My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

Aside from correcting the grading at my foundation, I wanted to add a
french drain. It would be about 10' from my foundation, basically at
the low spot between his yard and where the grading from my foundation
would end. I also have 2 downspouts to drain out on that side of the
house, and I figured while I have the Kubota I might as well bury the
downspouts too.

A couple questions......can I use the same trench for the downspout
drainage and the french drain? I would keep them as separate pipes,
but I wasnt sure if the downspout pipe would interfere with the
correct operation of the french drain.

Also, any recommendations on fill material? We have what seems to be
normal soil for the area........definitely little to no clay content.
I was thinking just normal 3/4" gravel from the local stone company.
2 or 3" in the bottom of the trench, followed by 4" drain pipe (was
going to use the PVC stuff, not the black flexible stuff), followed by
enough of the same 3/4" gravel to fill the trench to within 2" of the
yard, followed by a layer of sod so I dont have to look at the gravel
forever.

Does the plan seem OK? I know a lot of people recommend different
fill materials, figured Id ask what everyone thinks.

Thanks!
-Chris

On Apr 17, 12:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote:
My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).
....

Is this the natural/original grade or was the house next door built
after yours and the drainage changed? If the latter, it may be
possible to require the neighbor to resolve the problem.

Guy bought empty lot next to us and tried the same trick -- finally
took a letter from the lawyer to really get his attention, but he had
to rearrange the initial idea for his driveway drainage to not
impinge.

It depends on local zoning rules/requirements and what the local
attitude towards enforcement of same, but in general it's a tenet that
new construction can't change runoff to the detriment of existing.

On Apr 17, 1:59 pm, dpb wrote:
On Apr 17, 12:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote: My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

...

Is this the natural/original grade or was the house next door built
after yours and the drainage changed? If the latter, it may be
possible to require the neighbor to resolve the problem.

Guy bought empty lot next to us and tried the same trick -- finally
took a letter from the lawyer to really get his attention, but he had
to rearrange the initial idea for his driveway drainage to not
impinge.

It depends on local zoning rules/requirements and what the local
attitude towards enforcement of same, but in general it's a tenet that
new construction can't change runoff to the detriment of existing.

Nope the houses were built at the same time. After chatting with my
neighbor he explained to me that the previous owner (of my house)
actually built the side of our house UP to what it is now (at best, it
might be a 4" rise over a 20' run from my neighbors house) As it is,
I cant go up very much more, the siding of the house is about 6" off
the ground now, didnt want to get the yard within 4", so I can add
another 2" height and Ill have to grade it to a steeper slope, but I
dont care.....cant use the yard in that area anyway, and its more
important to stay dry.

Id love to force someone else to fix it for me but alas Im on my
own with this one (unless I choose to hire it out, but the machine is
coming to my house for another project, figured Id just do it myself
if I could).

-Chris

clipped

Does the plan seem OK? I know a lot of people recommend different
fill materials, figured Id ask what everyone thinks.

Thanks!
-Chris

Can't reflect on the technical stuff about french drain, but I would
sure try to block and redirect the water coming from the neighbor's
ground...a berm along that side might not need to be very high to get
the water to flow away from your foundation. Depends what is in back
and front, but it could require a lot less digging to raise it enough to
get the water flowing away. Landscape with something with a strong root
system.

In article .com, chrisexv6
says...

On Apr 17, 1:59 pm, dpb wrote:
On Apr 17, 12:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote: My neighbors yard is
higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

...

Is this the natural/original grade or was the house next door built
after yours and the drainage changed? If the latter, it may be
possible to require the neighbor to resolve the problem.

Guy bought empty lot next to us and tried the same trick -- finally
took a letter from the lawyer to really get his attention, but he had
to rearrange the initial idea for his driveway drainage to not
impinge.

It depends on local zoning rules/requirements and what the local
attitude towards enforcement of same, but in general it's a tenet that
new construction can't change runoff to the detriment of existing.

Nope the houses were built at the same time. After chatting with my
neighbor he explained to me that the previous owner (of my house)
actually built the side of our house UP to what it is now (at best, it
might be a 4" rise over a 20' run from my neighbors house) As it is,
I cant go up very much more, the siding of the house is about 6" off
the ground now, didnt want to get the yard within 4", so I can add
another 2" height and Ill have to grade it to a steeper slope, but I
dont care.....cant use the yard in that area anyway, and its more
important to stay dry.

Id love to force someone else to fix it for me but alas Im on my
own with this one (unless I choose to hire it out, but the machine is
coming to my house for another project, figured Id just do it myself
if I could).

-Chris



Sounds like you need to excavate a swale, and slope upwards from the swale
towards your house. You can place a french drain in the lower part (valley) of
the swale.

Banty (doing that myself)

On Apr 17, 1:12 pm, chrisexv6 wrote:
On Apr 17, 1:59 pm, dpb wrote:







On Apr 17, 12:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote: My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

...

