# Grading yard for drainage



## h22lude (Jul 24, 2018)

Right sub for this?

My yard has a slight drainage problem. For the most part, it was built to drain water away from the foundation but it does have some problem areas. I made a terrible drawing of the problems. The blue arrows are how the rain water flows. The bottom of the picture is a rock ledge. The yard slopes towards the house there. Almost like the house is in a half bowl. The area around the house does slope away from the foundation (except that blue area to the left behind the garage, which I will get to shortly). For the most part, the water then runs around the left side of the house and down the driveway. That part is good. However, water does collect behind the deck/patio, where I put the blue area. What's the best way to avoid pooling there and to make sure all the water runs to the left side of the house?

Regarding the pooling area behind the garage. That section doesn't have a basement under it so luckily I don't have to worry about water getting in but I'd like it to get away from the house. What's the best way to do that and avoid pooling somewhere else?

1st pic and 2nd pic are the pooling area near the deck/patio (which is now just a patio)
3rd pic is the garage area
4th pic is the terrible paint drawing
Don't mind the dirt. Patio was just installed. Grass is starting to sprout.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

I'll offer my $0.02 since I've had a few problems with drainage in my yard, and these might be some viable solutions for your situation. If you can control the water that's coming off of your roof, and direct it into a flow away from the low spot in your yard, you'll have a better result. many people overlook the rainwater that comes off of their roof, and just assume the low spots in their yard are collecting water from what falls onto it.

In your situation, I see that you're starting to get some wood rot at the base of your garage door frame. If you were to add some gutters just to the back side of your house, and divert the roof drain to the sides, you'd be surprised at how much this will reduce the total amount of water that will collect in the yard. If left unchecked, you're going to be looking at replacing that door sooner than you would need to, just due to the fact that water from the roof is splashing onto the ground and will rot out your threshold. This happened on my back door, and after $2,800 later for a replacement door and $40 in gutters, I'm good in that area.

You should consider installing some gutters on the back side of your house. It's not difficult to do if you're handy, but if you're not, you could get seamless gutters installed, and afterwards, I would route them into either a french drain, or a dry well. 4
Depending on the permeability of your soil, you should look into installing a dry well, which can be a DIY job. I found some very useful informative videos on NDS's website, https://www.ndspro.com/home-drainage.


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## h22lude (Jul 24, 2018)

Colonel K0rn said:


> I'll offer my $0.02 since I've had a few problems with drainage in my yard, and these might be some viable solutions for your situation. If you can control the water that's coming off of your roof, and direct it into a flow away from the low spot in your yard, you'll have a better result. many people overlook the rainwater that comes off of their roof, and just assume the low spots in their yard are collecting water from what falls onto it.
> 
> In your situation, I see that you're starting to get some wood rot at the base of your garage door frame. If you were to add some gutters just to the back side of your house, and divert the roof drain to the sides, you'd be surprised at how much this will reduce the total amount of water that will collect in the yard. If left unchecked, you're going to be looking at replacing that door sooner than you would need to, just due to the fact that water from the roof is splashing onto the ground and will rot out your threshold. This happened on my back door, and after $2,800 later for a replacement door and $40 in gutters, I'm good in that area.
> 
> ...


I do have gutters on my entire house. They drain underground and away from the house. When I moved in a few months ago, they were completely full of leaves. I had them cleaned and they work perfectly. It has stopped raining but next time I will make sure the back gutters are ok.

I did notice the door too. My guess is from years of neglect from the previous owners. House is only 6 years old. They didn't do anything when they owned it. If they didn't move, the house would have had major issues in another 7 to 10 years.


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

I fought a similar situation in my first house (built for a previous owner and builder graded the lot after construction in order to satisfy county permit inspector but, within years everything settled and I had enormous amounts of water "pooling up" between the slope uphill from my house and the opposite grading done away from the foundation. Eventually, the sheer force of that hydrostatic pressure finds its way under the foundation pad, be it the living space or garage. No bueno.)

I stabbed at it myself with pick, shovel and wheel barrel for years and in hindsight was really wasting my time (and back). One day, I noticed a couple guys on a recently finished new construction across the street with a Bobcat who'd been left behind by the main construction crew, to do some filling in of holes, etc. A friendly conversation and 12-pack of beer later (it was late afternoon and I ran, not walked, to the nearest convenience store!) and I had a swale cut through just the right spot of the "bowl" created by the original builder. Granted, it looked terrible for several weeks but, after some grass seed and starter fertilizer "Voila!", I finally had a "release" for all that water dammed up between the opposite angles of: a) the bowl behind the house and b) my foundation grading.

