Drying up the front yard

[AndyM]

For those of you just tuning in, here is a picture of my front yard taken about a week ago. The ground slopes downhill from the house towards the willow tree and then back uphill again towards the road. The road is approximately at the same level as the house, or possibly a little higher.

 

[AndyM]

After doing a little digging and a little bit of pumping, I managed to get everything drained out and I've laid some drain pipe at the lowest points.

 

[AndyM]

Notice the line on the tree where the water level was a few days ago.

 

[AndyM]

Because the land runs uphill towards the road, I chose to discharge my spouting and my basement sump pump into the low spot in the front yard. After the heavy rains last week, everything backed into the basement since it had nowhere else to go.

Now, everything runs into the low spot from the house spouting and sump pump. It then runs to the sump crock at the next arrow. It then gets pumped uphill to the ditch along the road.

I've got gravel coming tomorrow to cover the pipe. After that, a layer of good porous topsoil and some grass seed.

 

[Poppa]

Andy, is the ditch on your side of the road or do you have to pump the water over the road? I couldn't see a ditch in the pictures but couldn't tell if this was just due to the angle the shot was taken.

Forgot to say, I hope it works out.

Mike

 

[AndyM]

Here's what it looks like from the other side, looking towards the house...

Things have drained pretty good considering the water went across my driveway on one side and over across my neighbor's driveway on the other side a week ago.

It's been only on rare occasions in the past year where water hasn't come past the small tree in the front of this picture!

Hopefully, this will make everything drain much better. After two rains the past couple of days, it seems to be working. We'll see how it works after the gravel and topsoil gets spread over the top! I'll post pictures after that part gets finished...

 

[AndyM]

I tied into the pump for the curtain drain for my septic system.

A curtain drain is a perforated pipe that runs around the perimeter of the leach field, about six inches higher than the leach lines. In theory, it's supposed to collect groundwater runoff BEFORE it gets to the septic field to prevent the lines from being saturated from rainwater.

The discharge for the curtain drain emptied into the sump crock and gets pumped out to the road. I chose to tie into this, rather than install another pump. Here's where my new drain pipe ties into the perforated line for the curtain drain. This will also be filled with gravel.

 

[beenthere]

Not sure I understand, but it sounds like you are saying that your drain field for your septic is below the surface water collection system. But surely that can't be, so I am missing something. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[AndyM]

Mike, there is a shallow (less than one foot) ditch along the road in front of my house. All of the water gets discharged there and runs down the ditch. The ditch in front of my house is the highest point along the road, so the county didn't dig it out very deep so it would run downhill down the road.

The ditch that runs along the other side of the road is 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep. Several people here have tried to get me to run a pipe under the road to the deeper ditch, but I haven't been able to bring myself to bore under a county road! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
Maybe someday I'll be able to talk the county into installing a pipe under the road. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[AndyM]

<font color="blue"> Not sure I understand, but it sounds like you are saying that your drain field for your septic is below the surface water collection system. But surely that can't be, so I am missing something. </font>

I guess I didn't explain it well. I'm better at thinking something in my head than putting it into words! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

The blue lines in this picture represent my septic field.

The red lines represent the existing curtain drain around the septic field and that runoff gets pumped to the road.

I put the drain pipe in the lowest spot in the yard to dry things up and tied into the existing curtain drain and pump with the pipe represented by the green line. That low area will get covered with gravel and topsoil. In theory, the water that used to collect there will filter through the gravel into the perforated pipe and get pumped uphill to the ditch along the road.

 

[dummy]

That just might do the trick for you. Looks like a reasonable solution. Is that 4" perforated pipe around the tree?

 

[AndyM]

Yes, that's four inch perforated pipe around the tree.

Even though its base is going to be covered with gravel and topsoil, with grass planted on top, the willow tree should be fine because the water will still be filtering down to its roots.

 

[texbaylea]

Please check with an arborist. I always understood that generally you could not add more 2-3 inches of fill over the root zone of a tree per season without risking killing the tree.

Vernon

 

[rambler]

Willows are a little different, but most trees do not live long if you pile up dirt on their trunk & burry their root system - I would plan on losing the tree.

Sounds like you have things worked out pretty good, but why bother? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Water runs to the lowest point, so might as well leave it there.

Where I live, there are _real_ issues with drain fields. You don't want to tamper with one whatsoever or draw any attention to one. The officials get real inspection minded. I would not wish to mess with a working curtain drain, or put more water into it. You might well be reverse-flooding the curtain drain until the pump can catch up with all the water you are feeding it - which appears to be a lot. You could saturate all the ground by the red line....

It's funny, on here I see people wanting to dig a pond in a sand front yard, and then you see others with a natural pond & go through all sorts of work to pump the water uphill & around & over.....

Guess we humans are just never happy with what we have. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

(I have 200 acres of farmland & we had 4" of rain in under 3 days. The county ditch is running full because they had 5" of rain uphill from me. So my several miles of underground tile is mostly running backwards, adding more water to my fields. Probably lose 10% of my harvest this fall from the water ponds. I know a lot about drainage. Water always goes downhill. We think we can change that, & can sometimes influence it a bit. But can't make major changes.)

--->Paul

 

[Currmudgeon]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The ditch that runs along the other side of the road is 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep. Several people here have tried to get me to run a pipe under the road to the deeper ditch, but I haven't been able to bring myself to bore under a county road! )</font>

You may be able to get an auger from Rent-All, and auger the road yourself. I've not used one, so don't know how difficult it would be to maintain grade. The advantage of augering under the road and tying into the lower ditch, is that you might be able to drain at least some of the water by gravity.

Gravity always works.

If the ditch on the far side isn't low enough, then you'll not gain much by augering under the road.

 

[AndyM]

Even though the gravel is being piled around the base of the tree, I figure it shouldn't be a problem, since all of the water is still flowing under the gravel. We've only kept it there to help soak up the water that had gathered in the front yard. I'd like to keep it, but if I made a mistake and buried the roots too deep, it's no big deal to me or my wife if I have to cut down a dead willow tree. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Because of the rain, I didn't get much seat time in the past two days, but I've managed to spread a little bit of gravel over the drain lines in between rain showers.

It takes a bit longer to spread when you don't have a front end loader, but the job's getting done none the less.
Spreading gravel with a tractor or two sure beats raking it out by hand, which I've done a few times in the past and I don't want to do again unless I have to! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[AndyM]

A view from the other direction...

Still a little bit more gravel to spread tomorrow... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Junkman]

Looks good so far........ sure you don't want me to take that old relic red tractor off your hands? I'll come out and pick it up and give you a hand loading it on my trailer. Even let you buy me a cold one at that..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif That is the least that I can do for a friend...... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[AndyM]

<font color="blue"> Looks good so far........ sure you don't want me to take that old relic red tractor off your hands? I'll come out and pick it up and give you a hand loading it on my trailer. Even let you buy me a cold one at that..... That is the least that I can do for a friend...... </font>

Uh, NO! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
I tell you what-- If you come down to PA next Saturday for our TBN meeting, I will buy you lunch and you can see my projects in person, but you can't have any tractors! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Even though we've received all this rain the past two days, it sure is nice to be able to go out to work in between the showers and not have to wait for the water to drain. Do you think I would have been able to drive a tractor under the tree after six straight hours of rains last week? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
I love it when a plan comes together! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( ...................... Do you think I would have been able to drive a tractor under the tree after six straight hours of rains last week? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif )</font>

We all live in a Yellow Submarine..... Yellow Submarine... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif