Neighbours have artificial grass, now our garden floods! What to do?

[Suddengeekgirl]

Our neighbours had artificial grass installed (?) in the early spring. Since then our garden appears to be getting the run off and is flooding. After heavy rain the flower bed on their side has standing water and the grass squelches.

What do we do?

I have no idea whether to say anything, or just suck it up and plant things that like boggy conditions?

Help!

[LaurieFairyCake]

I thought that if it was installed properly the water ran through like normal grass, it shouldn't run off

[libertytrainers]

what a freaky thing to put down! i would tell them, they need to put in a gulley or something

[BuzzardBird]

Ask them if they can put some drainage holes in it to stop your garden from flooding?

[Nocomet]

Install artificial grass yourself and make it your far side neighbours problem

[Suddengeekgirl]

laurie that's what I thought too!

Artificial grass is super weird (IMO!) so won't be putting any down myself. and I think it's as expensive as carpet!

Their our neighbours at the back so don't speak to them much, except when the fence came down and their massive dog kept roaming into our garden!

Might have to go talk to them... am rubbish at confrontation and think they might be shirty.

[mrsmopps]

artificial grass has drainage holes so shouldn't flood or have any run off.
i think you're going to have to speak to them about it, maybe it hasn't been installed properly.

[Suddengeekgirl]

mrsmopps - are the drainage holes big enough to see from a distance (because there aren't any) or are they lots of small ones?

[mrsmopps]

They are lots of small ones. you wouldn't see unless you look at the underside of the grass.
There should have been a plastic membrane put down then a good bit of sand then the grass on top.
could it be possible that the plastic has been put on top of the sand so that the water can't drain away?

[Suddengeekgirl]

I have no idea tbh. I saw the builders install/ fit/ lay it but didn't really pay attention to the stages and obviously didn't watch it all either.

If it was installed incorrectly would the neighbours be noticing lots of standing water on it?

I think they will probably shrug and say there's nothing they can do about it/ not their problem.

[burnishedsilver]

I wonder if in 20 years people will go so far as to put artificial plants and trees in their gardens.

[Suddengeekgirl]

Actually, thinking about it I'm fairly sure they laid the grass into a grey membrane. I'm pretty sure it wasn't laid onto sand. (Dd spotted the big rolls of green and wanted to watch... )

[Suddengeekgirl]

burnished - my mum has neighbours who have fake plants in their hanging baskets all year round. And I'm sure there's a trend for fake balls of box type plants that are hung in a hanging basket style.
I'm crap at gardening and quite lazy but even I draw the line at fake greenery!

[TeenageMutantNinjaTurtle]

We've just had artificial grass, laid over shale/sand and a garden membrane. Membrane is water permeable but stops weeds growing up.

The grass itself is a matting which water just runs through.

It dries in under 30 mins the drainage is so good....

[HauntedNoddyCar]

There are rules about putting non permeable surfaces down to replace permeable areas. So you can't concrete over grass areas without complying with the planning law. If they won't talk to you then it might be something to investigate

[MrsJohnDeere]

I thought the permeable/impermeable rules only applied to driveways, but may well be wrong.

It does sound like something is wrong. Our old school put down artificial grass in one area and there was no problem with drainage.

[MissMysticFalls]

We're just in the middle of buying somewhere with artificial grass (old lady who can't mow the lawn). I was just thinking today that if it didn't drain well that it shouldn't be hard to add drainage holes. Bit like spiking a real lawn! Can you go to the neighbours out of mutual concern? If it is causing pooling water then that can't be good for them either.

[Binkybix]

I've got artificial grass - it drains fine.

[TheSpottedZebra]

Is it possible that your garden is wet as the weather has been so bad?

[BloominNora]

Do you live in Thneedville?

[BuildYourOwnSnowman]

We are having artificial grass in the play area (very shadey so real grass won't survive)

They were at great pains to point out how well it drains so I can only see the grass being a problem if not installed properly. Ours won't be laid on sand but on a rubber membrane.

Have they done any other work?

How big is the area of flooding? And is it all around your adjoining fence? Does their grass go up to the fence?

[Wildhorses123]

We've just helped our neighbours put some artificial grass on. They had to put a load of sand down first, then the grass on top. Then they had to put more sand ontop of the grass which they brushed into the grass ( brushing the opposite way that the grass lay iyswim?). The sand went in between the blades of grass and made the grass blades stand upright making it a) more realistic and b) easier to drain water. If your neighbours didn't do this, could be a reason for the grass not draining properly?

[Suddengeekgirl]

bloominnora - sadly no.

zebra - I know it's been wet lately but I don't remember it being so bad last year (only been here 18 months). The only time I remember standing water was when there was a LOT of localised flooding.

buildyourownsnowman - all the fake grass websites say it is permeable so we should not have a problem. (In theory). They've not done any other work. The flooded area is about a meter long. The gravel boards all look soaking wet. The rest of the borders - where we share with different neighbours, are no where near as wet, and their gravel boards look dry in comparison. The fake grass does go up to the fence.

wildhorses - me and 3yo dd watched a bit of the green grass unrolling. It was unrolled onto a grey plasticy looking surface. I have no idea if there was any sand involved. Do all fake grasses need to be laid the same way?

Thanks for all the replies! :)

[Suddengeekgirl]

I'm resurrecting this thread as it's definitely a problem caused by my neighbours/ the artifical grass. :(

We had 1 inch of rain last night. There was a puddle 4 inches deep in the most flood-y bit. That's not normal is it in an essentially flat area.

I've spoken to my neighbours who said they'd speak to the fake grass people and ask them but tbh they didn't seem that fussed.

I'm really worried about the long term implications of this - would a wet winter mean a flooded house?!? :(

What can I do?

Council planning/ building department didn't want to know.
Man from their land drainage team said there wasn't anything they could do

Help!

[Sandthorn]

You might be talking to the wrong department of the council (it's usually a sod to find out which to talk to). If you don't hear back from the neighbours within a reasonable time, see if your council has a neighbour mediation service, or have a look at this www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes/overview. I'd be f&@!ing livid if I were you!

[Iownathreeinchferrari]

Can you build some kind of defence? A higher sausage of grass mound along the side of their fence to stop the water flooding your side. Means their side would hold the water and not escape on to your ground