- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
Any ideas on how to move water from low spot? (Update on pg 2)
Posted on 12/22/15 at 4:55 pm
Posted on 12/22/15 at 4:55 pm
I have a low spot in my yard that just so happens to be where my patio and one side of my walkway is. There is a French drain on one side of my yard, but it is right about the same height as the low spot. When it rains hard, the low spot gets filled with dirty water and it sits there after it dries and I track shite all in the house. I wear boots 90% of the time, so walking through the water isn't a problem, but it is for everyone else when they come over and have to walk through standing water.
Other than digging up the 100ft of French drain and setting it lower, I can't figure out what I could do to get rid of the water. If I did dig it up, I'd still have to come across 2/3 of my yard with the new drain pipe.
The drain pipe in place is a solid pipe going to the street, with drains around the yard going into it. It isn't perforated. I live in Metairie, so a catch basin isn't feasible. It'll end up just filling with ground water.
Here are pics from last night:
Other than digging up the 100ft of French drain and setting it lower, I can't figure out what I could do to get rid of the water. If I did dig it up, I'd still have to come across 2/3 of my yard with the new drain pipe.
The drain pipe in place is a solid pipe going to the street, with drains around the yard going into it. It isn't perforated. I live in Metairie, so a catch basin isn't feasible. It'll end up just filling with ground water.
Here are pics from last night:
This post was edited on 1/4/16 at 3:10 pm
6
Posted on 12/22/15 at 5:03 pm to Hammertime
if you cant gravity drain it you'll either need to raise that area or pump it out. might be eaiset to just pull the brick up, raise the fill, and them put back down and force the water into the grass
Posted on 12/22/15 at 5:07 pm to cgrand
My yard kind of has a hump in the middle. The walkway is in the left 1/3rd and the drain is on the other side's fence. Raising up the sidewalk is not feasible because I would have to raise all of the other concrete/brick parts. There's no way to just do one section without the water moving three feet away or having a lip somewhere
Posted on 12/22/15 at 5:08 pm to Hammertime
I deal with the same shite for my walk way. My yard drains towards my house and flower bed drains away from house to yard. This fills up my walkway. I solved the flower bed issue but not the yard. Don't know what to do besides regrade yard. Sorry I can't help, I just wanted to express my anger haha
Posted on 12/22/15 at 5:11 pm to Hammertime
I had a similar problem and solved it by digging out a path through beds to drain, then filling the void with pea gravel and putting the dirt back on top. Looks the same but drains now
Posted on 12/22/15 at 5:13 pm to Hammertime
Another option is to pull up the walkway and install French drain under the walkway.
Any method is going to be very labor intensive and costly.
FWIW I installed a dry well in my courtyard that essentially holds water during high rainfall event. It holds water and lets it leach into surrounding soil over time. I still get standing water but only 5-10 mins after heavy rain ends. I made my design expandable where if I wanted I could add a sump/lift pump later. I did it myself for $2000.
Any method is going to be very labor intensive and costly.
FWIW I installed a dry well in my courtyard that essentially holds water during high rainfall event. It holds water and lets it leach into surrounding soil over time. I still get standing water but only 5-10 mins after heavy rain ends. I made my design expandable where if I wanted I could add a sump/lift pump later. I did it myself for $2000.
Posted on 12/22/15 at 5:18 pm to wickowick
The flower bed next to everything goes from 8" higher at the least to about 2ft higher at the most. Wouldn't more water just drain to the low spot then?
Posted on 12/22/15 at 6:56 pm to Hammertime
I had a similar problem a few years ago. We had an existing drainage system in the back yard but the lowest spot wasn't close to a drain. If there is a drain (storm drain, etc.) you can tee off of that and cement in a 4 inch drain along the side of the walkway. It may not get it all, but it should help.
Posted on 12/22/15 at 8:05 pm to LSUMurse
I had the same issue on the front walkway at my place. I went to the lowest spot next to the walkway and dug straight down to make a dry well. Went down as far as I could, put about 6 inches of gravel in the bottom, then set a or regard drain pipe on the gravel and made it sit just lower than ground level with a drain cap. Filled in on all sides with gravel.
