Question
QUESTION: I am helping a fried of mine with her lawn and we have a problem with drainage.  The landscaper placed 2 pop up drains in her front lawn and 2 in the back lawn.  We are wondering what the purpose is to place pop up drains anywhere. The two in the front only allow the excess water to come out the popup and settle around the popup on the lawn.  The water just lays there and only settles back in the ground around the popup.  It does not drain away.  Why would they put these 2 in the front lawn? We can't understand the purpose of them.  Around each of these popups is a very soft and muddy area.
 In the back lawn the popups are approximately 25 yards away fron the house and again the water just comes out the top and settles around the popup causing again the ground to be very soft and muddy even though there is grass there.   The ground has actually settled down about 4 inches below the popup.  Again, what is the purpose of these popups when in our case the only thing they are causing is making the grass and ground around them soft and muddy.  The popups in the back are placed at the furtherest part of the lawn away from the house and there is plenty of slope to the back lawn.  Again. we can't understand why they even put them in.  
 In both case they have placed a small shale area underground at the popup and then extended the drainage pipe about 3 feet past the popups.
 What would you suggest we do?  Sorry for the long explanation. Thank you for any suggestions you may have for us.

ANSWER: Hello Edward

I am of the opinion that pop-up sprinklers are really just a modern gimic and that the best type of drain is still the traditional 'French drain' system. This uses a trench, fitted with a landscape drain, which is then filled with gravel and criss crosses the lawn at intervals of about 2m or so.

The trenches should be slightly sloping towards a main soak away hole that is filled with large gravel. However, now that the job is done it's probably better to try and make the pop-ups function, instead of digging up the lawn again.

The very best of luck!

Jonathan www.ecologicagardens.com

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QUESTION: Jonathan
 Thank you so much for your advice. I really appreciate it. One more question, please.
  Since there is plenty of slope to the back lawn area do you think I could just remove the popup drain and connecter to the drain pipe and just run it underground without the popup.  There is, supposedly, a gravel area right after the popup  and a small section, about 3 feet, of pipe after the gravel area. This popup is right at the end of the lawn  and then there is about 20 feet of cleared woods and really we don't think it is needed.
I think we can just fill in a little topsoil in the front lawn and make the area more level.  Its only about a foot area around the popup. The popups in the front lawn don't really overflow that much because the drain water is just from the garage roof and a small overhang.  
Thank you again for your suggestions.
 ed

Answer
The important factor is whether the drainage pipe can be used as a permeable pipe, i.e. that it can absorb water and then carry it away. There are special pipes that do this (perforated pipes) and it's only these that will act as a drain. If they are just simple black, impermeable pipes then they will not be able to absorb and carry water away.

Hope that's been useful

Jonathan