Is this the natural/original grade or was the house next door built
after yours and the drainage changed? If the latter, it may be
possible to require the neighbor to resolve the problem.

Guy bought empty lot next to us and tried the same trick -- finally
took a letter from the lawyer to really get his attention, but he had
to rearrange the initial idea for his driveway drainage to not
impinge.

It depends on local zoning rules/requirements and what the local
attitude towards enforcement of same, but in general it's a tenet that
new construction can't change runoff to the detriment of existing.

Nope the houses were built at the same time. After chatting with my
neighbor he explained to me that the previous owner (of my house)
actually built the side of our house UP to what it is now (at best, it
might be a 4" rise over a 20' run from my neighbors house) As it is,
I cant go up very much more, the siding of the house is about 6" off
the ground now, didnt want to get the yard within 4", so I can add
another 2" height and Ill have to grade it to a steeper slope, but I
dont care.....cant use the yard in that area anyway, and its more
important to stay dry.

Id love to force someone else to fix it for me but alas Im on my
own with this one (unless I choose to hire it out, but the machine is
coming to my house for another project, figured Id just do it myself
if I could).

In that case, I'm w/ Norminn that what I'd go for rather than trying
the french drain as the only techniqe is to build a berm between to
deflect the runoff away from the house and if needed in addition, a
gravel-bed channel to carry the runoff. That was actually a
significant portion of the solution between myself and the neighbor I
spoke of before.

If you try the french drain, there's a lot of water capacity needed
and from afar it's hard to advise on how much or what would be
needed. Depending on the slope and what soil and weather conditions
are like where you are, it's possible simply a shallow channel can be
seeded w/ grass and/or ground cover and be able to hold.

On Apr 17, 3:02 pm, dpb wrote:
On Apr 17, 1:12 pm, chrisexv6 wrote:



On Apr 17, 1:59 pm, dpb wrote:

On Apr 17, 12:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote: My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

...

Is this the natural/original grade or was the house next door built
after yours and the drainage changed? If the latter, it may be
possible to require the neighbor to resolve the problem.

Guy bought empty lot next to us and tried the same trick -- finally
took a letter from the lawyer to really get his attention, but he had
to rearrange the initial idea for his driveway drainage to not
impinge.

It depends on local zoning rules/requirements and what the local
attitude towards enforcement of same, but in general it's a tenet that
new construction can't change runoff to the detriment of existing.

Nope the houses were built at the same time. After chatting with my
neighbor he explained to me that the previous owner (of my house)
actually built the side of our house UP to what it is now (at best, it
might be a 4" rise over a 20' run from my neighbors house) As it is,
I cant go up very much more, the siding of the house is about 6" off
the ground now, didnt want to get the yard within 4", so I can add
another 2" height and Ill have to grade it to a steeper slope, but I
dont care.....cant use the yard in that area anyway, and its more
important to stay dry.

Id love to force someone else to fix it for me but alas Im on my
own with this one (unless I choose to hire it out, but the machine is
coming to my house for another project, figured Id just do it myself
if I could).

In that case, I'm w/ Norminn that what I'd go for rather than trying
the french drain as the only techniqe is to build a berm between to
deflect the runoff away from the house and if needed in addition, a
gravel-bed channel to carry the runoff. That was actually a
significant portion of the solution between myself and the neighbor I
spoke of before.

If you try the french drain, there's a lot of water capacity needed
and from afar it's hard to advise on how much or what would be
needed. Depending on the slope and what soil and weather conditions
are like where you are, it's possible simply a shallow channel can be
seeded w/ grass and/or ground cover and be able to hold.

Thanks for the suggestions.

The only reason I immediately thought "french drain" was because I
figured (possibly wrongly) that it would have more water carrying
capability.

Seeing as how I need to re-grade from my foundation, I can probably re-
grade to a point 10' from my foundation, and then just have a drop off
of about 3" or so. That would qualify as a "swale", but I wouldnt be
able to run that ridge all the way to the back of my property (we do
use the back yard on that side of the house). It would re-direct the
water but eventually Id run out of ridge/swale, probably not far
enough away from the house. However, I might be able to gradually
lower the "ridge" into flat ground.

The amount of water we get usually is not an issue. We've had good
size downpours already this year and not had a problem. During
extreme circumstances, however, it becomes one. Extreme being 5" of
rain in a 10 hour period (this weekend) or 19" of rain over a 9 day
period (2 years ago). I went outside during the storm and could see
the issue.........water was puddled right up against my foundation.
Since water doesnt travel uphill (very well anyway ) correcting the
grading at the foundation would probably correct 85 or 90% of the
issue. I will definitely put a gravel covered channel at the bottom
of the new grading (does that make the new grading a "swale"? or does
a swale have to involve some sort of ridge that the water would run up
against?).......while i was digging, my thought was to drop pipe into
the gravel channel, so that it would help the water that does go in,
get out faster. This "french drain" would then be the "first line of
defense" for the water, and the foundation grading would be the second
line........presumably the foundation grading being the more important
of the two.

