My back yard is
. When it rains, and when snow melts, I get a lot of ponding. Our soil is clay, so the water tends to hang around for a while, too.
So sure, the thing needs to be graded, but there’s nowhere for the water to run anyway.
Have any of you dug dry wells? My asphalt driveway needs to get torn up anyway, so I had visions of digging a hole and throwing the driveway in there.
But I dunno.
Replies
Dry well will not work in clay soil, no matter how deep.
If your back yard is higher than the street curb, drainage can be done, but only after the snow melts.
"Dry" wells work good except for when it rains. Then they fill up.
Let's say you have 1/2 of an acre (21,780 sq ft) draining into a "dry" well. If it rains a half inch that would yield 907 cubic feet of water, or ~6788 gallons. You would need an empty hole roughly 10'x10'x9' deep to hold that amount of water. If you fill the hole with aggregate, let's make a guess that the hole would have to be around 3 times the size so that would be 10'x30'x9' So that would mean that you would have 100 yards of dirt to get rid of (~10 tandem dump truck loads) and you would need that much aggregate too. My bid to do the job is $10k, and I can guarantee it will work great unless it rains much.
Using the crushed asphalt off the driveway won't reduce my bid because I have to scrape it up and load it. If your house happens to be sticking out of the ground about 4' we can waste the dirt around your house, regrade, and then I can reduce my bid to $8k.
Are you positive there isn't someplace to daylight a pipe to?
french drain
.
two ways to screw up concrete 1) concrete driver 2) concrete finisher
Buy a floating chair or a fishing rod and crack a beer.
I have a friend whose old house was in a 1970s subdivision. The swale ran right thru her back yard & after any rain, her backyard would be a lake. I happened to mention that she should put in plants that like it wet. Soooo, she planted a 3 ft deep border of water loving prairie plants against the back fence. The year after she put in that border, we received 17-inches-of-rain-in-one-night. Made the news and everything.
She was able to walk up to within 1 ft of her border before getting squishy toes. Before the water would come up to her patio & would be ankle deep. Her siting was full sun.
Check out the following plants(Latin names supplied, upon request): Queen-of-the-prairie, cupplant, prairie dock, turtlehead, cardinal flower, swamp buttercup, rattlesnake master, anise hyssop, swamp milkweed, ironweed, Culver's root,swamp oak, sour gum/black gum/black tupelo, river birch, dwarf birch, sweetshrub, possumhaw, winterberry holly, pawpaw, fowl manna grass, big bluestem, Bebb's sedge, fox sedge, Indian grass & prairie dropseed.
I've got a whole 'nother list of plants that like wet shade but I'll let you digest the list above first<G>.
Alright, who is the wiseguy who flipped on the WINTER switch?!?!
I would LOVE to have your list of plants for shady wet areas. I'm just starting a yard renovation, and those are my conditions to a T.
THanks
Bob Chapman
Can you give me your zone/location(nothing in your profile)? There's a huge difference in plants that will survive in wet/shady Albuquerque & wet/shady Cleveland.Latin or common names?Soon-to-be-dead Kitty has eaten underwear & pantyhose, books, slippers/shoes & the downstairs phone cord, my boss's job has been "eliminated", dentist(crown-eek) tomorrow & the Winter switch has been turned to high. sigh At least there will be a few more dead gypsy moths & the Dog Class for People will be at the end of the month. If I can hold out that long.
In Northern NJ. We have a slopng lot that's damp and shady at the low end. Both common and Latin names would be fine or Latin only if that's the way your list is orgabized.
Bob
Edited 1/19/2008 6:50 am ET by BobChapman
I'm not trying to steal anyone's thunder & Plantlust can probably add more info.
