Front Yard Draining Towards House. Slight pooling and muddy grass.

jorog90 on 09/03/2019 - 12:38

I had a new home built 5 years ago. Since then new homes have been built on either side of my property, and Im having issues with water pooling slightly and grass getting very muddy.

When I had a closer look, I noticed my land slopes from the side walk down towards my house, and both properties either side of me slop towards me slightly… So I am basically at the bottom of a very small ditch.

These are two diagrams better showing my problem)
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http://prntscr.com/mvazh8

I queried the builder as to whether or not the appropriate sloping was ever performed away from my house when it was built, and they said it would have been and the land has settled now and its my job to maintain the slope away from the house.

I am hoping someone with Gardening or plumbing experience can tell me what I should be doing looking at doing to resolve this issue?

The termite barrier on my slab/brick work is below the line of the footpath, so there will always be a slight slope towards my house, but obviously I need to introduce a slope aware from my home.

The front yard grass area is only about 5m x 6M.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • WreckTangle on 09/03/2019 - 13:52
    +2

    Sounds like a DIY job! Dig a trench fill it with crusher dust and socked ag pipe, run it into stormwater.

    • jorog90 on 09/03/2019 - 13:56

      I read about french drains… The bit I get lost on is where it actually drained too. Some people said you dig a large pit and put a water drum in with holes to slowly leak out. Then other suggestions said storm water, but how on earth do you find the pipes and where to run it?

      • loropy9 on 09/03/2019 - 15:18

        I think there is a way to order underground map of pipes at your property. A plumber once did it for our property and I think he mentioned Reece or something.

      • sraymond on 09/03/2019 - 15:31

        Just follow the down pipe that comes off your roof gutter. The stormwater connects to that. Dig around with a shovel, not a mattock or pick.

        • jorog90 on 09/03/2019 - 15:47

          Do you need to run a seperate pipe all the way to the storm water, or do you just put like a T join pipe connector to the existing pipe, and join the french drain into it?

      • Dancasper on 09/03/2019 - 18:01
        +1

        Bonjour jorag90, I think you meant trench drains? :)

        Do you have a moderate fall to the rear boundary? If so, you can extend the ag line from around the front and lead it down the side boundary, ideally beyond and past your house. The ag line shouldn't convey a lot of water, it will be a dribble of flow from the front yard to the rear. If you have a surface pit in the rear yard or side setback - you could run it to that.

        I wouldn't connect it to your downpipe system as water could backflow into your ag line, making the front yard worse.

        Be wary not to locate the ag line too deep as you could mess with soil conditions your house is bearing on.

        • afoveht on 09/03/2019 - 21:54

          I wouldn't connect it to your downpipe system as water could backflow into your ag line

          Absolutely.

          Drain into an existing pit, or dig a new gravel pit, or even just disperse throughout other parts of the yard.

  • Woodinski on 10/03/2019 - 05:09

    Dodgy as builder. Telling you that your lot has settled is a load of s%$t. I assume you are built on clay (hence the drainage issues). Clay would only consolidate (I.e. settle) if it was soft. Considering no builder would be stupid enough to build on soft clay (generally because of the large settlements associated with this) I suspect that the lot grading was never done.
    Trench drain is the way to go, but make sure you either put a subsoil drain in and connect to stormwater or have adequate detention storage. Also don't put the trench drain to close to your house. The water in the trench will cause the surrounding clay to swell (expand) which should have been taken into account with your footing /slab design but it is better to keep away where possible.

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