-Chris

On 17 Apr 2007 11:12:31 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:

On Apr 17, 1:59 pm, dpb wrote:
On Apr 17, 12:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote: My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

...

Is this the natural/original grade or was the house next door built
after yours and the drainage changed? If the latter, it may be
possible to require the neighbor to resolve the problem.

Guy bought empty lot next to us and tried the same trick -- finally
took a letter from the lawyer to really get his attention, but he had
to rearrange the initial idea for his driveway drainage to not
impinge.

It depends on local zoning rules/requirements and what the local
attitude towards enforcement of same, but in general it's a tenet that
new construction can't change runoff to the detriment of existing.

Nope the houses were built at the same time. After chatting with my
neighbor he explained to me that the previous owner (of my house)
actually built the side of our house UP to what it is now (at best, it
might be a 4" rise over a 20' run from my neighbors house) As it is,
I cant go up very much more, the siding of the house is about 6" off
the ground now, didnt want to get the yard within 4", so I can add
another 2" height and Ill have to grade it to a steeper slope, but I
dont care.....cant use the yard in that area anyway, and its more
important to stay dry.

Id love to force someone else to fix it for me but alas Im on my
own with this one (unless I choose to hire it out, but the machine is
coming to my house for another project, figured Id just do it myself
if I could).



It's not that hard to fix, as long as you have someplace you
can dump the excess water.

"chrisexv6" wrote in message
ups.com...
My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

Aside from correcting the grading at my foundation, I wanted to add a
french drain. It would be about 10' from my foundation, basically at
the low spot between his yard and where the grading from my foundation
would end. I also have 2 downspouts to drain out on that side of the
house, and I figured while I have the Kubota I might as well bury the
downspouts too.

A couple questions......can I use the same trench for the downspout
drainage and the french drain? I would keep them as separate pipes,
but I wasnt sure if the downspout pipe would interfere with the
correct operation of the french drain.

Also, any recommendations on fill material? We have what seems to be
normal soil for the area........definitely little to no clay content.
I was thinking just normal 3/4" gravel from the local stone company.
2 or 3" in the bottom of the trench, followed by 4" drain pipe (was
going to use the PVC stuff, not the black flexible stuff), followed by
enough of the same 3/4" gravel to fill the trench to within 2" of the
yard, followed by a layer of sod so I dont have to look at the gravel
forever.

Does the plan seem OK? I know a lot of people recommend different
fill materials, figured Id ask what everyone thinks.

Thanks!
-Chris


I used 2" & 3" rock in most of mine and just covered the top with 1's & 2's.

On 17 Apr 2007 11:12:31 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:

On Apr 17, 1:59 pm, dpb wrote:
On Apr 17, 12:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote: My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

...

Is this the natural/original grade or was the house next door built
after yours and the drainage changed? If the latter, it may be
possible to require the neighbor to resolve the problem.

Guy bought empty lot next to us and tried the same trick -- finally
took a letter from the lawyer to really get his attention, but he had
to rearrange the initial idea for his driveway drainage to not
impinge.

It depends on local zoning rules/requirements and what the local
attitude towards enforcement of same, but in general it's a tenet that
new construction can't change runoff to the detriment of existing.

Nope the houses were built at the same time. After chatting with my
neighbor he explained to me that the previous owner (of my house)
actually built the side of our house UP to what it is now (at best, it
might be a 4" rise over a 20' run from my neighbors house) As it is,
I cant go up very much more, the siding of the house is about 6" off
the ground now, didnt want to get the yard within 4", so I can add
another 2" height and Ill have to grade it to a steeper slope, but I
dont care.....cant use the yard in that area anyway, and its more
important to stay dry.

Id love to force someone else to fix it for me but alas Im on my
own with this one (unless I choose to hire it out, but the machine is
coming to my house for another project, figured Id just do it myself
if I could).

-Chris

I've never built a French drain. Can you terrace the soil on this side
of the house? Say, in tiers and then plant landscape plants? As to
the drain, a landscape show I watched recently built a small one. They
used a screen (landscape type) along the sides, to prevent silt into
the gravel. The gravel was "river rock", the round stone edges allowed
better drainage.... The screen fabric was then folded on top of the
gravel. They went three feet deep for just a smaller area than you
mention.

Good luck.

--
Oren

"If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me."

On Apr 17, 4:36 pm, Oren wrote:
On 17 Apr 2007 11:12:31 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:



On Apr 17, 1:59 pm, dpb wrote:
On Apr 17, 12:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote: My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

...

Is this the natural/original grade or was the house next door built
after yours and the drainage changed? If the latter, it may be
possible to require the neighbor to resolve the problem.

Guy bought empty lot next to us and tried the same trick -- finally
took a letter from the lawyer to really get his attention, but he had
to rearrange the initial idea for his driveway drainage to not
impinge.

It depends on local zoning rules/requirements and what the local
attitude towards enforcement of same, but in general it's a tenet that
new construction can't change runoff to the detriment of existing.