But here's a link to rain garden info at Rutgers: http://rwqp.rutgers.edu/univ/nj/Stormwater%20Management%20Education%20Program/fs513.pdf
Bob
I'm sending you my lecture handouts via Tauton email (4 pages). These will just be trees & shrubs. I will be formulating another list of herbaceous perennials/annuals & grasses for you in a couple of days.Don't know how much property you've got (pleasepleaseplease not another acreage owner...) but the lecture notes include expected heights/widths & any other interesting tidbits that I've found out. Another good contact would be your local Forest Preserve folks. They LOVE giving info on native plants. NJ would have more acidic soil than I can get away with (IL tends to be more limestone/basic, tho planting black walnut can bring the soil closer to neutral). I'll include Latin & common names but you will have better luck at a decent nursery if you use the Latin. A common name here in IL could be referring to a completely different plant on the East & West coast.Soon-to-be-dead Kitty has eaten underwear & pantyhose, books, slippers/shoes & the downstairs phone cord, my boss's job has been "eliminated", dentist(crown-eek) tomorrow & the Winter switch has been turned to high. sigh At least there will be a few more dead gypsy moths & the Dog Class for People will be at the end of the month. If I can hold out that long.
This is interesting.
Does your list contain plantings useful for erosion control as well as water absorption? A double duty plant or tree that requires minimal maintenance? A lot of money is spent repairing damage that might have been prevented or at least controlled with the correct plantings.
Used to be a common practice of using money as a sponge to fix water problems but now that most places are really crunching the numbers there has to be a better way to mop up after Mother Nature.View Image
Edited 1/25/2008 11:00 pm ET by RalphWicklund
Edited 1/25/2008 11:01 pm ET by RalphWicklund
Edited 1/25/2008 11:12 pm ET by RalphWicklund
The lists I've got don't focus on erosion, tho I have a friend who went thru streambank "mitigation" (she's up on a ridge & the stream was undercutting the bank very close to her house). The agency/authority that she went thru would only assist if she used riprap. After all was completed we figured that was bad advise. Not only do you have to pay to haul that stuff (HEAVY)but you pay extra for manpower & equipment & the results on her ridge wasn't really great. I helped her put in plants. She has a weird situation. Flooding in spring & fall & bone dry in the summer. Drainage is sharp & fierce above the waterline, so the plants needed to be able to cope w/periodic flooding. She got a mix of flowering perennials (I also supplied her w/the odd annual seeds & some seedling shrubs) & grasses.What I have noticed is that grasses tend to have a finer & more fibrous root system. She ended up planting some grasses & several sedges in her mix (sedges are grass-like but not true grasses), as well as finding some native sedges on her property. Unfortunately, I'm not very familiar w/the native plant species in Florida (noticed that from your profile). The mix down there is going to be WAY different from what will survive up here. Have you checked with local Forest Preserves or Native Plant Societies? I know there's a New England Wildflower Society (have one of their books) but don't know if Enlightenment has reached the Sunshine State<G>.Add 1/4 of the upholstery on my Victorian settee. I'm counting down the days to Doggy class.
Surveyed many, many jobs like the above pic, and I fail to see how you're gonna stabilize that cut-bank with vegetation. The slope needs to be dressed down, then rock rip-rap baskets placed from the bottom to the top of the slope. The baskets are porous so plant roots can take hold as soil infiltrates into the spaces between the rock, naturalizing the slope in about five years. The inside turn of the channel needs to be widened also to remove pressure on the cut bank. Salt willows usually seed out quickly in my area (Central Texas) and have roots deep enough to assist stabilization. I've seen eroded banks as high as 40' stabilized in this manner.
I've seen something like a fat fiber sausage (much larger of course) that you can put plants directly in. Never seen anything as bad as the photo above but it seems to me you would need to stabilize the soil on the top first? Hard to tell without blowing up the photo, what area of the country that is. If it gets constant rain, planting would be messy & more destructive. I've also seen something like a fine mesh used on cliffsides(to hold back rockfalls, perhaps?) but you'd want something that would dissolve or breakdown to become fertilizer over a year or 2. Then if you use a mix of plants & seeds, it will give the roots a chance to grab hold of the soil. Some of the prairie grasses have extremely fibrous roots that can extend down 15 ft (assuming of course that you don't have solid bedrock 2ft down<G>).Add 1/4 of the upholstery on my Victorian settee. I'm counting down the days to Doggy class.
