Any suggestions – winter drainage?
Hi, I’m new to this board and wasn’t sure where I should post this. Anyway, my sad story begins in January 2003. We’d just moved into the house the first of the year, and three weeks later we noticed water collecting in our garage. Thought it was a little strange, as we live in Minnesota, and had been experiencing temps well below freezing. Within two weeks, this trickle of water became 18″ of ice in the garage (totalling the car we had stored there) and a foot of ice on our patio and against the foundation.
It turns out that there is a spring on the wooded hill above our house that continues to run even in winter, and as luck would have it, our house is in a direct line with the main mouth of the spring. Evidentally, this “glacier” appears every year, a fact that the sellers neglected to mention (but that is another story). Last year was an unusually bad year (at least that is what our neighbors have told us). This ice affects five homes, in various degrees.
Last winter we contacted our city council member to see if there were any sort of remedies that they could come up with (I live in St. Paul), but of course since all the property in question is private, they are reluctant to do anything. They did send out survey crews in the spring and summer, and the city water works did come up with a plan, however it would involve approximately $135,000 and the permission of the property owner on the hill (which is highly unlikely – he is quite fond of his view of the woods). And no guarantees that it will solve the problem.
This year hasn’t been quite the battle as last, but we do have about 4-5″ of ice in the garage (frying the second set of sensors for the garage door opener), and we’ve placed sandbags around the foundation of the house (and we’ve been sandbagging up on the hill, trying to keep the water contained, with minimal effect). And the ice continues down our driveway and into the busy street (currently has about 4″ of ice, spread over 30 feet).
We’ve been kicking around a few ideas – one of which is to lay a 15″ tile along the property edge and down the driveway and asking the city to connect it to the storm sewer. We think that could take care of some of it, that is if we can get permission from the prop owner on the hill to do some landscaping with earthen berms to direct the water to the collection area). Does anyone have any ideas of whether this might work? And what would be the best way to keep the drainage area clear? We could put heated tape into the tile to keep that clear.
Any suggestions would be gratefully welcomed!
Marie
Replies
Picturs would help, there is not enough facts. Most houses with the problem are on a slope, cut into the hillside and / or just have bad grading at the rear. A trench dug aroung the back of the lot with a drain pipe connected will solve it. The hard part is trench dept and location.
The pictures are currently at a lawyer's office (we've been considering legal action re: disclosure or lack thereof on the part of the sellers). I just took some with the digital camera, but I haven't figured out how to download from the camera and post yet.
Our house is located at the bottom of a steep bluff. Our back yard has a steep grade that levels off in two places - we know we need to re-grade and install drainage. It's been a bit daunting to know where to start - last year the force of the water and ice tore down the retaining wall (however, it was just dry-stacked, and inexpertly at that).
One of the problems we've had to face is that this particular spring has more than one mouth (although the main one is the worst offender), and they pop up in other places from time to time (according to our next door neighbor, who have lived there 40 years).
If I understand it right, this water is flowing underground down the hill, then working its way up above ground on your property. Perhaps the frozen earth prevents it from draining back into the ground, or it's 'summer' path is blocked.
From what I have seen, a common remedy is to build an underground 'concrete dam' with a drainage plane in front to intercept and redirect the water. This sort of structure has a technical term, which escapes me at the moment. The 'dam' can be flush with the ground when finished, or more along the lines of a retaining wall with a very deep footing.
If the water flows above ground down the hill and gravity is on your side, you may be able to get away with a simple earthen berm.
Most municipalities will not allow ground water to be routed into storm sewers. There are exceptions. You may need to dig a drywell.
Edited 2/13/2004 1:26:45 PM ET by csnow
Well, the water is flowing over the ground - it's almost glacier like. We could see it coming, but just couldn't quite figure out where it was going to go. There doesn't appear to be an obvious direction of flow, with the exception of along our garage. Depending on the circumstances, we can accumulate over 2" of ice in less than eight hours. Once ice forms, the water appears to flow under the ice, so it builds up from below.
If I remember the conversations with our city council member and the head of the city water works accurately, they would allow us to tie into the storm sewer, in part because of the ice buildup on the street and the sidewalk causes quite a hazard (more than one accident has occured there).
That is a pretty common problem with runoff from a neighboring hill. Usually builders address this sort of thing when grading the lot. Sounds like a simple trench or berm to a drain would do it. Just be sure to design the drain such that it does not freeze up.
Thanks - that's what I was hoping to hear!
I'm in the blind reyour place, but I have dealt with underground spring water several times. It is a simple matter of redirecting it. You wilnever stopit fromrunning or freezing, but by digging and laying in drains, you can give it someplace togo other than in your house.
The tricky part spounds like it stems fromthe fact that it runs on toip of the ground partly. You have to get the drain under that with stone to let the water find a way to the drain line. If this is all shallow, some foam baord might be needed to keep the drain from freezing.
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