Winter will typically bring extreme weather conditions including rain and snowfall. Eventually, this type of weather will cause damage to both your home and your yard. It may even lead to water damage at the foundation levels of your house.
Flooding can also cause issues with the landscaping around your property. Your home landscape requires water. However, yard drainage issues will result in too much water and cause lasting damage. This can impact trees, grass, shrubs, flowers and soil.
How Do I Know If I Have A Drainage Problem In My Yard?
If there is standing water around your home, you might also notice problems with bad odors that make your property an unpleasant place to live. In the winter, ice can also build up. This can lead to a dangerous environment and when it melts, there’s more flooding damage.
Excess water can also lead to problems away from the backyard. You might notice problems with the freeze-thaw effect. This occurs when asphalt in the drive expands and contracts, creating holes. These potholes will grow worse over time and cause cracks to develop across the concrete.
Extreme cases of excess water can also impact the structural integrity of the property. This is why it’s important to fix the drainage problem.
It’s not just the winter weather which can cause drainage issues around your home. You might notice problems around your backyard due to a leak in a pipe or runoff water from a blocked gutter system. You could also find that it’s due to the quality of the soil in your backyard.
It’s common for soil in a yard to have a low level of permeability. If this is a problem at your home water will build on the surface, before pressing against the foundations of your home. This is how you get water in areas like the basement. These drainage issues can cost a fortune in repairs.
Luckily, there are a few solutions that you can consider if your property has standing water around your backyard and other areas from a dry well to a catch basin. Let’s explore some of the best options for this landscaping issue.
Some Solutions For Solving The Drainage Issue In Your Yard
Install French Drainage System
The first option to consider is a french drain system for your yard. A french drain system is an option that can be installed below the surface of the lawn to collect and disburse water from your downspouts. This will help to carry the water down and away from your home, ensuring that your property is untouched by the issue of flooding.
Downspouts are one of the common causes of flooding for homeowners who have noticed this issue around the sides of their homes.
Your downspout is the vertical pipe attachment which is used to move water out of the gutters away from your building and to a safe area. Downspouts are intended to help owners avoid issues with erosion as well as damage due to poor landscape drainage or trouble with gutters.
If a downspout and gutter system is well made and carefully installed, they can prevent issues here and even boost curb appeal.
However, a downspout can also cause drainage issues. If a downspout or the gutters get clogged, then water is going to build up. Eventually, the water will overflow and get dumped directly below, at the side of your property.
A properly installed downspout should also be about four to five feet away from the property. This depends on aspects like the slope of the yard around the house.
Downspouts are used to funnel water away to an area that can handle it in or outside your yard. However, it might need to travel quite far away from your property. Some need to be at least twenty feet to get the water to the right spot.
French drains are simply small trenches used for yard drainage issues. These are dug into the ground near the side of a property. French drains are based on the concept that water will always flow downhill and along the easiest route available. The trench has a slight slope and was originally conceived in 1859, named after the creator, not the country of Origin. The drains are a US creation.
The french drain provides a channel that water can flow through. Water first runs directly into the trench that is filled with gravel. It then reaches the perforated pipe at the bottom of the trench. The water then travels along the drain pipe until it reaches a safe distance away from the home.
The slope of a french drain should be 1 inch for every 8 feet in the direction that the water is required to flow along the drain pipe through the yard. Grass will cover the trench so it won’t ruin your landscaping.
The water can be directed to a range of locations away from the backyard. This can include a lower area of the property, a drainage ditch, or a street. It will largely depend on your specific home and where it is located.
When Will You Need A French Drain?
It’s important to get a drain like this installed on your home if you notice water in your basement or if a retaining wall of your home is on a hillside. If you have noticed a build-up of standing water in your backyard then you should consider building a shallow drain. This is also referred to as a curtain drain. It extends horizontally across the property intercepting the water and taking it away from the area when it’s collecting. Typically, a drain like this will only be two feet deep.
To avoid issues with roots damaging the pipe, it’s important to switch from a perforated pipe to a solid option.
While many people attempt a DIY drain system like this, it’s best to use a professional service. That way, you can ensure it is installed to the right standards and delivers the results you need.
Catch Basin
There are other drainage systems to consider for your backyard like a catch basin drainage solution. The purpose of this drainage option is to ensure that groundwater flows away from the home at a location that has a positive fall. You would usually install a drainage solution at the end of the house driveway. It will prevent the water from being carried to the yard and causing wet areas.