Nope the houses were built at the same time. After chatting with my
neighbor he explained to me that the previous owner (of my house)
actually built the side of our house UP to what it is now (at best, it
might be a 4" rise over a 20' run from my neighbors house) As it is,
I cant go up very much more, the siding of the house is about 6" off
the ground now, didnt want to get the yard within 4", so I can add
another 2" height and Ill have to grade it to a steeper slope, but I
dont care.....cant use the yard in that area anyway, and its more
important to stay dry.

Id love to force someone else to fix it for me but alas Im on my
own with this one (unless I choose to hire it out, but the machine is
coming to my house for another project, figured Id just do it myself
if I could).

-Chris

I've never built a French drain. Can you terrace the soil on this side
of the house? Say, in tiers and then plant landscape plants? As to
the drain, a landscape show I watched recently built a small one. They
used a screen (landscape type) along the sides, to prevent silt into
the gravel. The gravel was "river rock", the round stone edges allowed
better drainage.... The screen fabric was then folded on top of the
gravel. They went three feet deep for just a smaller area than you
mention.

Good luck.

--
Oren

"If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me."

Unfortunately it wouldnt be easy to landscape the area. There is a
window well on that side (the well itself was causing some of the
issues), and I cannot go much higher with the ground level before it
hits the siding on the house. If I wanted to tier landscape, Id have
to dig out quite a bit of soil to make a low spot, and that would
probably make things worse (water would just flow faster from my
neighbors side).

Re-grading is my best option, the only question was if (how) to put a
french drain at the low spot between our yards.

River rock you say? Did they use it for the whole drain? The price
of river rock vs .75" gravel here is astounding........80.00/yd vs
26.00/yd. I estimate Ill need 7 yards total. The local stone co.
suggested the 3/4" (non river rock).

-Chris

My reason for suggesting putting in some kind of landscape feature with
a berm is that a a rise of a couple of inches might be enough to divert
water that runs down from your neighbor. It would be exceedingly easy
(on a normal sized lot) to lay down that much soil and keep it in place
with sod or other plants. You would need to figure out where the water
will go if you divert it.

We had lots of small problems in the lawn at our condo that I fiddled
with. One was that after many years of running edgers along the same
line, there was quite a hump of lawn along the building with a ditch
next to it. In some places, it had exposed sprinkler pipes that would
then get run over by the mower. In some places I just hit it with a
strong stream of water - the grass stayed in place and the dirt went
into the ditch. Wasted some water ) I found concrete doughnuts 6"
down, with no protection of sprinkler heads that hubby had to keep
fixing. Landscape problems sometimes have simple solutions.

We also had a great deal of erosion behind our seawall - not visible in
places because the sod was so healthy it covered the tunnels between the
washouts - kind of dangerous to walk on. That was fixed by putting some
filter fabric behind the weep-holes in the seawall, gravel behind it,
and filled up with soil.

You may need French drains, but that is a major project. If soil is
saturated, from continuous rain, they might not do any good, but I
really don't know.

On Apr 17, 7:51�pm, Norminn wrote:
My reason for suggesting putting in some kind of landscape feature with
a berm is that a a rise of a couple of inches might be enough to divert
water that runs down from your neighbor. *It would be exceedingly easy
(on a normal sized lot) to lay down that much soil and keep it in place
with sod or other plants. *You would need to figure out where the water
will go if you divert it.

We had lots of small problems in the lawn at our condo that I fiddled
with. *One was that after many years of running edgers along the same
line, there was quite a hump of lawn along the building with a ditch
next to it. *In some places, it had exposed sprinkler pipes that would
then get run over by the mower. *In some places I just hit it with a
strong stream of water - the grass stayed in place and the dirt went
into the ditch. *Wasted some water ) *I found concrete doughnuts 6"
down, with no protection of sprinkler heads that hubby had to keep
fixing. *Landscape problems sometimes have simple solutions.

We also had a great deal of erosion behind our seawall - not visible in
places because the sod was so healthy it covered the tunnels between the
washouts - kind of dangerous to walk on. *That was fixed by putting some
filter fabric behind the weep-holes in the seawall, gravel behind it,
and filled up with soil.

You may need French drains, but that is a major project. *If soil is
saturated, from continuous rain, they might not do any good, but I
really don't know.

lay landscape fabric first, then a layer of rock, then perforated
drain pipe, then more rock, layer of small rock, landscape fabric,
then cover with dirt.

dont install drainpipe without landscape fabrick or dirt will soon
infiltrate and clog drain lines.

you could create a natural catch basin, add landscape drain and
seperate line to daylight somewhere.

that way excess surface water has a place to go.

its best to overbuild this system or otherwise in 5 or 10 years you
will be doing it again.

a little extra cost now can save lots of work later!

On Apr 17, 7:51 pm, Norminn wrote:
My reason for suggesting putting in some kind of landscape feature with
a berm is that a a rise of a couple of inches might be enough to divert
water that runs down from your neighbor. It would be exceedingly easy
(on a normal sized lot) to lay down that much soil and keep it in place
with sod or other plants. You would need to figure out where the water
will go if you divert it.