I still get standing water during a hard rain but it is gone much quicker now. It use to stay wet there for days after a hard rain, now it's just a few hours
I still get standing water during a hard rain but it is gone much quicker now. It use to stay wet there for days after a hard rain, now it's just a few hours
Posted on 12/23/15 at 6:10 am to Chris4x4gill2
^ This.
What kind of soil do you have there? Is it a lot of river silt or mainly clay? My yard has @5' of silt before I hit clay. The back of my property has clay around 6" down. So it just depends. If you have silt, get a shovel and dig down 3-4' at the lowest part. Dig a trench as many feet long as you can/want. Run a drain pipe straight down at the lowest part of the wet spot. 90 off of it and lay perforated pipe in the trench. Cover with a couple feet or pea gravel and cover back up with dirt. Make a filter bed of sorts. As said, a hard rain will still probably cause some problems, but water will get out much quicker.
What kind of soil do you have there? Is it a lot of river silt or mainly clay? My yard has @5' of silt before I hit clay. The back of my property has clay around 6" down. So it just depends. If you have silt, get a shovel and dig down 3-4' at the lowest part. Dig a trench as many feet long as you can/want. Run a drain pipe straight down at the lowest part of the wet spot. 90 off of it and lay perforated pipe in the trench. Cover with a couple feet or pea gravel and cover back up with dirt. Make a filter bed of sorts. As said, a hard rain will still probably cause some problems, but water will get out much quicker.
Posted on 12/23/15 at 9:08 am to Fratigerguy
I got out there last night at 3 and cut somewhat of a trench that drained the patio slowly. Sidewalk was just too low for that portion of the water to follow. I guess I'm just gonna have to dig a big hole for that part
Posted on 12/23/15 at 9:13 am to Hammertime
Easy fix. Use paving stones to overlay the brick. Doesn't necessarily fix the problem, but it keeps your feet dry.
Posted on 12/23/15 at 9:22 am to Voorhies7
You appear to have room to add a layer of thin 12" pavers on top of brick and grout w sand. That's ur quickest fix.
Posted on 12/23/15 at 9:34 am to rilesrick
He could also remove every 12th to 15th row & replace with pea gravel. Then over lay with pavers.
Posted on 12/23/15 at 9:53 am to Voorhies7
Not moving the bricks. Too hard to get in and out, and I just redid them all. The ground is super saturated right now, so I doubt it would drain through pea gravel. Still have standing water in some parts of the actual yard
Posted on 12/23/15 at 10:35 am to Hammertime
my old boss's house did this, but without the French drain. he made us dig a hole at the low spot, drop a pump and wire it with an automatic float. it was a PITA.
Posted on 12/23/15 at 12:18 pm to Hammertime
Connect said low spot with a fluid conveying device to a lower spot
Posted on 12/23/15 at 12:28 pm to cgrand
quote:
if you cant gravity drain it you'll either need to raise that area or pump it out. might be eaiset to just pull the brick up, raise the fill, and them put back down and force the water into the grass
All of this. +1
Posted on 12/23/15 at 1:20 pm to Ace Midnight
Started digging holes and discovered that the root system for the entire block somehow converges in my front yard. Abandoned 3 holes already 
Posted on 12/23/15 at 1:56 pm to Hammertime
quote:
Started digging holes and discovered that the root system for the entire block somehow converges in my front yard. Abandoned 3 holes already
Can you eyeball where the water is coming in and maybe redirect part of the flow? Not perfect but better than redoing the entire lawn around this root system.
If it is just a time thing, I would say put in a large sump for most situations and manually pump it out if you get bad, but you're still having to work around these obstructions.
Honestly, it sounds like you may have to consult a professional landscape architect - and that's going to be expensive. But it may be better in the long run than chasing your tail for months.
Page 1 of 2
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News