The situation you see in the photo is typical of bank erosion. The stream bed (in a bend) eats away at the underside of the bank allowing the top to collapse. SOP is to stabilize the water contact area first, then step the bank back to prevent collapse from water softened soil above. Rock diversion berms in the stream flow may be used to reduce velocity of the water. Reinforciing the toe of the slope swept by water (at the high water mark) is effective and may be achieved by using the rock rip-rap baskets which are less likely to be undercut by water getting in back of the structure. The porosity of the rock allows infiltration of water from the bank also. "Stepping" the slope allows vegetation a root-hold on the horizontal areas and reduces the velocity of run-off and catches alluvium falling into the creek from above. The "steps" should be the caged rock rip-rap also as it naturalizes as the alluvium washed down is captured. Reinforced-earth construction could be used, but it doesn't naturalize as well.
Also, it's hard to "tag" rock rip-rap...
Have you used any thing like EviroMax or Earth Right?http://www.chemcraft.net/enviromx.html
http://www.dehlgroup.com/envbroch.html
http://www.dehlgroup.com/drain1.htmlhttps://www.amleo.com/item.cgi?cmd=view&Words=erg
http://www.hummert.com/catalog.asp?P=2006
http://www.fruit-trees.org/pages/fruit-tree-health/earth-right-soil-conditioner.php
.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I found something.
What do you think?
http://www.vetiver.com/
It's on the Southern Noxious Weed list. I think a native species(or a combination of native species) can be found to do the same thing without introducing another kudzu. And don't believe what they say about "sterile" plants being "ok" to use. They've said the same thing about purple loosetrife. (sorry about the delay in responding, I'm in the middle of a dragon cake project & I've got to find some dry ice)Regional Forester's List and Ranking Structure
Invasive Exotic Plant Species of Management Concern
USDA Forest Service, Southern Region
Weed Category Scientific Name Common Name
1 Ailanthus altissima Tree of heaven
1 Albizia julibrissin Silktree
1 Alliaria petiolata Garlic mustard
1 Ardisia crenata Scrated throat
1 Berberis thunbergii Japanese barberry
1 Celastrus orbiculatus Oriental bittersweet
1 Cinnamomum camphora Camphortree
1 Dioscorea alata Water yam
1 Dioscorea batatas Air potatoe
1 Dioscorea bulbifera Chinese yam
1 Eichhornia crassipes Common water hyacinth
1 Elaeagnus umbellata Autumn olive
1 Euonymus fortunei Winter creeper
1 Hydrilla verticillata Waterthyme
1 Imperata cylindrica (including I. brasiliensis) Cogongrass
1 Lespedeza cuneata Sericea lespedeza
1 Ligustrum japonicum Japanese privet
1 Ligustrum lucidum Glossy privet
1 Ligustrum sinense Chinese privet
1 Ligustrum vulgare European privet
1 Lolium arundinaceum * (Festuca elatior var. arundinacea) Tall fescue
1 Lonicera fragrantissima Sweet breath of spring
1 Lonicera japonica Japanese honeysuckle
1 Lonicera maackii Amur honeysuckle
1 Lonicera morrowii Morrow's honeysuckle
1 Lonicera tatarica Tatarican honeysuckle
1 Lygodium japonicum Japanese climbing fern
1 Lygodium microphyllum Smallleaf climbing fern
1 Lythrum salicaria Purple loosestrife
1 Microstegium vimineum Japanese stiltgrass
1 Paederia foetida Stinkvine
1 Panicum repens Torpedo grass
1 Polygonum cuspidatum Japanese knotweed
1 Pueraria montana Kudzu
1 Rhodomyrtus tomentosus Rose myrtle
1 Rosa multiflora Multiflora rose
1 Salvinia molesta Kariba-weed
1 Sapium sebiferum Tallowtree
1 Schefflera actinophylla Octopus tree
1 Schinus terebinthifolius Christmasberry
1 Solanum viarum Tropical soda apple
1 Sorghum halepense Johnsongrass
1 Verbena brasiliensis Brazilian vervain
2 Allium vineale Wild garlic
2 Alternanthera philoxeroides Alligatorweed