We had lots of small problems in the lawn at our condo that I fiddled
with. One was that after many years of running edgers along the same
line, there was quite a hump of lawn along the building with a ditch
next to it. In some places, it had exposed sprinkler pipes that would
then get run over by the mower. In some places I just hit it with a
strong stream of water - the grass stayed in place and the dirt went
into the ditch. Wasted some water ) I found concrete doughnuts 6"
down, with no protection of sprinkler heads that hubby had to keep
fixing. Landscape problems sometimes have simple solutions.

We also had a great deal of erosion behind our seawall - not visible in
places because the sod was so healthy it covered the tunnels between the
washouts - kind of dangerous to walk on. That was fixed by putting some
filter fabric behind the weep-holes in the seawall, gravel behind it,
and filled up with soil.

You may need French drains, but that is a major project. If soil is
saturated, from continuous rain, they might not do any good, but I
really don't know.

Its a possibility.......I could take the 2" extra rise than I can get
without hitting the bottom of the siding, and basically make a ledge
out of it......2" of soil out 10', would create a decent height berm
between us and the neighbors. French drains are a lot of work...the
only reason I even thought of it is because I have the machine coming
for another project (son needs a swing set!), but since it will be
here for almost 3 days and 8 machine hours, I figured while I was at
it I might as well fix some things around (literally!) the house.

I like the berm idea.......the issue I have with it is where it will
run off into my yard. My back yard is basically a hill, my plan was
to divert the water back there to let it run right down the hill. It
would be a pretty long berm its about a 60' distance. It would be
a long french drain as well, but that would be level with my yard, and
less intrusive. In the area next to the house (where my neighbors
water flows), I might do both the berm and the french drain, gradually
lowering the berm into the level of the rest of the yard.

-Chris

On Apr 17, 1:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote:
My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

Aside from correcting the grading at my foundation, I wanted to add a
french drain. It would be about 10' from my foundation, basically at
the low spot between his yard and where the grading from my foundation
would end. I also have 2 downspouts to drain out on that side of the
house, and I figured while I have the Kubota I might as well bury the
downspouts too.

A couple questions......can I use the same trench for the downspout
drainage and the french drain? I would keep them as separate pipes,
but I wasnt sure if the downspout pipe would interfere with the
correct operation of the french drain.

Also, any recommendations on fill material? We have what seems to be
normal soil for the area........definitely little to no clay content.
I was thinking just normal 3/4" gravel from the local stone company.
2 or 3" in the bottom of the trench, followed by 4" drain pipe (was
going to use the PVC stuff, not the black flexible stuff), followed by
enough of the same 3/4" gravel to fill the trench to within 2" of the
yard, followed by a layer of sod so I dont have to look at the gravel
forever.

Does the plan seem OK? I know a lot of people recommend different
fill materials, figured Id ask what everyone thinks.

Thanks!
-Chris

http://www.buildingscienceconsulting...r_basement.pdf

On Apr 17, 8:59 pm, " wrote:
On Apr 17, 7:51?pm, Norminn wrote:



My reason for suggesting putting in some kind of landscape feature with
a berm is that a a rise of a couple of inches might be enough to divert
water that runs down from your neighbor. ?It would be exceedingly easy
(on a normal sized lot) to lay down that much soil and keep it in place
with sod or other plants. ?You would need to figure out where the water
will go if you divert it.

We had lots of small problems in the lawn at our condo that I fiddled
with. ?One was that after many years of running edgers along the same
line, there was quite a hump of lawn along the building with a ditch
next to it. ?In some places, it had exposed sprinkler pipes that would
then get run over by the mower. ?In some places I just hit it with a
strong stream of water - the grass stayed in place and the dirt went
into the ditch. ?Wasted some water ) ?I found concrete doughnuts 6"
down, with no protection of sprinkler heads that hubby had to keep
fixing. ?Landscape problems sometimes have simple solutions.

We also had a great deal of erosion behind our seawall - not visible in
places because the sod was so healthy it covered the tunnels between the
washouts - kind of dangerous to walk on. ?That was fixed by putting some
filter fabric behind the weep-holes in the seawall, gravel behind it,
and filled up with soil.

You may need French drains, but that is a major project. ?If soil is
saturated, from continuous rain, they might not do any good, but I
really don't know.

lay landscape fabric first, then a layer of rock, then perforated
drain pipe, then more rock, layer of small rock, landscape fabric,
then cover with dirt.

dont install drainpipe without landscape fabrick or dirt will soon
infiltrate and clog drain lines.

you could create a natural catch basin, add landscape drain and
seperate line to daylight somewhere.

that way excess surface water has a place to go.

its best to overbuild this system or otherwise in 5 or 10 years you
will be doing it again.

a little extra cost now can save lots of work later!

Overbuilding is good

But I didnt want to go too crazy, in case something I add effects
something that is already there (i.e. draining the gutter runoff into
the same trench as the French drain....would the second pipe from the
gutter interfere with the operation of the french drain pipe).

