks.
The Council came round after the water had gone. The Water Board came round after the water had gone. Both said either "Nothing can be done" OR each said "It was the other's responsibility". Both also said "We don't know why it happens"
The last time it happened I videoed it. Called the Water people in, sat them on the settee and pointed out the problem. Called the Council people in and pointed out the problem. Result? The road has been re-aligned to take the water away and DOWN INTO THE VILLAGE!!!! thereby adding to that problem, and a promise of a new main sewer through the Village.
IF this is your problem, get yourself onto the Council and shout, and as it is a new house, I fear that unless new drains 'have' been laid, not just around the houses, but to increase the capacity 'down stream' so to speak, it will be the house to flood next if they build any more houses or lay more roads.
Our houses are about 100 years old and we have 2 neighbours who have lived here for a very long time. One is about 90, maybe a bit younger, who was born in the house and says that this flooding problem has 'only recently started'. "Recently", like since a large field/orchard 'up' the road had a development of Retired People's Homes built on it and the entire area paved, but for a few little borders and a bit of lawn. The large houses 'up' the road, now Seaside Boarding Houses, have turned their gardens into car parks with tarmac and concrete. All of this water has to go somewhere, like across the road into people's houses ;-{ ? "I think not"
If this is your case, watch EVERY planning permission and oppose it if 'virgin soil' is being built on. I do and have had planning applications refused. In one case, the Council wanted to sell a piece of land with planning permission to build, so applied for permission themselves. I opposed it and it is now an open area, soon to be taken up by a Wildlife Group.
Hope this is of help if it is the problem. If so I can give a lot more help as to how to word the letter of opposition, who to copy it to and what sting to add in the tail.
Mike
I would not disagree with Mike. But I remember one case where a Parish Council commented during the planning progress that the water table was high on the site and might cause problems (particularly re a proposed septic tank) but the house was built. When problems duly arose it was ultimately established that a roadside drain was blocked and opening that up proved to solve the problems as far as I know.
If your house is newly built then I think that the most likely cause of your problem is soil compaction. It is very common on new sites, esp. where the builders have had a lot of machinery running back and fore over the same ground. If you are part of a development and are towards the outside of the site then you may have had the machines running back and for over your ground as they built a lot of the other houses. At the end what do the builders do? They level with the bucket of a JCB and then dump a few inches of top soil on top , level (Again often with the JCB) then get turf laid over the lot. If the landscaper you spoke to says it can be rectified then I very much doubt if you are on a flood plain.. if you can get a long iron bar then try to punch a hole into the ground and see just how hard it is and at what depth, alternatively you could try just with a fork or spade. Try in several places, and I doubt if you will get it in more than a few inches before you hit hard soil.
"David Hill" wrote in message news:bvjvcr$h2i$ snipped-for-privacy@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk...
Firstly, apologies for conflicting user names on OE - I am reinstalling XP on one machine and writing on another...
Hi David, What you say sounds very similar to what the landscaper said - compaction, compaction, compaction :-) In response to Angela (above) part of the problem has already been mentioned in the first 'few' snagging lists. I have had a good email rant at the builders over the weekend as they had already promised to sort the problem out before they organised the laying of half of the turf and promised to replace/sort out the ground before they did it - they didn't :-( It was the same group of contractors who laid the second half of the turf which is now effectively floating. I have received an invoice from them for this and, to be honest, I am inclined to pay them for this work since I did not specifically ask for the drainage to be sorted first. I am fairly sure that I can get the replacement organised when the builders fix the drainage. Although the ground gets very wet .. I am sure that we are not on a flood plain as we are quite a way up a hill. There is a local field drain that appears to have been partly covered by the activites of tree planters on behalf of Scottish enterprise. As mentioned we are right on the edge of the new estate and we have suffered from repeated construction traffic. Lots of factors are affecting the drainage and the main problem will be getting the builders to acknowledge that it is their responsibility to fix it - we simply can't use the garden as it stands/sinks. We have already had to abandon 3/4 of the planned jobs for landscaping of the garden due to this waterlogging problem - I just hope that it can be sorted out. Thanks for all the help so far.
Keith aka Sarah P aka KD
Sounds like a lot of clay. The developer should sort it. It may mean taking off the top soil and adding a deeper layer and and some gravel under and maybe a French drain.
The message from "KD" contains these words:
Take photos, especially immediately after rain.
"Sarah P"
Keith wrote
Nobody has mentioned NHBC yet. During the first two years from completion, assuming you have Buildmark cover and subject to certain exclusions, the builder is supposed to correct any defects free of charge. Your first point of contact is the builder but if there is a dispute or if the builder fails to act then NHBC Claims will take it on.
The Buildmark policy document
This is the URL concerning making NHBC Claims
Sarah P/ Keith/ Whatever - please check the date and time on your PC :-)
Hi, Thanks for the reminder. I'm currently rebuilding the PC and must have put the date in incorrectly. Sorry.
Keith
completion,
whatever
Hi Peter, I look at the NHBC as kind of the last resort. I am chiefly trying to find out how much of an argument I'm likely to get with the developer about this before having to approach the NHBC. Thanks for the info though.
Cheers, Keith
Hi all, Apologies for the X-post but the d.i.y guys always seem to know what's going on with regard to 'building' regs but the real domain of the question is my 'garden'. Basically, I've bought a new house up in Scotland and the garden is a bit of a nightmare. The slightest amount of rain results in pools of standing water and the newly laid turf is apparently about to start rotting. Now a local landscaper has said that the problem can probably be rectified but I don't think it should be up to me to pay for this. The landscaper also mentioned that standing water should be the developer's consideration. How do you think I should approach this - should the developer be sorting out the drainage or am I stuck with footing the bill for this myself ?
Thank for any guidance, Keith
Hi all, Just to let you know that I received a reply from the NHBC stating that if waterlogging was present within a 3 metre boundary from the house then the builder was obliged to put this right - otherwise tough luck.
Keith
.... and is it? If so, do they have to fix all of it or only the bit within 3m?
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
I would have thought as this problem is already apparent it might well start to encroach on the 3m boundary with a little more / sustained rain
Well that would cover the entire garden in most new houses...
Bob
Andy Hall's question is spot on .. there is some within the 3 metres and some further away .. I wonder how the builder will proceed. The site manager was round here today and I suggested that it would be only reasonable of the builder to rectify the entire problem. We'll see eh ?
Thanks for all the contributions so far, Keith
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