Yard Drainage near you

The ditch at the bottom of a garden is a watercourse, and section 23 of the Land Drainage Act 1991 controls what may be done to it. Section 23(1) provides that no person shall erect any mill dam, weir or other like obstruction to the flow of any ordinary watercourse, or raise or otherwise alter any such obstruction, and shall not erect a culvert in an ordinary watercourse or alter a culvert in a manner likely to affect the flow, without the consent in writing of the drainage board concerned. That board is the internal drainage board for its district, or the lead local flood authority everywhere outside an internal drainage district. Consent is not to be unreasonably withheld, and disputes go to arbitration.

Culverting is the part homeowners most often want and are least likely to get. GOV.UK's guidance for watercourse owners is blunt that risk management authorities are unlikely to give permission to build a culvert, because culverts can increase flood risk and damage the environment. The same guidance sets out the ownership position that surprises people: you normally own a watercourse running on or under your land, or up to its centre where it forms a boundary, and as owner you must let water flow naturally and must not pollute it. It also states plainly that you are responsible for getting the permissions and licences you need, and that you may be fined or imprisoned if you do not.

None of this makes a ditch discharge impossible, and it is often the right answer on ground that will not infiltrate. What it does mean is that a quotation proposing to run a new pipe to the boundary ditch should say who is applying for consent and when, rather than treating the ditch as a free outlet. Ask the question before the trench is dug rather than after the neighbours downstream notice.

Wales commenced Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, which England has not, and it changes who signs off drainage on a construction project. The Sustainable Drainage (Approval and Adoption) (Wales) Order 2018 came into force on 7 January 2019, and its article 6 provides that the requirement for approval does not apply where construction work involves the construction of a single dwelling house and the area of land covered by the construction work is less than 100 square metres, or, for any other type of construction work, where the area covered is less than 100 square metres. Above that, the scheme needs approval from the local authority acting as the SuDS Approving Body, whether or not planning permission is required. A large garden project in Wales that covers ground on that scale is therefore worth checking against the threshold before it starts.

Scotland answers a related question differently in its building standards. The domestic technical handbook applying to building warrants submitted on or after 6 April 2026 sets standard 3.6, which requires every building and hard surface within the curtilage to have a surface water drainage system that disposes of water without threatening the building or people's health and safety and that has facilities for separating and removing silt, grit and pollutants. Its discharge hierarchy runs from a storage container with an overflow, through a SUDS system, a soakaway, a public sewer under the Sewerage (Scotland) Act 1968, and an outfall to a watercourse complying with any SEPA notice or consent. The handbook also notes that surface water discharges to ground or water must be by means of a sustainable urban drainage system authorised by SEPA, while discharge from a single dwelling or its curtilage is permitted to be by other means.

One Scottish figure is worth carrying into any garden design north of the border: every part of a soakaway should be located at least five metres from a building and from a boundary, so that an adjoining plot is not inhibited from its full development potential, although run-off volume, ground strata and soil permeability may increase or reduce that dimension. The boundary half of that test has no equivalent in the English guidance, and on a narrow plot it is frequently the constraint that decides whether infiltration is possible at all. In England and Wales the corresponding guidance sits in Approved Document H, and the practical point is the same: ask which document your contractor is designing to.

It begins with a site investigation rather than a price. Someone digs inspection holes, records what the profile looks like at depth, carries out a percolation test if infiltration is being considered, finds the existing drainage and establishes where every downpipe and gully currently discharges. Half of all wet gardens are explained at this stage by something that was already there: a disconnected downpipe, a soakaway that silted up a decade ago, or a builder's compaction layer under the turf.

Only then is the destination chosen, and the destination determines the design. If the ground will take water, the scheme is about getting it there and spreading it out. If it will not, the scheme is about storing it or moving it, and if moving it means a watercourse, the consent process starts before the excavation is booked. The physical work follows in a predictable order: set out and confirm levels, excavate with services located first, lay and surround the pipework, connect and test before anything is covered, backfill in layers, then reinstate turf or surfacing last.

The handover documents matter more here than in most garden work, because everything is buried. Ask for a plan showing where the runs and the outlet are, an inspection point that is accessible rather than paved over, and a written note of what the system was designed to cope with. The first time you want that plan is the day someone else digs a new bed.

Drainage pricing follows the length of trench, the depth, and where the water finally goes. The variables are how much excavation is involved and how hard the ground is to dig, how much stone and pipe the design calls for, whether an infiltration device or a storage arrangement is needed, how far the outlet is and whether reaching it requires consent from a drainage board or lead local flood authority, how much spoil has to leave the site, whether machinery can get in or the work is by hand, and how much lawn and surfacing has to be reinstated afterwards. A short land drain across one wet corner and a herringbone scheme under a whole lawn are not comparable jobs.

LokalMatch is the introduction and nothing more. Set out the problem once with your postcode — where the water stands, how long it stays, what it comes off and what you have already tried — and drainage contractors and groundworkers covering your area contact you directly. There is no charge to homeowners; the professionals pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not design or install drainage, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend any of the businesses that respond, so asking how the ground's capacity was established, where the outlet is and who is obtaining any consent remains your side of the arrangement.