That describes a French drain. Groundwater will seep into the gravel and then into the perforated pipe. The outlet should actually daylight, but it may work at your Aunt’s by entering a storm drain (under the sidewalk) or by ending in an underground area of permeable soil. In places like Florida, the underlying soils are very permeable (lots of sand) and so stormwater will dissipate quickly underground. In our area, underlying soils are heavy clays which are impermeable. I don’t know what type soil Sacramento has.
I wondered about this myself. Could the slope of the gutter be reversed, and the downspout relocated out by the driveway? You may have to consult with the gutter guy about that.
On your drawing, the fence and concrete portion which separate the front and back lawns - I’m guessing another property adjoins them on the left-hand side. Is there room to dig a small trench along this property line, headed up the page? Or does that concrete extend all the way to the property line?
Yes, there is another property to the left of the lawn in that drawing. I will have to see if the concrete extends all the way out to the property line. My only concern here is that by the time the drain goes all the way out to the left, then turns up the page and out to the street, that trench is going to have to be pretty darn deep.
I thought of another temporary (and ugly) solution.
Cut the downspout off a foot or two above its current terminus. Attach your flexible piece again, and twist around the corner. Now attach a PVC pipe the length of the garage wall, terminating out on the driveway. This new pipe would be at an angle across the garage wall.
Ugly but perhaps would work until you can talk to the gutter guy?
I wouldn’t dismiss the rain barrel idea so quickly. In the case of a long-lasting downpour, just attach a hose to the rain barrel and run it out to the street.
A rain barrel would also help conserve water when the rainy season is over.
It looks to me like there are several different pours in your concrete work, and that the narrow sidewalk is a recent addition. You might want to consider removing that sidewalk altogether, and replacing it with paving stones or some other material that will allow that now-isolated dirt strip to drain.
Good thought. I’ll weigh the options. From a strictly selfish view, though, we don’t have metered water in Sacramento and I’ve never heard of any water shortages here.
Global climate change, buddy. Better to be prepared.
In any case, having the rain barrel as a buffer against both monsoon and drought seems like a wise use of simple technology. At well under $100, you probably won’t find a much cheaper solution to your problem.
I’ve solved a similar problem by digging a hole straight down as far down as I could manage with a shovel and filling it with fist-sized rocks. Top it off with smaller rocks + sod if you want to. This will only work if you can get through to permeable soil, but it’s free.
