The wet season in Thailand can highlight many landscaping problems in homes and businesses. Poor drainage and excess water runoff can cause minor floods to occur and make areas generally unusable. In previous posts the team have covered ways to improve the drainage on lawns, but in this example below, a newly built service centre at the front of a villa complex in Hua Hin was having trouble with excess water flowing from not only the roof, but from up-hill (the service centre is built on a sloping road).
Aside from being unfinished, the excess water during wet periods was making the entire area extremely muddy and a pain to navigage. The team assessed the area and decided that the best way to contain the runoff and control excess waterflow was to construct two 8 metre wides boxes, which would contain soil and grass, and which would soak up the roof runoff, and also bring the building out into the road, forcing runoff into the road and away from the building.
The walls were constructed with deep foundations and reinforcing bars within the columns as they would need to be strong enough to hold the soil, which at times would be saturated (the boxes also included their own drainage holes).
Once the walls were built, the land in front of the boxes was grassed, to effectively 'put a lid' on the excess dirt, and turf block was installed along the whole length of the development to create a parking area for customers (turf blocks are concrete bricks that have gaps for grass growth).
Another successful landscape created by the team at www.thaigardendesign.com. For help with your garden and landscape (large and small jobs, in any part of Thailand) contact ben@thaigardendesign.com.
