Yard drainage help/ideas

[kroberts2131]

French drains work but can also come with maintenance and if you want a leveled-out yard, it that doesn't address that. If you are in a residential neighborhood with curb and gutter, where would the French drain exit, something else to deal with. They have applications, but if you can fix it with surface, more the better.

We live in a neighborhood but have small ditches rather than curbs. I think I will just go with truck bed full of 50/50 topsoil and compost until I can get it corrected. May take a few loads but I’ve been watching YouTube videos all morning and seems pretty straightforward

 

[red dirt shootist]

French drains work but can also come with maintenance and if you want a leveled-out yard, it that doesn't address that. If you are in a residential neighborhood with curb and gutter, where would the French drain exit, something else to deal with. They have applications, but if you can fix it with surface, more the better.

Yes french drains work, especially for seepage, and you can put a barrel and pump in the ground and pump it anywhere, expect heavy maintenance. They can't handle large amounts of water typically. But once you get your surface drain dialed in, it's over and it can work beautifully with no maintenance. And if you want your yard to look flat, a surface drain can be very subtle. There is no situation that can't be fixed.

 

[magna19]

Would I be better off doing it now or waiting til it really warms up? Also, should I till up the existing area or just too dress it?

That would depend on ability, funds, and mother nature. Grass type could play a roll also.

 

[Parks 788]

I’ve got a spot in my yard that will not drain and holds water. A few years ago we had a pool put in and it’s not been right ever since in this area. I’ve tried top soil but don’t think I’ve ever added enough to make a substantial difference.

My thoughts now are to till it up and resod the area, add a solid 2” of topsoil or compost and hope the Bermuda grows through fast enough, or install a French drain. Any thoughts on what you guys would do? It’s quickly getting worse so time to quit looking the other way!

ETA: the soil out here just sucks in general. The builder used sandy loam on top of the clay so it’s really slow draining over the entire yard.
View attachment 360609

I'm curious, what's beyond the black and white fence and what is to the right of the pic? Other neighbors yards or public right of ways or.....? O know some places there are laws that whatever water runs off your property you are responsible for. So, if your neighbors behind or to the sides of you have their rain runoff contributing to your pond then they should be made aware of it and help figure some of this out. If you dump a truck load of dirt in your back yard is it just going to move the standing water problem to a neighbors yard and pizz them off?

Without knowing whats on the other side of the two fence lines in front and to the right we really can't give great advice without causing more problems elsewhere.

 

[GC7]

This guy has a bunch of videos from his company in FL that does drainage work. It's a lot of back-breaking work to install but maybe there's some ideas:

https://www.youtube.com/@appledrains/videos

 

[CHenry]

Get some Ducks

 

[Ahall]

Never was a fan of French drains. Sooner or later the soil will work into the French drain and you will be back where you started.

Next time it rains, walk in the mud puddle with a tape measure and get a few depth measurements and the square feet of surface area. Then you can make a rough guess of how many cubic yards of fill you would need (27 cubic feet to the cubic yard).

Rase vs break the dam -

If you don't own the area beyond the fence, you can't reduce the height of the dam holding water in your yard, unless your neighbor approves. IF you do change the dam, think big broad cut. Not a small ditch that will fill with lawn clipping and refill itself in 3 years.

If you raise the soil, how are you going to move that volume of material and do you have underground features you don't want to crush (septic laterals, or septic tank) with the machines moving the soil.

 

[kroberts2131]

I'm curious, what's beyond the black and white fence and what is to the right of the pic? Other neighbors yards or public right of ways or.....? O know some places there are laws that whatever water runs off your property you are responsible for. So, if your neighbors behind or to the sides of you have their rain runoff contributing to your pond then they should be made aware of it and help figure some of this out. If you dump a truck load of dirt in your back yard is it just going to move the standing water problem to a neighbors yard and pizz them off?

Without knowing whats on the other side of the two fence lines in front and to the right we really can't give great advice without causing more problems elsewhere.

Yeah it’s not the greatest pic but it was still raining when I took it. This area is between my house and the neighbors. The right side is my garage and the gate leads to my backyard.

The neighbor actually installed drains off all his downspouts last summer which helped some. He has offered to pitch in on a few loads of dirt as well because he has low spots to fix also.

 

[Lakenut]

Before you go buying and hauling dirt, I would guess that there is a high spot that is keeping the water from draining on the surface. I would address the high spot before adding dirt.

Do you have access to a transit level? If so it takes all of the guesswork out of properly grading.

 

[Lakenut]

Btw…. There is a difference between a “French” drain and underground drainage. Frenchies use a perforated pipe surrounded by gravel. This wouldn’t be the correct below ground drain for your situation. You would use a non perforated pipe, no gravel. You would use several surface drain collection boxes to collect the surface water. You also will need several inches of fall between the top of the collection boxes and your outlet. There isn’t anything complicated about installing a below ground drain but there are several issues to be aware of. You will need to be aware of everything underground including utilities and irrigation pipes and wires. I would also tie in your gutter downspouts while you are at it. The black corrugated ADS pipe is the easiest to work with but solid pvc drain pipe is better in the long run. With the amount of water you have I would go with a 6” drain line.