I have a relatively flat yard. If it is sloped or has a depression, it is so slight that it is unnoticeable. In a couple of spots, it drains water very poorly. You can walk on the grass days after a rain and feel/hear the water squishing underfoot. The yard gets full sun and still takes a long time to dry out. I believe the soil is sandy as opposed to clay. I don’t think there are any underground water leaks or anything like that. I think my problem is simply compacted soil.
I don’t want to dig up the whole yard. One of the spots is about 20x20 feet. Here is what I am thinking about doing…
I’m thinking of drilling holes with an auger- about 4 inches in diameter by 3 feet deep. This is definitely enough to get into well draining sand. Then I will put some perforated 4 inch PVC pipe into the hole, backfill the pipe with some gravel and top off with a few inches of dirt. I can drill as many of these holes-say one every 4 feet apart- in a grid as necessary. The theory is that the water will have somewhere to pass into the sand. The PVC is there to hold the gravel in place. The gravel’s purpose is to act as a funnel.
Does anyone have any thought as to why this might not work? It’s such a simple idea that surely somebody has thought of it before. Thanks for your help!
It might work, depending on what the drainage problem actually is. French drains are a more common way of dealing with this sort of situation. Check with your local extension office. They likely have tips for dealing with the soil in your area.
Nothing to do with your problem. In fact it’s more like a hijack. So PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!!!
I live in Carson City, NV. We’ve had something like 6" of rain in the LAST TwO FREAKIN’ YEARS. The problem isn’t drainage as just keeping your yards green. During summer it’s 95 degrees with 10% humidity and high winds. Just keeping your yard alive is a quest worthy of a tribe of extra-strength Hobbits!
But your plan, assuming good drainage soil does lie 3 feet down, will work fine. I guess. Assuming that it doesn’t provide too good of drainage thus killing the areas around the drain holes.
A more engineered version of your idea is also known as a curtain drain. Ours works real well. There may very well be building and land use codes in your area that provide specs for that kind of activity, so check with your county department of building and land use.
First off, thanks for the replies. I know that water drainage is not a sexy topic.
I inferred, but didn’t make myself clear. I know what a french drain is. I never heard of a curtain drain, but it seems similar to a french drain. The problem is that my yard is flat. There is no slope to install these drains. I can’t even slope a drain out to the curb (sidewalks and such). I have to figure out a way to either prevent the water from entering the area, or to drain it straight down. I think that I could install a drywell, but that seems to be an even bigger project than my new…zyde-drains (patent pending). I’m still open to ideas or an explanation of why my idea won’t work.
Add one more material to your plan: landscape fabric. It’s a (usually) black, semi-glossy, very porous cloth, often made of plastic. It will slightly impede drainage, but if you use it to cover the top and sides of your drain-pipes with it (you can use plastic zip-ties) it will keep silt from building up in the pipe over the long run. This means your kids won’t have to install another set of them years from now.
My dad used perforated PVC pipe with this stuff wrapped around it to drain our yard and a neighbor’s crawlspace and side yard. The side yard had a sidewalk built along the downhill edge about ten years ago, and had been spongy ever since. This summer, the crawlspace filled to overflowing and became a mosquito nuisance. When dad opened up the drain (he had plugged the end in the crawlspace until he had somewhere for the water to go) it took just about two days for the crawlspace and side yard to get rid of ten-plus years of saturation. Now, when it rains, the yard is soggy for maybe an hour or two afterward, even in heavy rain.
One last helpful hint: attach something metal to the top of each pipe before you fill over it with topsoil. That way, if you do ever need to make repairs, you can go out in the yard with a metal detector and find the places you put them, instead of having to play “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” with your kids all weekend.