This is currently my backyard and it has a bunch of standing water when it rains. It hasn’t seen heavy rain, but this is after about a day and a half of straight rain and counting. I’m thinking that I need to add soil to level it? Could I just lay some sod? This is a new construction neighborhood, so all new sod was laid when houses were done being built, but I felt like my backyard was an afterthought.
Currently, a lot of water also runs on to the patio. I’m planning on getting the patio screened in as well. Would I need a retaining wall to stop the water from flowing onto the patio or is it not a big deal?
Unfortunately I can’t get my builder to fix because landscaping is not covered under the warranty, so this will be something that I will be doing on my own, and this didn’t read it’s head until it rained a decent amount. NC, zone 8a
by Fiveminutes26
19 Comments
Bring in some dirt and slope it away from the house and maybe to the side or wherever the water flows out to. Not much dirt just enough to fl the low spots.
Where is your backyard supposed to drain to?
adding soil to that are will not solve the issue on its own.
you need to move the water.
without aerial view hard to really recommend best option, but something like:
1. probably move that downspout if possible
2. regrade part of your lawn
3. french drain to capture and dump water to the curb
How new? If it hasn’t rained since you bought it have them come tf back!
If they won’t, add some dirt and sand in the low spots. Seed if the dirt is too heavy but if not the grass should grow through the sand. It’s not horrible but def should be fixed.
Or you can dump a bunch of dirt, level, sod but that could get pricey but that would be the correct way.
* Does the yard at least slope away from the house and patio (this is **critical**)?
* Is that downspout the only source of runoff from the house? Do other downspouts discharge to the backyard?
* Do you have neighbors on both sides?
* Are your neighbors’ yards similar with standing water?
It kinda looks like the yard has a swale running parallel to your back fence. I’m not a drainage expert, but I think you’d maybe want to pipe that visible downspout into some kind of drainage – whether it’s a drywell or a popup drain in the swale itself or something else (like a rain garden).
Adding more soil to level it out is the opposite of what you want to do. You have to give water somewhere to go AWAY from the structure. A retaining wall isn’t going to keep water off the patio unless it incorporates a drain which also then has to go … somewhere.
Where we are, I think managing storm runoff like that is the responsibility of the builder as part of the development’s master plan. I’m not sure I’d call that “landscaping”. That’s stormwater management and might be worth following up with code enforcement.
Get a Labrador to roll in it.
Relevel yard. Your fence is higher that the house foundation. Either relevel back yard to build a dry riverbed in middle of the yard to help pool water to center and away from home.
Part of addressing this is how long does the water stay around for after the rain stops? If it infiltrates in several hours or less then it’s really nothing you’ll want to spend money on to resolve.
If it sticks around for a day or more, the ground remains saturated, and happens regularly with rainfall, then I’d take action. Start with extending the downspouts.
it definitely looks like you have a natural depression in the back yard, so bringing in some topsoil to fill in the depression should help to minimize the puddling. you might also want to consider putting in some perforated pipe and directing the water away from the house before you bring in the extra soil.
French drain is always a Reddit answer.
Drill holes
Swales work!
Good question.
Ive seen it that bad in Oak Grove KY when…But that doesn’t help.
Try a couple of “dry” wells. Basically you dig holes as wide as a 5 gallon bucket and a foot deeper at least.
It took me a couple hours with a pickax in rocky Tennessee soil. A post hole digger will do it in decent soil, a powered one is worth its weight in gold to rent.
Put one at each corner, under drain spouts, even in the middle of the yard if need be, say 4 around the middle of yours.
Drill a bunch of 1/4″ homes in the bottom of the buckets, set one in each hole over 6″of gravel, fill the buckets/hojes with gravel to the surface or 6″ below in traffic areas so soil will grow.
Best I can think of …and good luck!!!
Stock with fish
Put up a “No Standing” sign?
Offer it a chair to sit on…
Grade yard down a bit to center off of downspout. Install a catch basin and run a line to the sewer. Your house is what it is so the only other option would be massive regrade and sod.
French drain ran to the city drainage
You honestly have a HUGE leveling issue with your yard it should be a gentle slap to the back.. however you have options a lot of them, install a French drain, bring in more soil and dig up the current high spots in your lawn then relevel. Now if you plan on putting in a fazeebo, shed garden etc plan out where you want everything and work from there