Common Causes Of Blocked Garden Drains

Suspect Your Garden Drains Are Blocked? Here’s How You Can Tell.

There’s nothing worse than seeing your hours of graft in the garden go to waste due to heavy rainfall – which, let’s face it, we’re no strangers to here in the UK.

Installing a drainage system in your garden could be the answer to all of your problems, but like other systems, they can get bunged up from time to time.

It’s unavoidable sometimes, but knowing the common causes of blocked garden drains can help you prevent it from happening too frequently.

The experts here at Total Pipes present some of them in this article.

What are the symptoms of a waterlogged garden?

Puddles, squelching noises and moss growth are all symptoms of a waterlogged garden – indicating that your garden is having difficulty draining excess surface water.

Although the signs are easy to identify, the causes of a waterlogged garden aren’t always so apparent.

However, some common causes include:

• The surface of your garden is uneven and enables water to collect
• Your garden’s soil has become compacted, preventing water from draining away easily
• Your house and garden are built on clay soil
• Your gutters have become blocked, resulting in an overflow of water that seeps into your garden

So, what causes blocked garden drains?

When garden drainage systems, like soakaways, for example, become blocked, it’s much harder for them to distribute the collected water back into the soil – leading to the issues mentioned above.

There are just three main factors to blame, including:

• Silt and sediment

Silt and sediment can build up quite easily if the non-woven geotextile is compromised or if the soil is getting into the pipework via perforations.

• Compacted soil

Compacted soil is caused by the particles being too close together.

Often indicated by hard and dry soil, water is unable to penetrate and results in waterlogging.

This can happen for many reasons, including particularly long dry spells, excess pressure on the soil, and the natural drying and wetting process.

• Drain collapse

Possibly the most detrimental of the three, the pipes that feed your garden drainage system could collapse due to external pressure or worse, poor installation.

If the pipes collapse, water from your drainage system (i.e. your soakaway crate or attenuation system) will leak out rapidly if the pipes become disconnected.

If this is the case, your entire system will need replacing.

Get in touch with Total Pipeline Systems

If you’re having issues with your garden drainage system or would like to know more about the benefits of installing one – be sure to get in touch with our friendly team today.

We’re more than happy to answer any of your questions or provide expert product recommendations.

Simply give us a call on 01254 382 000 or send an email to sales@totalpipes.co.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!