The french drain pipe will be open to daylight, about 60' away, down a
hill. So I should get good gravity flow. I might be able to use the
berm idea for some of that 60' run, which would help keep the water
over the french drain area, and give it a chance to get out (in the
case of torrential downpours). The only question I have at this point
is if I should tap the gutters into the same pipe, run another pipe in
the same trench, or run a separate trench for the gutter pipe.

BTW, what depth are you suggesting for the french drain? I was
thinking 24" at its highest....with a pitch of 1/4" per foot, the
depth where it sees daylight would be about 40" or so. Could the
pitch be lowered to 1/8" per foot? I think I saw that suggested, but
again, overbuilding is better than underbuilding.

-Chris

On 18 Apr 2007 05:12:37 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:

Overbuilding is good

But I didnt want to go too crazy, in case something I add effects
something that is already there (i.e. draining the gutter runoff into
the same trench as the French drain....would the second pipe from the
gutter interfere with the operation of the french drain pipe).

The french drain pipe will be open to daylight, about 60' away, down a
hill. So I should get good gravity flow. I might be able to use the
berm idea for some of that 60' run, which would help keep the water
over the french drain area, and give it a chance to get out (in the
case of torrential downpours). The only question I have at this point
is if I should tap the gutters into the same pipe, run another pipe in
the same trench, or run a separate trench for the gutter pipe.

BTW, what depth are you suggesting for the french drain? I was
thinking 24" at its highest....with a pitch of 1/4" per foot, the
depth where it sees daylight would be about 40" or so. Could the
pitch be lowered to 1/8" per foot? I think I saw that suggested, but
again, overbuilding is better than underbuilding.

-Chris


well, you can use the same pipe for the landscape drain and
the downspout drain, as long as it's big enough. for both.
To figure that out, you could estimate the maximum amount of
water you expect to have to move per minute. Or you could just
go with a 30" culvert, so you've got a big enough pipe for
wild animals, and small children, and a weapons cache.

In any case, bury it deep enough to be below the frostline,
if any.

You'll want to build a spreader dam or rockfall or
something at the outflow, or it will
build you a nice gulley in a year or so.

On Apr 18, 2:40�pm, Goedjn wrote:
On 18 Apr 2007 05:12:37 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:





Overbuilding is good

But I didnt want to go too crazy, in case something I add effects
something that is already there (i.e. draining the gutter runoff into
the same trench as the French drain....would the second pipe from the
gutter interfere with the operation of the french drain pipe).

The french drain pipe will be open to daylight, about 60' away, down a
hill. *So I should get good gravity flow. *I might be able to use the
berm idea for some of that 60' run, which would help keep the water
over the french drain area, and give it a chance to get out (in the
case of torrential downpours). *The only question I have at this point
is if I should tap the gutters into the same pipe, run another pipe in
the same trench, or run a separate trench for the gutter pipe.

BTW, what depth are you suggesting for the french drain? *I was
thinking 24" at its highest....with a pitch of 1/4" per foot, the
depth where it sees daylight would be about 40" or so. *Could the
pitch be lowered to 1/8" per foot? *I think I saw that suggested, but
again, overbuilding is better than underbuilding.

-Chris

well, you can use the same pipe for the landscape drain and
the downspout drain, as long as it's big enough. for both.
To figure that out, you could estimate the maximum amount of
water you expect to have to move per minute. *Or you could just
go with a 30" culvert, so you've got a big enough pipe for
wild animals, and small children, and a weapons cache.

In any case, bury it deep enough to be below the frostline,
if any.

You'll want to build a spreader dam or rockfall or
something at the outflow, or it *will
build you a nice gulley in a year or so.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

DONT USE THE SAME PIPE! pipe is cheap, better they be kept seperate.

why add more water to a french drain system, it just lessens its
efficency.

one inch of water over a whole roof can be thousands of gallons of
water

On 17 Apr 2007 15:35:39 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:

On Apr 17, 4:36 pm, Oren wrote:
On 17 Apr 2007 11:12:31 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:



On Apr 17, 1:59 pm, dpb wrote:
On Apr 17, 12:05 pm, chrisexv6 wrote: My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

...

Is this the natural/original grade or was the house next door built
after yours and the drainage changed? If the latter, it may be
possible to require the neighbor to resolve the problem.

Guy bought empty lot next to us and tried the same trick -- finally
took a letter from the lawyer to really get his attention, but he had
to rearrange the initial idea for his driveway drainage to not
impinge.

It depends on local zoning rules/requirements and what the local
attitude towards enforcement of same, but in general it's a tenet that
new construction can't change runoff to the detriment of existing.

Nope the houses were built at the same time. After chatting with my
neighbor he explained to me that the previous owner (of my house)
actually built the side of our house UP to what it is now (at best, it
might be a 4" rise over a 20' run from my neighbors house) As it is,
I cant go up very much more, the siding of the house is about 6" off
the ground now, didnt want to get the yard within 4", so I can add
another 2" height and Ill have to grade it to a steeper slope, but I
dont care.....cant use the yard in that area anyway, and its more
important to stay dry.

