In the photo you can see where the green corrugated run off pipe is sloping down towards the chainlink fence where my property line is. Recently my neighbors commented how they get a lot of water running into their property when it rains. There’s a pretty good slope, about 2’ drop over 4’. I can’t run a French drain because the land slopes up in both directions along the fence.
Is my best solution here a dry well? I was thinking of digging a 2’x2’ hole and filling it with stones.
by Rockabillyjonny
5 Comments
A 2×2 hole filled with stone is a bathtub that holds almost zero water. The stones take up most of the volume so your makeshift dry well will overflow into your neighbors yard about five minutes into a real storm. You also have a massive spruce tree sitting right on that fence line. Trying to dig a proper pit in that spot means you will be hacking through thick structural roots and destabilizing a heavy tree right next to your foundation.
You need to move that water out of this pinch point entirely instead of trying to trap it there. Ditch that short green accordion pipe and connect a solid smooth interior pipe to the downspout. Trench it shallow and run it parallel to your house straight out to the front yard or the backyard wherever you have open space. Once you get the water away from the property line you can let it discharge into a real plastic dry well basin that actually has empty volume to hold runoff.
It looks like you live on a hill. Are you higher on the hill then them or is it an illusion?
It won’t hurt to try. Ultimately it is their problem though, the water is going to flow downhill either way.
It’s really not your issue.
That’s the natural slope of the land and you’re looking to spend thousands of dollars to resolve an issue that isn’t yours to deal with.
The neighbors need to explore grading and drainage options, your limited space does not really afford you much to do. A 2×2 dry well will accomplish effectively nothing.
A dry well isn’t going to help much. There’s not a lot of volume with it. Burying a 4 inch pipe to daylight somewhere is is a better idea.