Since then (and two houses later), *I just go right to "move some serious earth" to solve problems which, on another occasion meant a lot of dirt cuz, well, water only goes downhill. I don't feel comfortable renting a Bobcat so, in all the neighborhoods we've lived in, I have had success approaching some of the landscapers who work for neighbors.*

(Side note: house we're in now had the worst water problems of any home we've owned and adding more downspouts solved those - turns out architects don't like to put downspouts in their "renderings" of homes and, in our case, if the architect didn't include lots of downspouts in their drawings then the builder didn't include them in their plans. LOL, we won't forget that lesson anytime soon!  )

Best o' Success!


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## h22lude (Jul 24, 2018)

440mag said:


> I fought a similar situation in my first house (built for a previous owner and builder graded the lot after construction in order to satisfy county permit inspector but, within years everything settled and I had enormous amounts of water "pooling up" between the slope uphill from my house and the opposite grading done away from the foundation. Eventually, the sheer force of that hydrostatic pressure finds its way under the foundation pad, be it the living space or garage. No bueno.)
> 
> I stabbed at it myself with pick, shovel and wheel barrel for years and in hindsight was really wasting my time (and back). One day, I noticed a couple guys on a recently finished new construction across the street with a Bobcat who'd been left behind by the main construction crew, to do some filling in of holes, etc. A friendly conversation and 12-pack of beer later (it was late afternoon and I ran, not walked, to the nearest convenience store!) and I had a swale cut through just the right spot of the "bowl" created by the original builder. Granted, it looked terrible for several weeks but, after some grass seed and starter fertilizer "Voila!", I finally had a "release" for all that water dammed up between the opposite angles of: a) the bowl behind the house and b) my foundation grading.
> 
> ...


I think I will be in the same boat. Move some serious earth. The landscaper that did the patio said he can add loam to make the "bowl" less concaved so water won't pool. I don't just want to add more loam. That will raise the entire yard up. I want to keep it at this level but make it flatter and sloped properly. Seems like I will need to remove dirt and then add it back at the right areas to give it the proper slope without changing the actual elevation. The patio elevation cant be changed. I'd like the rest of the yard to be around the same height.

I think the biggest problem spot is the garage back door (left ponding spot in my picture). The bottom of the door is level with the ground so I can't just build up the soil so it slopes away. I could build up the right corner of the garage and have it slightly sloped to the left so the water runs along the back of the garage and then (hopefully) turns the corner and runs down the left side where my long arrow is.


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## adgattoni (Oct 3, 2017)

I'd dig drainage lines next to and on top of that awesome rock berm. Perhaps several wide channel drains dropping into PVC going around the back of that shed and towards the woods and/or street?


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## h22lude (Jul 24, 2018)

adgattoni said:


> I'd dig drainage lines next to and on top of that awesome rock berm. Perhaps several wide channel drains dropping into PVC going around the back of that shed and towards the woods and/or street?


That's a good idea. That should help take some of the water away from the middle and cause less pooling.

I think the easiest way to do this is take soil from the left of the driveway and put throughout the middle near the patio to level it out a little but still keep it sloped around the house.


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## adgattoni (Oct 3, 2017)

You could also try something like Penterra to help at least a little of it drain through the soil. Check out some of the pics people have posted in the Soil Surfactants/Wetting Agents thread.

@Colonel K0rn has had success pouring ungodly amounts of Air-8 over his lawn as well.


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## synergy0852 (Jun 30, 2018)

I also have drainage issues similar to the OP and I am choosing to take a nuclear approach next year and will be killing everything and renting a Toro Dingo w/ a Harley rake to move dirt from my high sections into the lower areas and creating a nice seed bed at the same time.

I've tried adding dirt here and there for two years and I just end up creating a different area for the water to pool and as 440mag said sometimes you just gotta move some serious earth.


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## h22lude (Jul 24, 2018)

adgattoni said:


> You could also try something like Penterra to help at least a little of it drain through the soil. Check out some of the pics people have posted in the Soil Surfactants/Wetting Agents thread.
> 
> @Colonel K0rn has had success pouring ungodly amounts of Air-8 over his lawn as well.


Penterra looks interesting. That might help with the pooling behind my garage. Luckily the water doesn't sit for too long. It drains into the ground pretty quickly. I just don't want it to pool at all.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I'm with adgattoni. You need to create a way for all the water rolling down the hill to not end up in your house. Pentera and others are not a real fix.


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