Question
My wife and I purchased our first home in September of 2007, and were excited that our property was nice and flat! This meant great possibilities for patios and gardens...however, when the January thaw came a few weeks ago, we discovered the downside to a flat piece of land...drainage.

The water seems to be in large pools in our yard and goes nowhere. There is what looks to have been a trench at one point along the fence on one side, it seems to lead to the ditch at the front of the property. The trouble is getting the rest of the water to that trench. What is the easiest (and least expensive) way of doing this?

Answer
Best thing to do, if you don't have lots of trees is to install a system of "french drains" that lead to the ditch.
Bury 4" pipes about 12" deep and run them perpendicular to the slope about every 3' to 4'. The pipe should be perforated and covered with small gravel.The gravel should be surrounded with filter fabric and then buried.

However before going too far make sure the drainage issue is not just temporary result of recent weather. Lots of times yards are soft after thaw and then dry out quickly. It really depends on your soils and uptake of water from the landscape.

Try searching "french drains" on the Internet to learn more about the system.

The only other options are to re-grade the lot (which also means re-landscape) or to amend your solid with sand and small gravels to a depth of 18"....but that can make things worse if the soil below will not percolate.

Yards should never be totally flat, 3 to 5% is best for adequate drainage while still being relatively flat.

Good Luck


Sean J Murphy, LA,ISA, LEED AP
Please check out my blogs and articles on landscape topics like this on my websites.
http://www.seanjmurphy.com
http://amenityarchitects.com