2 Ampelopsis brevipedunculata Amur peppervine
2 Arthraxon hispidus Small carpgrass
2 Bromus inermis Smooth brome
2 Carduus nutans Nodding plumelss thistle
2 Centaurea maculosa Spotted knapweed
2 Cirsium arvense Canadian thistle
2 Cirsium vulgare Bull thistle
2 Coronilla varia Purple crownvetch
2 Egeria densa Brazilian waterweed
2 Elaeagnus angustifolia Russian olive
2 Elaeagnus pungens Thorny olive
2 Eragrostis curvula Weeping lovegrass
2 Hedera helix English ivy
2 Kummerowia striata (Lespedeza striata) Japanese clover
2 Macfadyena unguis-cati Catclaw vine
2 Melia azedarach Chinaberry tree
2 Mimosa pigra Black mimosa
2 Miscanthus sinensis Plume grass
2 Myriophyllum spicatum Spike watermilfoil
2 Nandina domestica Sacred bamboo
2 Pistia stratiotes Water lettuce
2 Polygonum caespitosum Asiatic smartweed
2 Polygonum perfoliatum Asiatic tearthumb
2 Spiraea japonica Japansese meadowsweet
2 Vetiveria zizanioides ** Vetiver grass
2 Wisteria floribunda Japanese wisteria
2 Wisteria sinensis Chinese wisteria* = Applies only to endophyte-enhanced cultivars. All KY31 Tall Fescue is considered endophyte-enhanced.< /p >** = Prohibition does not apply to sterile (nonflowering) cultivars of V. zizanioides< /p >Add 1/4 of the upholstery on my Victorian settee. I'm counting down the days to Doggy class.
Kudzu rocks!! :-)
I can send you all you want or desire!
I think that was China's way to get back at us.........
“Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.” Reagan....
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. -Truman Capote
Plants are indeed among the most effective strategies for water control in tough soils. I'm all for it.A caution to everyone -- keep them away from the foundation, especially in problem soils like heavy clay.As the excavation contractor I include specific contract language that voids all warranties if plants are within 5' of the building envelope. Certain plants have the ability to produce strong and highly localized changes in the moisture content of the soil which can really make a mess.But in a swale, yes, it's about as good as it gets, and it looks great, and can provide habitat for pollinator species. We need more of that.
Well, it sounds like I should just grade it to the back of the property and make a swale there. I'm not much of a green thumb, so I dunno about the water garden theory.
Biff, I agree with the others in that a planting area back there will be helpful.
I'd like to add the following to this. Most communities have an engineering or service department that are supposed to keep records of, at the very least, the natural and man-made drainage flows through the town. They may have information about your area especially if there is a history of ponding or flooding. {my previous home had a drainage easement at the rear and supposedly no one was 'allowed' to slow or stop the natural flow across their property. women behind me put in a raised bed area and flooded me out. city helped both of us resolve this.}
Much as some people believe otherwise they don't bite and they can be very helpful.
Luck, ciao, ted
Be cautious about putting in large waterloving trees (please tell me you don't have acreage). Willow & silver maple are NOTORIOUS about finding water, especially if they've been planted in a "typical" city lot & not on acreage. I've included pictures of some plants you can put in (ok I've squeezed in about 200+ species into my 50x112ft lot...I'm not called PlantLust fer nothing y'know<G>).Soon-to-be-dead Kitty has eaten underwear & pantyhose, books, slippers/shoes & the downstairs phone cord, my boss's job has been "eliminated", dentist(crown-eek) tomorrow & the Winter switch has been turned to high. sigh At least there will be a few more dead gypsy moths & the Dog Class for People will be at the end of the month. If I can hold out that long.
