Backyard is a swamp-dry well?

[IHDiesel73L]

I have a 75' x 150' lot which slopes down from front to rear (away from the house) and also to the left (if you're standing in the yard with your back to the house)-with all of this wet weather (I'm in NJ) I've had standing water back there basically all summer. I also get water from the neighbor's yard as well due to the overall slope of the land. Since I can't really drain the water to anywhere my brother-in-law suggested a dry well. He's a civil engineer and knows a little about stormwater management, etc...but he can't be sure it will work without knowing more about the soil type and the amount of water I typically get. I did a little reading and I get the basic concept of using a hole filled with stone that punches through the clay (we have a lot of clay here) into the sand underneath which will allow the water to slowly percolate. My BIL said that he would guess I'd be looking at excavating enough soil to put about two yards of stone in the ground (a hole 6' long x 3' wide by 3' deep-possibly deeper) and then topping it with about 18" of stone to level the area. Anybody ever take on a project like this? At this point it will have to wait until next summer, but it's always good to plan...

 

[KennyG]

This could work, but I think it' s a long shot. You would have to have a very well drained layer under the clay and accessible and that seems unlikely in most areas I have seen. Maybe this is a common strata in your area, but I would look for some successful examples near you.

What you really need is a drain tile system but you need some access to a drainage ditch to make that work.

 

[bcp]

How about raising your yard with fill dirt?

Or dig it out for a pond.



Bruce

 

[rd_macgregor]

bcp beat me to it...my thought was that the dry-well plan might raise your yard enough to send the water back over to the neighbour's place, anyway!
But, a pond is an interesting thought, too.
BOB

 

[BeezFun]

Anybody ever take on a project like this? At this point it will have to wait until next summer, but it's always good to plan...

I put in a dry well for my sump pump. It's gravel in a ~3' circular hole about 4' deep, comes up to about a foot below yard grade then covered with soil. I have an overflow/air tube in it so if there's too much flow it just goes up to the surface of the yard and discharges. It works great but our soil is very sandy and gravely. I probably could have just buried the discharge from the sump pump and it would have worked fine. I think you'd need to take a few soil borings to know for sure what to do.

Are you in any kind of a municipality? Generally they take responsibility for managing runoff and drainage, and would talk to your neighbor about discharging runoff onto your property. If you're not in a municipality, the county still has some oversight for this kind of thing. I'd talk with them about the problem, but don't tell them anything you're planning to do. The other thing to make sure of is what's in the runoff. If the guy nextdoor has a stable and there's manure in the runoff, you don't want to make a short circuit for it to get down in the water table.