In 40 seconds
Draining a waterlogged garden in the UK usually costs somewhere between £1,500 and £5,000+ for a full scheme, depending on the size of the plot, the soil and how bad the water sits. The two most common fixes are a french drain — a gravel-filled trench with a perforated pipe, typically £25–£60 per linear metre installed — and a soakaway, a buried crate or pit that lets water disperse into the ground, typically £600–£3,000. A plain land drain (perforated pipe in trench) runs roughly £20–£50 per metre, and simply aerating or regrading a boggy lawn can be £300–£1,500. The honest answer is always a range, because it depends on your soil, levels and where the water needs to go.
Most garden-drainage guidance is published by firms selling the work, so the numbers tend to be optimistic and the trade-offs glossed over. The pages below give sourced cost ranges, explain what each solution actually does, and help you match the fix to the problem — before you take a single quote.