Catch basins can also be referred to as a storm drain, storm sewer or stormwater drain.
The system solves drainage problems through the use of a grate to catch water. They can also be used to collect debris including dicks and leaves. It can also be used to collect runoff water or even water that might have been discharged from the sewer.
Advantages Of Catch Basins
This drainage solution does provide a lot of benefits. First, it will help to improve your landscape. If water pools in certain areas around your home or you have noticed water in your yard, this drainage option will solve the problem. They can also easily blend in with the landscape or backyard when they are used the right way. Typical drainage solutions can be large, bulky and quite the eyesore for the front of the home. A catch basin is more aesthetically pleasing. The solution can use a slim channel that will blend seamlessly with the rest of the driveway.
Catch basins can also be easy to maintain. Using basic cleaning tools, you can keep your drainage area in the right condition.
The system will prevent flooding around your home and you won’t have to worry about clogging issues. It can even increase the resale value, ensuring that your house is more attractive to buyers.
Does Your Home Need A Catch Basin?
If your property was built before the 1960s and located within an urban area, it is likely to already have a cast iron lid on top of a larger masonry basin. This is used to separate the various contaminants in the residential sewer system.
A modern catch basin is different and can be useful if you are worried about the issue of discharge water or certain trouble spots around your property. Again, it is important to ensure that a catch basin is installed the right way by a professional. This will ensure that it does provide the right solution for runoff water or low soil permeability.
Rip Rap Sealer
Is your house located at the bottom of the hill? If so, then you are almost definitely experiencing yard drainage problems. Drainage trouble in this situation can be fixed by using a rip rap sealer or a dry creek bed.
This solution requires more work than the other options mentioned. A large ditch or creek bed is created on both sides of the property in the shape of a fork in a road or the letter V. The draining system is then created using fabric in the ditch to ensure that the dirt is separated from the water.
Large stones or rip rap are then used to fill the dry creek bed. This is a key part of the fix used here. It ensures that the water running down the hill hits the rocks. This then redirects the water down through the channel or tech that has been dug out.
There are many benefits of using this particular solution. For instance, it helps prevent the issue of erosion because the larger stones used in the creek bed are resistant to this type of change. The material used also ensures that the water remains separate from the underlying soil. So, erosion doesn’t occur deeper in the ground either due to continued changes to the dirt. Similar to a french drain, grass and gravel or rocks can be used to cover it up and ensure it blends with your landscaping.
DIY Solutions
If you have drainage problems around your yard, it’s best to invest in a professional solution. However, there are some DIY options that you can consider too.
For instance, you might want to add a rain garden to your yard at a low spot. To create a rain garden, you need to excavate the area where you are having issues. You can then fill it with water-friendly plants. As you might have guessed, these will soak up the excess water which is causing your drainage problems. Water-loving plants include Canna, Turtlehead, Helenium and Lythrum to name just a few.
Or instead of a rain garden, you could at a dry well. Dry wells are underground catch basins filled with gravel and then finished with a type of soil. A dry well stores and then disperses water deep underground. They can be used if there is trouble with water around the house or close to the downspouts. If you have a significant problem you’re going to need a large hole for a dry well in your yard as well as plenty of gravel. This is one of the reasons why it’s not an attractive option. However, you can use decorative rocks like river rock to hide what is essentially a muddy hole. Gravel and decorative rocks can be purchased online or from a depot store.
Choosing The Right Drainage System For You
As you can see, there are numerous options for drainage that can fix problems with standing water in your backyard. Using one of these options you can disperse water to the right areas and direct water away from your house. You can also prevent a water pool in critical locations around your backyard that could cause extensive damage.
You just need to determine which system is right for you. This can depend on a variety of factors including the soil conditions around your home, the gradient of your landscaping and the type of yard you have.
If you have an extensive and severe issue with water pooling, a professional will likely recommend a french drain. Similar to a dry well, this is ideally suited for a low spot in your property. It can easily be installed at any significant low spots to direct water away from your house.
If you want to solve issues with standing water around your driveway, then your best option will be a basin.
Or, if your home is at the bottom of a hill, then you will probably require a rip rap sealer.
Find Out More
If you’re not sure which drainage option is right for your house, it’s always best to get in touch with a professional.
Milliken specializes in handling yard drainage problems and offers incredible solutions. If you need the right fix for a yard drainage issue around your home, request a proposal today. A friendly member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible and start working on the right option for your home.