You've unleashed the plant geek in me...brace yourselves.Soon-to-be-dead Kitty has eaten underwear & pantyhose, books, slippers/shoes & the downstairs phone cord, my boss's job has been "eliminated", dentist(crown-eek) tomorrow & the Winter switch has been turned to high. sigh At least there will be a few more dead gypsy moths & the Dog Class for People will be at the end of the month. If I can hold out that long.
I had never heard of an excavation contractor giving a warranty. What sort of work are you talking about with that and what would be warranted or excluded? this is a new line of thought for me.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Most of what we do requires grading and drainage plans signed by a civil engineer, structural engineers are usually involved in the foundation design, and at least half of all of our work is under the supervision of a geotechnical engineer. Probably more if I went back and looked at it.So there are design specifications and performance expectations with a lot of value at risk.I guarantee that our work conforms to or exceeds those specifications and will perform as intended for a year after substantial completion. If the owner of the property observes the design recommendations, I would stand behind our work longer than that. But there are a lot of variables beyond my control (landscaping, irrigation, changes to drainage) and sometimes they knowingly void their warranty.And yes, most of this is residential work -- rather expensive residential work, but it's arguably fine homebuilding, which is half the reason I hang out here. <G>
Try excluding people from planting within 5' of their house around here and you'll go a long time between jobs. - lol
I know there is a FHB article about the dry wells cant find the issue right now though
"I'd rather be a hammer than a nail"
If all the lots around you are higher, your out of luck. If the rear neighbor's lot drains properly, maybe you could get permission to run a drain thru his lot
Yes, they're higher. And I suspect they all drain onto my yard.
I'd have the topo checked to see where the water is coming from. You may be liable for damages if you change the topo of a subdivision and negatively affect the existing drainage for adjoiners. If the water is draining from other lots to yours, a berm and swale would take care of it. If you're gonna rip your drive out, you could build a swale into the new one and use that to drain your yard. You could also use a "drop inlet" and run a pipe to below the new drive and out to the street. Check your soil profile down to about 3' and see if it's clay all the way. I've done lots of these, and there's always an easy way, but only if you know the topo of your lot.
your plotplan from the city should have given you this info. It is still available at city hall I am sure. Look at the elevations given on the corners of the lot. If necessary take a builders level and establish some grades around you house. In any case drainage should be away from you house on all sides.
Builders disregard the plotplan because it could mean they have to truck fill in or out (extra cost), or they fail to set the footings high enough to ensure drainage from the lot. This is critical if you have clay soil condition.
Since I really don't have a dog in this hunt, you might want to direct that at the original poster.
In my experience with subdivision construction, I've never seen a topo provided by the engineering firms that was worth a damn for individual lots. They never do as-builts, so some yahoo with a 955 could come in and change everything on the site in two hours. When the subdivision is platted and accepted, each lot has the same "seniority" as to drainage and boundary. That's why I suggested that he topo his own lot to see what the conditions are. I don't care what kind of soil it is, you can always get it to drain if it falls toward the street or to a feature on the division line. Most lines have PUE's where the grades have been raised or lowered by utility construction, and that could be his problem.
There is no drainage option to the street. There's no ditch or storm sewer, just a verge. We also get a little lake at the end of the driveway, but we just drive through it. Last week, it was a solid block of ice.Our subdivision is really old, although our house was built 40 years ago as infill. Our next door neighbor's house is the original farmhouse. I'm thinking that the street wasn't designed with drainage in mind.From the sound of it, my best option is simply to collect it at the back of the yard in a swale.Edit: I have no idea where my weeping tile goes. All I know is that my basement stays dry. Our neighbors have a sump that discharges onto their front lawn, but in reality almost all of it ends up on the sidewalk, making it treacherous in winter.Edited 1/28/2008 8:44 am ET by Biff_Loman
Edited 1/28/2008 8:45 am ET by Biff_Loman
The only way to tell where it can go, or is coming from, is to do a topo of the lot, ROW, and street. Otherwise, you're just shooting in the dark...