Id love to force someone else to fix it for me but alas Im on my
own with this one (unless I choose to hire it out, but the machine is
coming to my house for another project, figured Id just do it myself
if I could).

-Chris

I've never built a French drain. Can you terrace the soil on this side
of the house? Say, in tiers and then plant landscape plants? As to
the drain, a landscape show I watched recently built a small one. They
used a screen (landscape type) along the sides, to prevent silt into
the gravel. The gravel was "river rock", the round stone edges allowed
better drainage.... The screen fabric was then folded on top of the
gravel. They went three feet deep for just a smaller area than you
mention.

Good luck.

--
Oren

"If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me."

Unfortunately it wouldnt be easy to landscape the area. There is a
window well on that side (the well itself was causing some of the
issues), and I cannot go much higher with the ground level before it
hits the siding on the house. If I wanted to tier landscape, Id have
to dig out quite a bit of soil to make a low spot, and that would
probably make things worse (water would just flow faster from my
neighbors side).

Re-grading is my best option, the only question was if (how) to put a
french drain at the low spot between our yards.

River rock you say? Did they use it for the whole drain? The price
of river rock vs .75" gravel here is astounding........80.00/yd vs
26.00/yd. I estimate Ill need 7 yards total. The local stone co.
suggested the 3/4" (non river rock).

-Chris

When I heard the guy say river rock I was surprised, because of the
cost. It was only .75" or so. The drain was only 2X2X3. I thought the
point of the smooth edged rock made sense, so to facilitate drainage
and the point of using fabric to reduce silt in the drain. As I
mentioned, never built one :-)
--
Oren

"If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me."

On Apr 18, 2:40 pm, Goedjn wrote:
On 18 Apr 2007 05:12:37 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:



Overbuilding is good

But I didnt want to go too crazy, in case something I add effects
something that is already there (i.e. draining the gutter runoff into
the same trench as the French drain....would the second pipe from the
gutter interfere with the operation of the french drain pipe).

The french drain pipe will be open to daylight, about 60' away, down a
hill. So I should get good gravity flow. I might be able to use the
berm idea for some of that 60' run, which would help keep the water
over the french drain area, and give it a chance to get out (in the
case of torrential downpours). The only question I have at this point
is if I should tap the gutters into the same pipe, run another pipe in
the same trench, or run a separate trench for the gutter pipe.

BTW, what depth are you suggesting for the french drain? I was
thinking 24" at its highest....with a pitch of 1/4" per foot, the
depth where it sees daylight would be about 40" or so. Could the
pitch be lowered to 1/8" per foot? I think I saw that suggested, but
again, overbuilding is better than underbuilding.

-Chris

well, you can use the same pipe for the landscape drain and
the downspout drain, as long as it's big enough. for both.
To figure that out, you could estimate the maximum amount of
water you expect to have to move per minute. Or you could just
go with a 30" culvert, so you've got a big enough pipe for
wild animals, and small children, and a weapons cache.

In any case, bury it deep enough to be below the frostline,
if any.

You'll want to build a spreader dam or rockfall or
something at the outflow, or it will
build you a nice gulley in a year or so.

Actually didnt think about the frost line, but I was planning on
having the downspouts as they are now, but i would put a drain grate
at the bottom of each for them to flow into. If for some reason the
drain pipe froze up, I could always just redirect the downspouts
farther away.

I *think* the bucket size on the mini-loader is either 18" or 24"
wide. Would 18" be wide enough for 2 4" pipes? Obviously the pipes
would fit, but would they be too close to each other? For the
downspout drain, Id use regular PVC (non-perforated) because the
perforated pipe in the same trench should do the job of the french
drain. Although........would 2 sets of perforated pipe be better than
1 in this case? Im not sure.

-Chris

On Apr 18, 3:26 pm, " wrote:
On Apr 18, 2:40?pm, Goedjn wrote:



On 18 Apr 2007 05:12:37 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:

Overbuilding is good

But I didnt want to go too crazy, in case something I add effects
something that is already there (i.e. draining the gutter runoff into
the same trench as the French drain....would the second pipe from the
gutter interfere with the operation of the french drain pipe).

The french drain pipe will be open to daylight, about 60' away, down a
hill. ?So I should get good gravity flow. ?I might be able to use the
berm idea for some of that 60' run, which would help keep the water
over the french drain area, and give it a chance to get out (in the
case of torrential downpours). ?The only question I have at this point
is if I should tap the gutters into the same pipe, run another pipe in
the same trench, or run a separate trench for the gutter pipe.

BTW, what depth are you suggesting for the french drain? ?I was
thinking 24" at its highest....with a pitch of 1/4" per foot, the
depth where it sees daylight would be about 40" or so. ?Could the
pitch be lowered to 1/8" per foot? ?I think I saw that suggested, but
again, overbuilding is better than underbuilding.

