Yard drainage

[JasonGotaProblem]

Every major storm my yard floods. Sometimes it gets pretty close to my back door. Ian is shaping up to be a very major storm. Thankfully this time I thought ahead and dug a very ugly trench. So far, knock on wood, it's working. But I figure since I already dug the trench I may as well put in a drainage pipe of sorts. All my limited drainage design experience is larger scale stuff. I don't want a 48" RCP in my yard. Have any of you installed a yard drain you're really happy with? What did you use?

[Wompus Cat]

Why not ask your neighbor to go in with you and put a nice wide Concrete drain between the two houses.

[Keta]

I use 4" perforated drain pipe covered with pea gravel and it works for me but our annual rain is less than 12".  I like the concrete fix above.

[Rancanfish]

I added 4" perf immediately all over right after moving in to rainy Oregon.

[Gfish]

That's what I's thinking about. Lot's a work, but keeps it underground, maybe no skeeters?

[foakes]

I do a French Drain.

Ours is 160' long and is above our home in an arc shape with water exits on both ends.

We trenched a 12" wide by 36" deep trench.

Filled the first 3" with 1.5" crushed granite rock.

Then laid a perforated 4" ABS pipe on top of the rock —-

Pipe is covered with a fabric sock to help keep sand out —-

Then the trench is filled to surface level with more 1.5" crushed granite rock —-

The water flows into the drain —- disappears —- and is shunted out to either side of our property —- thus keeping our home and foundation as dry as possible underneath.

It also works great for the snow melt.

First year we were here in 2010 —- the under house and foundation were soaked mud.  For the last 11 years —- dry as a bone.

There are lots of solutions —- the simplest ones usually work pretty well.

We have downhill sloping —- so the concrete may be your answer if you are relatively flat.

Best, Fred

[Swami805]

French drain around our entire house too. 4" perforated pipe wrapped in landscape fabric and the trench backfilled with gravel. So far so good
Concrete swail will work too, just kind of ugly if it's in your yard

[Wompus Cat]

ya can always do this 

[Midway Tommy]

Always remember that any type of drain system, whether sub-surface or above ground, has to have somewhere to empty or dissipate. Incorporating a swale on flat ground does nothing more than create standing water and a sub-surface drain without daylighting only cause wet ground.

My pet peave as a Homebuilder was always when people wanted their lot or property finish graded so flat that it was near impossible to get water to drain away from the house and off the lot. Luckily most housing developments around here are in areas where drainage can easily be accomplished by just raising the house up a couple of feet above the surrounding areas and grading accordingly.

[wailua boy]

In some regions you may need permits for such a project, may be worth checking into.

[Dominick]

That storm is dumping a lot of water.  Let us know if the drain worked.  Dominick

[Shellbelly]

Also, look into the overall topography of your area.  Our small town is at 45' and is swampy flat ground.  Like Tommy alluded to, the water has to GO somewhere.  At some point in a bad situation, you flood because municipal drainage can only go to a certain depth before it's ineffective....because it has no place to go.

That's why it's a good idea to keep a yard of dirt handy, if you can, and keep throwing it around to create some runoff.  Kids love dirt piles, too...or they used to.  It's what put Tonka in business.

[JasonGotaProblem]

Thanks guys for the ideas. My back yard sits about 2' higher than the street but the previous owner did some funny stuff grading, deciding that the back yard should flow backward despite there being a house behind us, and that's just not how subdivisions are designed. Trust me i know. So he built the side yard about 3' above the road. Probably worked ok until the rear neighbor very reasonably blocked off the drainage below the fence.

So I used my green laser mounted on a 12" tall box, put a stake in just inside my property line with a mark 12" up, aimed the laser at that, and painted a line on my shovel 12" up.

I dug a very straight ditch on my side yard and definitely gave the water somewhere to go. Really it was just restoring the correct "A type lot" drainage design, sort of. Even though I stayed completely within my property with the digging I still spoke to the neighbor on that side before doing it. He loaned me his narrow shovel.

And the answer to the burning question, heck yes it worked. I never saw an inch of standing water on that side of the yard. And i went out in a quiet(er) moment of the storm and saw water flowing.

The other side of the yard has a similar situation, but it's not threatening my back door like this was so it wasnt priority. I'll end up doing the same there.

I think I'm gonna put in jacketed ADS pipe with a small grate top inlet near my back door, I'm gonna consider stronger pipe near there under my planned paver expansion, maybe do the one that comes pre-loaded with the stones, just in that section, but I may not do the stone bed under the perf pipe the 100' down to the road. I'm not super concerned with pulling in water from the side yard but the pipe is perforated and jacketed so it'll likely still be beneficial for that area. I'll do a bubbler cap or another small GTI by the road. Since the yard is much higher than the road it'll still flow. Something about a siphon effect or something.

Below is an after picture. I cant leave the de-ankler like that even if it does drain well.

[Rancanfish]

If you are talking ads pipe in a roll,  make sure there are no nearby trees. Roots will ruin it eventually. And if it ever gets plugged, don't call roto-rooter, they will slice it to ruin.

[Maxed Out]

 Another vote here for french drain. It's much better than a ditch running beside your house.

 We put in a French drain 16 years ago and no more flooded back yard