Yeah, I'd better do that. I watched the snow melt earlier this week, and it was a bad situation.The doors to the shed, in which I store all my tools, froze shut last winter. Standing water pooled high enough that the bottoms of the doors were embedded in a frozen puddle. I procrastinated modifying the doors, but I was able to prevent that this year by cleverly storing my pick-axe OUTSIDE the shed. :-)Once upon a time, there was an asphalt patio (blech) behind my house, which buckled and fractured and was utterly destroyed. I always assumed that there hadn't been any base, but upon digging some of it up, I found that there was a compacted base. It was completely waterlogged, which explained the failure.In every other respect, this house has served us really well.
Yep, if it's coming in, there's a way to get it out. Start out by locating a place where you can rent an automatic level, level rod, 100' tape, and get some marking paint and a bundle of 2' stakes.
Get you a regular yellow tablet and make a sketch of your entire property including fences, house, shed, street, any ditches, and walks. Doesn't have to be to scale. Start at the intersection of your street edge or curb, and where your property line will intersect. Put a paint mark there. Do the same at the other. I assume that it's not a corner lot.
Get a friend or DW to hold the end of the tape on the paint mark, and make marks or put stakes every 25' all the way to the end of your property. Do the same at the other side. Have your helper hold the end of the tape on one of the marks or stakes you set on the property line, and, in line with the one across your property, put marks or stakes every 25' until you run into the other property line. Do that at every 25' mark you have placed, except where the house or any structure is in the way.
Now take your sketch and draw on it each mark you have on the ground. That's where you'll take the shots. If there are areas that look low, put a note to take extra shots there, maybe 5-10 intervals. Or areas that are holding water now.
Be sure and make the sketch large enough where you can put each shot and it's elevation on the paper without being too crowded. I'd suggest as large as the sheet.
I'm about to lose my connection, so I'll work on the leveling aspect and get it to you later today or tomorrow.
<!----><!----> Part Two.<!---->
Okay, assuming you got the level and rod, this is how it’ll go. Since you’re in <!----><!----><!---->Canada<!----><!---->, I’ll assume you are using feet and inches, or feet and tenths of a foot. You can get rods in either. Tenths are easy to use, as there are 10 per foot, and 10 hundredths per tenth. The long marks are tenths, shorter ones are hundredths. Since this is dirt work, we’ll just use tenths.
The method is known as differential leveling. You will level the instrument, turn the scope toward the rod, focus, and read the rod and write the result on your sketch. To start, find a place on a walk or step or any solid place for a “benchmark (BM).” Take a black pen or nail and scratch a square on this place. Try to find a place that you can see a portion of the yard from different set-ups so we don’t have to use a “temporary benchmark.” Any number is OK.
Go to a second sheet of your tablet, and make 5 columns. The left column is marked “Sta,” the next “+,” the next, ‘HI,” the next, -, the next, “Elev.” We’re going to assume an elevation of 100.0’ on the BM. The real elevation is not important as you are looking for differences in a small area, not trying to fit it into a larger project.
Write BM in the “Sta.” column on the first line.
Write 100.0 in the “Elev.” column on the first line.
Set the gun up, level it, have your helper set the rod on the BM, and read the rod. Let’s say you read 5.5 on the rod. Go directly over to the “+” column, and write “5.5. Add 100.0 and 5.5, and you get 105.5, that is the Height of Instrument, or “HI,” so write that on the same line under “HI.” You know the height of your instrument is 105.5’.
Now, have the helper take the rod over to one of your marks, set it on the ground, and you take the reading. Let’s say you read 6.5’ on the rod. Record that reading on your sketch as it is on the ground. Do this for every mark you have until you can’t see any more from that set-up.
