Made a drainage mess by working on wet clay area - need advice please!!

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mbaisley
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Made a drainage mess by working on wet clay area - need advice please!!

Post by mbaisley » April 8th, 2019, 2:15 pm

I'm in Knoxville, TN and I'm brand new to the forum. I'm also an amateur so please go easy on me about my "mess up" .... I didn't know better and now I do.... I just don't know how to fix my mess.

I'm also under a time crunch because we are having about 40-something kids over next Saturday (4/20) for an Easter egg hunt and my wife is TICKED.

I have about about 1,600 sq. ft. that I messed up last weekend by working on top of some wet clay. Should have known better, but I didn't realize that you can turn some relatively "un-compacted" clay soil into a big, impermeable water bowl by walking on it while wet.

Here's the brief background: we built our house and finished it last November. The 1,600 sq. ft. area in question was created with all of the dirt (poor quality, probably 90% heavy clay and rock) that came out of digging the basement and foundation areas. It was spread and "blended" into a shaded area off the backyard and then compacted down with a big Bobcat. The goal was (and still is) to make a nice playground area for the kids.

It was November when we finished, we were out of money, and it was really too late to sow grass anyway. So I went ahead and tilled in about 3 inches of topsoil, wood chips and peat moss using my little JD tractor and tiller. I let it sit over the winter and was feeling good about getting a good start on building some soil that would sustain life .... it had some organic material in it and it was getting some air circulation. So far, so good.

After winter rains and snow, I realized that I had a drainage problem and the grade needed more work because there were some little dips and valleys that were holding water.

So this current phase of the project (March / April 2019) started 2 weekends ago. My objectives were (and still are): (1) to fix and smooth out the grade for proper drainage, (2) install about 25 ft. of that "EZ Drain" corrugated pipe to further help move water away from a little swale area that is situated on one corner, where the rest of our property gently slopes down onto the 1,600 sq. ft. area in question, (3) spread a mix of topsoil and compost about 3" to 4" deep, and finally (4) lay down some fresh fescue sod.

I got started 2 weekends ago, while everything was nice and dry. I used my box blade to get the grade the way I wanted it. It now has about 2 to 3% of fall across all of the affected areas. After I finished the dirt didn't seem any more compacted than it was last year. So far, so good.

Then last Saturday morning, I started digging the trench for the French drain, and here's where things went wrong.... we got a moderately heavy rain the day before and I knew it would be a muddy mess, but I''m running out of time and had to get going. The good news WAS that the rainwater had run off the surface of the clay, so I was satisfied that I had fixed the grading problem. The surface of the clay and soil mixture appeared to be moist, but not soaking wet, and there was no standing water anywhere -- which marked a big improvement from the winter.

Because I already had a little bit of topsoil on hand and because I hadn't worked up the motivation to start the hardest part (trenching for the drain), I started spreading topsoil on all of the areas except the 25' x 24" wide strip where the French drain would be. I put down about 1" of topsoil before I ran out, so I decided to start trenching for the drain ... within 30 minutes, I should have realized that I had screwed up, but I kept going because I'm trying to finish (and apparently because I am an idiot).

That smooth clay and soil mixture -- which didn't look wet at all when I was laying down topsoil -- was quickly turning into a sticky puddle of water and clay under my feet. I kept going and the mess got bigger (probably 700 sq. ft. of wherever I stepped more than 1x). I had drawn water to the surface. So much water that it had soaked up through the 1" layer of topsoil and it just sat there in a big sloppy, soupy mess of a clay bowl with my footprints stamped throughout. That was Saturday evening..... I went to bed disgusted and disappointed in myself, but I figured I would get in there sometime this week and fix it using a landscape rake and other hand tools, maybe by stirring in some clay-buster topsoil or something (perhaps naive of me, I know).

Then this morning (Monday 4/8) we got a HUGE rain with over 1" in less than an hour, and now it's a real damned mess. I'm totally disgusted and discouraged, and my 4 pallets of sod and the rest of my topsoil are supposed to be delivered this Thursday or Friday.

ANY ADVICE FOR THIS FOOL IN EAST TENNESSEE?

