Any suggestions on what I can do back here short of a new retaining wall. Everything comes down the hill and mud covers the drains. Ive had a few companies come look at it and their plans are so wildly different and expensive. There’s also a French drain along back but nothing is stopping the erosion and mud pouring down. Will leveling the yard do anything?
by Good-Glove3619
31 Comments
Cut an under drain into the flower bed where it ramps off Chase it to the low side out back plant succulents that like to flood and drain
Quick cheap solution cut a small ditch fix the French drain, and make sure the ground level is well below the entire wall. Had to do this on the side of a sidewalk at one of my houses.
Edit: also, re-seed that upper bank whenever you can to try to get some of thr muddy parts filled in, it’ll help to a degree with the erosion.
Worst case scenario, you level2 sections and tier it down with retaining walls.
French drain all the way across the back. Probably 12×18. Fill with gravel around a corrugated pipe. Put down 4” then pipe cover with gravel to the top. Run it as far as you need to get it away from the wall.
What is your soil like?
In general, you need some “weep holes” in your wall to allow drainage within the wall itself. In theory you’d put in some gravel/rock to encourage drainage towards those holes.
You could put in a bunch of plants, who will soak up the water (unlike grass) and trees/shrubs. Be sure to get plants that can handle the soil there, eg clay or dry sand, whatever the conditions are.
But you could also set up some waterfall area to direct the water and let it percolate into the soil. Again, depends on the soil condition.
It looks like you have a lot of slope up from you, directing the water. You might have a civil engineer or landscape architect look at rain projections and tell you where you can most easily direct water. Or even contact your city for what they recommend in your area. It’s easier to manage a slope runoff with a plan for where the water can go. A little rainwater pond at a corner would be cute, if you can do it.
Turn off the fan.
Get a kayak
Swale to divert as much as you can, safely, probably several feet up hill from your patio, then a French drain on the other side between swale and patio to get anything that can’t be diverted effectively.
Start with a trench behind the wall full length and see how that works. Then consider throwing in rock and corrugated piping if it works out
In addition to what others mentioned, if the hill isn’t used for anything, you could plant stuff to help with the runoff. Honestly, I don’t think French drain is going to do enough. I think you’re going to need to build a trench to break up the flow of water and catch some of it before it gets over the wall.
When they said, the world needs ditch diggers. This is what they were talking about.
First off, never buy a house at the bottom of a hill, second, drainage trench time …,
1st thing. Turn the fan off
You need a swale/trench to divert this water. A French drain will be quickly overwhelmed by this volume of water.
Most of these questions can be answered by a well-engineered french drain
French drain and catch basins. Cut a swale along the back fence, and install a few catch basins along the swale. Dig out the back of the wall and install a french drain, I would make it 18 inches wide in this scenario. Cap the french drain with sandy topsoil and install catch basins along the wall also. Don’t combine the french drain and catch basin pipes until the downstream end of the drainage tile, discharge from the catch basins can flood the french drain. Design the system before doing anything since you are dealing with so much water. You can use google maps and topo maps to measure out the area of the land uphill draining onto your property. NDS has DIY friendly resources you can use to help design your system.
Civil engineer.
Either a Rock filled Ditch on the other side of the wall or a French Drain Type Situation or both
Sell during the dry season
Moat
free water feature neat
Sell your home
Do you know how long this has been an issue? Has something changed recently that could be causing this (maybe new construction nearby?
Cheapest option would be to dig a v shaped trench in the grass behind the wall. You want the overflow to be lower than the lowest part of the wall. Divert the water to somewhere more convenient. Perhaps a wildlife pond on the far side?
Sandbags! 😆 I’d start with trying to re route the water by making tiny trenches. You need the ground to be lower than the wall so it won’t go over it. But it doesn’t have to be much lower. Trenches aren’t a permanent solution, but it will allow you to get the water away from your foundation
I see a lot of space for planting native plants to establish multiple rain gardens.
First of all I can see how beautiful that area can be. However it’s clearly the lowest area. I’d need to see more of the area, but the goal is to catch that water at the low point in the patio and move it.
Do this by drains if there are any ways to run it out with gravity. But if it’s truly a low point and nowhere to go I’d say enjoy your pool!
I’m kidding, but maybe get a patio pump or something.
I see the layout of what’s shown and all I want to think is what was the planner smoking when he cooked this up? It looks like they built a fishbowl and put all the important stuff in the middle of it. So much of this could have been avoided if they simply didn’t turn the patio/structure into a giant catch basin
This is one of the few posts in this sub where a French drain is an appropriate response. Dig out a 1” wide by 8” deep trench behind the wall, add gravel, then a 4” top corrugated conduit, then back fill with gravel just below the level of the top of the wall. You may have to trench the drain out a bit farther than the wall depending on what’s beyond the end of it.
Build a grass swale behind the curb. Funnel the water to a drain or street.
The fan should blow it all out of there. Nice work!
Why is no one saying, raise the wall?