Question
FOLLOW UP QUESTION:

Jim,

Thanks for responding to my question. I don't think that it's coming from water off of the roof. The yard behind me and to the left slope into mine, which is where I think the water is coming from. I did some research on French Drains and had a few questions for you about them. Do the channels only work well for a certain distance? I'd need to run it about seventy-five feet with a slight turn in it. Do you think that's a problem? Can I have a couple of French drains flow into one that runs the water out to the street?

I just want to make sure I have this right ?to effectively build a French Drain, I dig the channels and then line them with perforated pipe with the holes facing the ground. I then put a few inches of gravel on top of the pipe and then cover with dirt and grass seed?   

Thanks again for your help.

Steve





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Followup To
Question -
James,

I recently bought a house in Southern Maine. The listing agent disclosed that there was a drainage easement on the property, but we (my realtor and my inspector) weren't able to find where the rain water was draining or any signs of it.

Over the past few days we've had approx. 3 inches of rain. As a result there are now two pools of water about three inches deep and about three feet wide in two separate sections of the backyard. Do you have any recommendations of how I can eliminate this water build up? Is there a way to dig a channel of some sort to route the water to another part of the yard?

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve  
Answer -
Steve,
Is there any elevation going downhill where you can dig a channel fill it with rock and get the water to drain. (preferably to pavement). Or does it appear that the areas are just low spots in the yard and filling them in to grade would solve the problem. You can look up something called a French drain on the internet and it will show you how to make one. They usually involve putting some kind of drain tile pipe under rock, but you still need somewhere to take the water to. Without being able to see the yard I am just guessing. Also where do you think the water is mainly coming from. Is it runoff from a neighboring property or is just coming off your roof from your downspouts and collecting. If it's off your roof you could consider running drain tile from the downspouts that are causing the problem. If your not sure you could buy some drain tile (4" corrugated is cheap) run it ground and see if it solves the problem. If it does than dig it in the ground. If it doesn't then your only out a few dollars and can use the drain tile for a French drain. Sorry I can't give a precise answer, but let me know.

         Thanks
         Jim

Answer
Steve,
  The drain will drain no matter what distance you run it. Gravity will do the job. There are, now that I think of it at least two kinds of the perforated pipe. The kind I was thinking of is the black corragated drain tile. I believe it comes in 3", 4" and 6" and probably bigger. Use the 4", it's kind of the standard size. The other kind of perforated pipe is a PVC pipe with about 1/2 holes in it. The PVC is harder to work with, more expensive per foot and needs to be glued. The one advantage of the PVC is that it is more crush-proof, but unless you plan one driving trucks and cars in your yard you shouldn't need to use that.

So, lets assume that your going to use the 4" drain tile. It will be perforated all the way around it. So the problem is the clogging of the holes with silty soil or sand or whatever. I have seen it sold with a sock around it that is similar to a landscape fabric or weed barrier that landscapers use in beds to block weeds and let water through. Some people in other parts of the country have told me that they could not find it with the sock already  wrapped around it. If you cannot find it like that (and it is likely that if you go to Home Depot or Lowes hardware store you will not), then buy some of the weed barrier fabric and lay it on top of the drain tile as you run it. I really don't think it's that important to totally wrap it. Because you dont care if the holes on the bottom of the pipe clog up, your're trying to get surface water into the pipe, so you just want the top holes.
Next, it is kind of important that this stuff runs downhill. I think that minimum pitch is something like 1/4" per 10' of pipe. It can be more. An easy way to do this that I have found is to just eyeball and go  ahead and dig you trench so that it looks like you sloping down hill. Then get a hose and run water in the trench. Any where the water stops or backs up you just clean that spot out until you get a flow. This will eliminate the brain work and will eliminate any chance of miscalculating.
Other than that just remember the top end of the pipe will get a cap and also remember that what I told you about running it to pavement might not beallowable in your locality. Some local codes will not allow you to run dump the water out onto a sidewalk or street because of the chance of the water freezing  in the winter and turning to ice and somebody falling. You can just stop it a couple fet short of the curb if needed and at the end just dig a deep hole and fill that with rock as a sump to catch most of the run off. The size of that hole depends on how much run off you think you might have. You don't need to get crazy, but at least big enough to fit a 5 gallon bucket in, but no bigger than a big Sears trash can should be sufficient.
I think thats all I got right now, as far as the rock goes just get the cheapest rock, probably chat would be the least expensive. Chat is the rock they put under drives and streets and that is why they put it under there so that the water will drain and not heave the concrete. You said you were going to cover it with grass, so it does not need to be decorative. Sometimes people will just leave the rock exposed and use the decorative rock. Also leave yourself at leat an extra inch of depth for some soil to grow grass on. So you need a 5" deep trench.

         Let me know if you need anything else.
         Thanks
         Jim