Here are the options I've considered so far:

Option # 1: I could just finish what I've started and hope for the best. I would put the topsoil down about 3" to 4", lay down the sod, and then hope that the huge clay bowl sitting 4" under the topsoil won't cause a problem with water pooling up to the surface, rotting the roots of my new grass, etc. I think that option is likely to result in me being even more frustrated because I'll still have a drainage problem, my kids will all have muddy and ruined shoes, I will have wasted $1,000 on sod that will die, and my wife will not let me sleep in the bed until it's fixed. All of which might push my wife over the edge, which means she would hire some pros to come out and bulldoze the whole damned thing and do it all over again, and they'll charge us $5,000 for something that I might still have a chance to fix.

Option # 2: Perform the exact same steps as Option # 1, but first I would try (by hand, mind you, so I don't drive my tractor over wet clay and make it worse) to work in some gypsum, peat moss, compost and/or other organic stuff to try to break up the clay in the top 1 to 2 inches. Then carry out everything listed in option 1. My fear is that I would still have a "bowl" of sorts, relative to the surrounding areas.

Option # 3: Perform the same steps as Option # 2, or perhaps skip straight to Option # 1, but I would first spread about 1" of that # 57 drainage gravel before putting down the topsoil. I have a big pile of the gravel that I need to use somewhere, and I don't have any other use for it right now. My fear is that the gravel won't do anything to help and could make it worse. For example, could a later of # 57 gravel just create a void where even MORE water would sit inside the clay bowl before it leached up to the surface?

Option # 4: Another option, which I would NOT want to do if avoidable, is IF (a that's a big IF) it dries up enough in the next 3 or 4 days, I could start all over with the tiller and box blade. 99% chance this won't be an option. We are supposed to get a lot more rain this week.

Option # 5: A terrible, impractical option would be to do Option # 1, get it looking okay for a week or so for the kids' Easter egg hunt, and then immediate after that is over, pull up all of the sod (I doubt it would have rooted by then) and then try to fix the mess.

Any advice would be much appreciated and I'm happy to provide further information if there are things that might help.

And sorry for the long-winded post. I hope to contribute in the future to repay your kindness. If nothing else, they might make a new section in the forum titled "Learn From This Dummy's Mistakes" and it would feature yours truly at least once a week.

Thanks,

Mike


(Sidebar: if anyone has strong opinions about the EZ Drain product, would love to hear it. I'm skeptical and prone to overkill, so I'm laying it on a bed of # 57 gravel, wrapping it in a non-woven landscape silt fabric, and filling around it with the same # 57 gravel -- yes, I realize those are the precise steps that the EZ Drain was designed to eliminate, but like I said, I am skeptical.)

mbaisley
Posts: 4
Joined: April 8th, 2019, 12:07 pm
Location: Knoxville, TN
Grass Type: Transition Mix (Fescue, Bermuda, Rye)
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Re: Made a drainage mess by working on wet clay area - need advice please!!

Post by mbaisley » April 8th, 2019, 2:56 pm

Here is a picture of the area from 2 days ago -- before the heavy rain hit us this morning.

Thanks again for any advice.
Image

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Made a drainage mess by working on wet clay area - need advice please!!

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » April 8th, 2019, 7:06 pm

See my play area renovation in the renovations forum.

I frankly dont think a week is enough time to fix the grade and get sod to root. I would focus my effort on Plan B, which involves not using that area this weekend.

Meanwhile you can throw dirt on to fill in the depression, drop or trim trees to get sun in there, and get sod down in a week or two when it's not a bog, if mother nature plays nice.

But I dont think anyone can get real turf growing in a week in a shaded woods area that has standing water and a grade problem.

You need time and you're out if it before your event.

I also have the name of a great marriage counselor, flower vendor, fancy restaurant recommendations, and a day spa.

:blackeye:

mbaisley
Posts: 4
Joined: April 8th, 2019, 12:07 pm
Location: Knoxville, TN
Grass Type: Transition Mix (Fescue, Bermuda, Rye)
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: Made a drainage mess by working on wet clay area - need advice please!!

Post by mbaisley » April 8th, 2019, 10:12 pm

That last bit of advice about marriage counseling might be worth something for sure!

Anyone have any thoughts on whether a layer of gravel would help?

Since I have to build the whole area up anyway, I'm thinking the solution might be to add more clay on top to reestablish the proper grade, then add a layer of gravel to open it up the soil structure a little to allow some air, and then put on my topsoil and lay down the sod.

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