-Chris

well, you can use the same pipe for the landscape drain and
the downspout drain, as long as it's big enough. for both.
To figure that out, you could estimate the maximum amount of
water you expect to have to move per minute. ?Or you could just
go with a 30" culvert, so you've got a big enough pipe for
wild animals, and small children, and a weapons cache.

In any case, bury it deep enough to be below the frostline,
if any.

You'll want to build a spreader dam or rockfall or
something at the outflow, or it ?will
build you a nice gulley in a year or so.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

DONT USE THE SAME PIPE! pipe is cheap, better they be kept seperate.

why add more water to a french drain system, it just lessens its
efficency.

one inch of water over a whole roof can be thousands of gallons of
water

No problem using separate pipe. The issue I was thinking would be the
separate pipe in the same trench causing a problem with the water
getting to the french drain. I suppose its no

On 17 Apr 2007 10:05:35 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:

My neighbors yard is higher than my yard by about 3'. His property
slopes away from his house and towards my house. The grading around
my foundation on that side is not correct (i.e. its pretty much level)
so the water from his property ends up against my foundation during a
bad rain (like what we just got in the Northeast).

Aside from correcting the grading at my foundation, I wanted to add a
french drain. It would be about 10' from my foundation, basically at
the low spot between his yard and where the grading from my foundation
would end. I also have 2 downspouts to drain out on that side of the
house, and I figured while I have the Kubota I might as well bury the
downspouts too.

A couple questions......can I use the same trench for the downspout
drainage and the french drain? I would keep them as separate pipes,
but I wasnt sure if the downspout pipe would interfere with the
correct operation of the french drain.

Also, any recommendations on fill material? We have what seems to be
normal soil for the area........definitely little to no clay content.
I was thinking just normal 3/4" gravel from the local stone company.
2 or 3" in the bottom of the trench, followed by 4" drain pipe (was
going to use the PVC stuff, not the black flexible stuff), followed by
enough of the same 3/4" gravel to fill the trench to within 2" of the
yard, followed by a layer of sod so I dont have to look at the gravel
forever.

Does the plan seem OK? I know a lot of people recommend different
fill materials, figured Id ask what everyone thinks.

Thanks!
-Chris

You could start by telling us what the heck a french drain is....
I am not from France, so I dont have a clue. For all I know, it's a
bunch of french fries in a hole....

On 18 Apr 2007 17:15:22 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:

On Apr 18, 2:40 pm, Goedjn wrote:
On 18 Apr 2007 05:12:37 -0700, chrisexv6 wrote:



Overbuilding is good

But I didnt want to go too crazy, in case something I add effects
something that is already there (i.e. draining the gutter runoff into
the same trench as the French drain....would the second pipe from the
gutter interfere with the operation of the french drain pipe).

The french drain pipe will be open to daylight, about 60' away, down a
hill. So I should get good gravity flow. I might be able to use the
berm idea for some of that 60' run, which would help keep the water
over the french drain area, and give it a chance to get out (in the
case of torrential downpours). The only question I have at this point
is if I should tap the gutters into the same pipe, run another pipe in
the same trench, or run a separate trench for the gutter pipe.

BTW, what depth are you suggesting for the french drain? I was
thinking 24" at its highest....with a pitch of 1/4" per foot, the
depth where it sees daylight would be about 40" or so. Could the
pitch be lowered to 1/8" per foot? I think I saw that suggested, but
again, overbuilding is better than underbuilding.

-Chris

well, you can use the same pipe for the landscape drain and
the downspout drain, as long as it's big enough. for both.
To figure that out, you could estimate the maximum amount of
water you expect to have to move per minute. Or you could just
go with a 30" culvert, so you've got a big enough pipe for
wild animals, and small children, and a weapons cache.

In any case, bury it deep enough to be below the frostline,
if any.

You'll want to build a spreader dam or rockfall or
something at the outflow, or it will
build you a nice gulley in a year or so.

Actually didnt think about the frost line, but I was planning on
having the downspouts as they are now, but i would put a drain grate
at the bottom of each for them to flow into. If for some reason the
drain pipe froze up, I could always just redirect the downspouts
farther away.

I *think* the bucket size on the mini-loader is either 18" or 24"
wide. Would 18" be wide enough for 2 4" pipes? Obviously the pipes
would fit, but would they be too close to each other? For the
downspout drain, Id use regular PVC (non-perforated) because the
perforated pipe in the same trench should do the job of the french
drain. Although........would 2 sets of perforated pipe be better than
1 in this case? Im not sure.

-Chris

Well, I suspect that If you're using a separate pipe to handle
the roof water, that pipe shouldn't be perforated.
You use perforated pipe if you're trying to either collect
water, or distribute it, and you don't want to distribute water
into the the trench, because there's already too much
water there, and you're not using that pipe to collect water,
because there's a different pipe doing that job.

You might consider talking to a landscape architect. I'd think
this would be a fairly well-studied problem so it shouldn't
take days of consultation to come up with an optimal solution.