New Build - Issue with Garden

[mrscotton]

Hi, i am hoping someone might be able
to help. Sorry this is going to be long.

I moved into a new build house in Feb 2023, the house was completed in Sept 2022. We get two year warranty with the building company who are well known in our area from the date we moved in so nearly a year into it.

Everything has been great with the house, any snagging issues were quickly resolved however we have an issue with our garden and not sure if this would be covered under the warranty aspect.

We very quickly noticed that our garden was always wet, even in the summer, it wasn’t as dry as you would expect it. Come Nov & Dec and our garden is now like a bog. The grass has started to die the whole way round the edges and some of it is now just mud. We have also noticed these black bugs on our patio after its been raining, my brother has advised they are leatherjackets and they would be eating the grass (he had the same issue with a new build but built by another company).

We emailed before Christmas to ask them to come see it but yet to hear back from them about it however over Christmas, my husband noticed these black spots on the mud, even where there is still grass.

My question is would you expect the builders to rectify it? They are quite a big company with at least 4/5 building developments going on within our area. We seem to be the only ones around this estate with the issue.

Any advice welcome as couldn’t see anything online when we tried to search it.

Thank you.

Is the mud in the first image because it's a high traffic area or has that not been walked on over winter and the grass has died because it's waterlogged?

The black patches look like Black Slime Mould which grows where the lawn needs aeration. Pointless if it needs a drainage system installing though which I suspect will be the case.
Builders are renowned for doing a half job on the garden.

I would advise you to dig a few square pits around the plot and document the depth of top soil/sub soil/potential rubble/water table height etc
That said we have had a ridiculously wet winter this year so it could resolve if it ever stops raining.

It’s likely that the topsoil was poor quality when put in (clean but probably not up to British standard) put in too thick or not thick enough on a poorly draining subsoil over your natural geology (where are you in the country?)

it will than have been tracked backwards and forwards by the dumpers/machines laying the gardens, sorting the patios putting the fencing in, overcompacting it - I think the British standard is for no more than three passes with a vehicle. (I can check that but if you’re around other plots that were all done and sold at a similar time they’ll have moved backwards and forwards across all the gardens)

Overcompaction stops drainage and creates an anaerobic environment below the water which causes any organic matter to break down etc..

The developer needs to start again, but definitely not in this weather!

@stayathomegardener

We haven’t let our boy use the garden now since the end of October as the side of the garden was so wet. The picture where you can see the playframe (red swing) was taken on the 9th December and the waterlogged one was this morning so thats how bad its got within the last month.

We are South/Southwest of England. It has been very windy & raining here alot recently but its getting worse all over the garden. My brother even sat in a garden chair earlier this year in the summer months & had the back legs sink into the ground where it was so soft. All the houses on our road was built the same time, we moved probably 6 months after neighbours as our house had sold 4 times before we bought it. The houses behind us has been finished since we moved but the fencing was already up when we moved in.

We had that in our new build also in the south west, over 10 years ago. The entire road and two next to it had leather jackets and boggy substandard gardens, the builders did f all. Some of the houses didn't even have any turf laid.

That doesn’t sound good :( my brother had leatherjackets in his garden of a new build, ended up with just mud as they ate all the grass, i remember opening his back door once and there was thousands of them all over his patio. He ended up having to put astroturf down as they will just eat through new turf. Planning to chase them up tomorrow as my boy loves playing in the garden on his playframe but he would need his wellies just to walk across the grass at the moment.

We had an issue where our garden was physically collapsing in patches, and was very boggy (although no insects). The builder dug some trial holes and they found 20 tonnes of shingle and loads of other debris just below the top soil. They installed French drains in our garden to rectify the issue.

You can buy nematodes to kill the leatherjackets; you apply in autumn and spring and need to so it every year for a few years.

Can't help with clay/ mud; sympathy though as have similar

www.kdpumps.co.uk/french-drain/

Builders are renowned for dumping their rubbish (shingle, broken bricks etc) in the garden and then turfing over it and then the grass never really grows properly. It’s cheaper than paying to get rid of it and they can get away with it as they’ve moved on by the time it comes to the surface.