Drainage problems are unsightly, exposing bare tree roots and creating water trails throughout your yard. Other signs of lawn drainage issues include standing water on soft or hard surfaces, areas where grass refuses to grow, water seeping into your basement or crawl space, and sunken areas around your home’s foundation.
Here are 3 common landscape drainage issues and how to solve them:
1. Poor Slope Around the Home
To keep your home’s foundation dry, the ground surface of your yard should drop a few inches every 10 feet to provide a positive slope away from the home. The grade around your home can be altered due to topsoil erosion from heavy rains or planting flower beds and other landscape renovations.
You can solve this improper grading problems by creating a pitch away from the house with topsoil or installing a sub-surface drainage system such as a French drain to collect rainwater and direct it away from the home.
2. Too Many Paved Surfaces
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Believe it or not, urban areas are prone to drainage problems due to new construction that doesn’t account for proper storm water drainage. If your home and community has more hardscape surfaces than landscaping, you may experience issues with improper drainage.
Divert surface water away from your home with a trench drain. These concrete-lined channels are perfect for homes with too many paved surfaces.
3. Water Run-off Erosion
The downspouts on your home can wash away soil and alter the grading. If the gutter spouts on your home are dumping water at specific locations, expect the grade of this area to be altered.
Either modify the down spouts by attaching extensions to route the water away from the home’s foundation, or as an attractive option consider a dry creek bed with colorful rocks to divert water and stop soil erosion. Catch basins can also be used to collect the water from down spouts and pipe it away from the house.
Contact the experts at Irrigation Outlet when you are faced with drainage problems around the home’s foundation or in your landscaping. We have the products and the knowledge to help homeowners keep their foundations dry and their yards properly drained.