Get your calculator. Put 105.5 in it, and subtract the first reading of 6.5, which gives you an elevation of the ground there as 99.0. Write that next to your reading. Always subtract your reading from the HI of 105.5. Continue until you have recorded the elevations on all the shots you have taken on your sketch.
Pick up the level and move it to a place you can see the BM, and as many shots as possible. Level it up, read the rod, and start again. Skip a couple of lines, put 100.0 in the elevation column again, BM in the ST column, and your reading, add them, and start shooting more shots.
Do this as many times as it takes to complete the grid of your tract. You may also want to shoot a few on the ground at each corner of the house also. Just be sure to calculate, or reduce, each shot to it’s elevation before you move the gun so you won’t get shots from two different HI’s in the same set.
It’s a lot easier that it sounds. Just put a good permanent mark on your BM as you or the contractor will be using this to set grades for your work.
By looking at the elevations you will be able to see the drainage possibilities quickly.
Let me know if you have any problems with this, and I’ll try to clear it up.
It's hard to believe that everything around you is higher unless some radical alteration of the natural topo was done when yours and the surrounding homes were built. If it were the case, you would be living in a pond, lake, or ocean. :-) Which it sounds like you might....
You really have to deal with with it with grading and possibly some kind of drain system. The plants are a great idea but you would be treating the symptom - not the problem.
2 ideas:
1) get a laser level and find out where the lowest point in the yard really is.
2) get an grading/excavation contractor out there to give you his opinion and an estimate to regrade. He can come up with a solution in 5 minutes just by looking at it.
Post pome pics of your house. Stand back at least 100' when you take the pics, one from each side of the house.
"It's hard to believe that everything around you is higher unless some radical alteration of the natural topo was done when yours and the surrounding homes were built."I recall my grandmother's back yard was always a bit damp in spring. They had a bid old weeping willow in the center of it too that drank up a lot of waterOver the past fifty years, the neighbors kept adding more and more bags of this and that to the flower beds surronding their lots building up those levels.Then about five years ago, the willow got pretty bad and in danger of falling on somebodies house, so she had it taken out. Now she needs boots to go in the back yard for 3-4 weeks every spring.Got a brother with a similar situation. he dug a sump pit in and ran a line to the city drains at the street.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Flat building lots are hard to deal with...
especially with clay soils and the older small setbacks
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
My remidy is: Build high, bring dirt. Which is costly.
we have a bylaw that forbids draining water from your lot onto others.
Planting might help but is only bandaid. To prevent further problems, like flooding your basement and maybe ruining your developement, spend the money and regrade to lot to drain water either to the front or the back. Somewhere there must be a run-off that the city has on either the backalley or the street (unless you are in the country)
You should check with city engineers and make sure you won't get into trouble by filling in your yard. It may have been designed that way.
You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
Who said I was filling it in? I want all the water in one place, at the very least, instead of in pockets all over. Two summers ago, there were weeks in which I couldn't mow at all. It'd rain, and then rain again before all the standing water was gone. Not good.
Edited 1/18/2008 10:49 am ET by Biff_Loman
Bill,
There was a lot in our subdivision that was not built on, although the subdivision was established in the mid-70's, and all of the other homes were of that vintage. Word was that the lot would not perk, and that was common knowledge. During one of our long-term droughts, apparently they found a surveyor that would pass it. Had a mound system for the septic; that should have been their first warning. The house was completed in about 1996.
In 1998, we had our second "500 Year Flood" in 4 years. The house had water about 4 inches over the slab, really almost as bad as 4 feet.
County Planning Department was on the spot for issueing the permit in the first place. In the end, they got an easement across the cross-the-road-neighbor's property and excavated for a 24" concrete drainage pipe probably about 600 feet long. County ate the entire cost, cutting the road, and all. The homeowner didn't have flood insurance, so they had to eat all of the repair work on their house.
What I'm suggesting is, go to the Planning & Development people, whatever entity allowed all of that building to go on around you. See if there's anything they can do to help you.
