# 250ft. of french drains, 2 sump pumps, and 50+ hours later...



## captainmcfunk (Apr 23, 2020)

So i had some pretty severe water drainage into my yard from the surrounding lots. we're at the very bottom of a valley, so the water naturally all flows to our yard. I'll have a one-year-old in a couple weeks, so I decided to tackle the yard so she would be able to play in it eventually. a couple summers ago, I installed about 100ft of french drains that drained into a sump pit, and was pumped to the street via a Zoeller M53 pump. It worked amazingly well, so I replicated it on the other side of the house. Now for the dry out hopefully!

Before:

















During:























(utilities buried inches below the surface....)









After:


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Ooof, that looks painful! It's a shame that a lot of developers don't really take the lawn care aspect of a homeowner having to deal with erosion and runoff from other properties when there's a lot of rain. I know that I will want to schedule a visit on a rainy day to the next property that I buy that isn't visibly above the street level. I don't want to replicate what I have to deal with here. Aren't those rocks going to be problematic for mowing, or are you intending to keep it that way?


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## agrassman (May 26, 2019)

Nice. I have to put in about 150 ft worth (80 feet done) but I don't think I'll have to use a sump pump. Builders could care less about the exterior and drainage. Every house I've bought had issues to address.


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## captainmcfunk (Apr 23, 2020)

Colonel K0rn said:


> Ooof, that looks painful! It's a shame that a lot of developers don't really take the lawn care aspect of a homeowner having to deal with erosion and runoff from other properties when there's a lot of rain. I know that I will want to schedule a visit on a rainy day to the next property that I buy that isn't visibly above the street level. I don't want to replicate what I have to deal with here. Aren't those rocks going to be problematic for mowing, or are you intending to keep it that way?


Thanks! as for the rocks, I mean, probably? haha but it's better than not being able to mow at all and have a hot garbage of a yard that's a swamp i guess. the 150ft i already did, i just use the weedeater to knock down the edge of the drain, and then mow. i'll just replicate with the new drain once the grass grows through the mud.... :/


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## JDay (May 30, 2020)

Do you have any pics of your sump/pump set up? I'm working on a similar project in my bowl shaped back yard. I currently have the French drain installed between three NDS catch basins with a utility pump in the lowest basin. Next step is to tie in to my sump and install the pump.


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