Good luck !
Greg
Edited 1/18/2008 11:13 am ET by GregGibson
You can do a topo of your own lot for the rent price of an automatic level, tripod, rod, and 100' tape, usually less than $60 for a couple of days. You'll also need a can of marking paint, and a few laths. You would need a couple of friends, and I'll walk you though it here if you're interested.
Surveying is not rocket surgery. I've even taught blondes...
I think I have been on a few sites where those "blondes" worked as well. Had to use the "Total Station " to relay out the footings. ;-)
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
LOL!
What is a lath?
A piece of 3/8"X 1-1/2" X 30" used to mark stakes or pins with. The length makes'em easier to see when painted or flagged so the HE operators can cut ALL of'em out...
Yer on a roll this morning!;o)
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
A roll just changes grade.
A cut changes line AND grade...
Is this the plastic surgery thread?;)
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Only difference is yer movin' dirt instead of fat...
Plant trees, some trees like weeping willows will drain your yard in a few hours after a heavy rain. I had a similar problem years ago. I planted five willows about thirty feet apart. They grow fast, after four years I never had standing water more than fifteen minutes.
mike
One of my customers had a problem similar to yours. His house and all the houses on his street were built on flat, marshy land. Behind the houses, there is a large wooded common. There is a drainage ditch along the street but there's so little grade from his back yard to the street that the water just sort of seeped there. The soil is clay and was often covered with slimy moss. His crawlspace was wet except during droughts.
If I were starting from scratch, I would have built the house higher and used fill to get rid of the water. But I was stuck with the elevation of the existing house, which was too low.
We built a berm along the back and sides of his back yard to direct surface water around the house. Shallow drainage ditches outside of the berms along both sides of the house collect water and direct it to the drainage ditch at the street.
This took care of the water flowing towards his back yard. We also had to deal with the water that fell in the form of rain within the area enclosed by the berm as well as any water that seeped there through the ground. To do this, we built a french drain to collect the water, directed it to a basin, and pumped it out.
About 15-ft. out from the back of his house we dug a trench the length of the house. It was about 2-ft. wide and about 2 1/2-ft. deep. We put filter fabric and a perforated drain pipe in the trench and built a basin at the low point. We ran wiring and pipes to the basin for the pump. We filled the trench with washed stone and folded the fabric over the stone. The homeowner later put concrete stepping stones over the drain system. We placed a pump rated for outdoor use in the basin and ran a line out to lower ground on the side of his house.
The idea was similar to the system of dykes used in Holland. The backyard was low and collected water. We directed the water to a basin then pumped it out.
This system has been in operation now for 15 years and it has worked very well. The pump cost $275 and is still working fine.
Alright here's my two cents.
At our last house we had a similar problem. We had the lowest yard of all the neighbors and super clay soils. I dug a test hole in the unfinished just barely below exterior grade part of the first level of my house and it filled with water when ever it rained.
With clay soils its usually not clay all the way to the surface. There is usually at least a foot deep layer of regular top soil before you hit the serious clay. When this clay gets saturated the water that is perking down thru the regular soil hits it and runs along the interface to wherever is 'low'. For us this was quite a bit of water.
What we did was dig a long trench deep enough to be below this level and sloped the bottom of it to a large sump pit. We filled the trench with clean gravel wrapped in landscape fabric. The underground stream hits this break and the water travels downward to the sloped bottom and works its way into the sump pit. This water is then pumped out to a pipe that runs along the side of my house that the roof gutters are also plugged into and is undergrounded at the corner nearest the street and it exits thru a pipe in the sidewalk.
If you can figure out which way this interface stream is flowing break the flow with a trench like I did and pump the water to the storm sewers.
Daniel Neumansky
Restoring our second Victorian home this time in Alamdea CA. Check out the blog http://www.chezneumansky.blogspot.com/
Oakland CA
Crazy Homeowner-Victorian Restorer