Exceptions to Every Rule in Yard Drainage

Exceptions to Every Rule in Yard Drainage

I’m in Troy, Michigan and I wanted to make this video for a few reasons, but the biggest reason is that I always tell you guys to collect the water downhill and sometimes there’s an exception to every rule. Keep that in mind. There are always those exceptions.

So there’s a basin up there and there’s a basin up there. So this homeowner, this is a DIY and this is very, very impressive because there’s so much dirt, so much excavation. He built this beautiful landscape so that all that sheet water that’s coming off of this lot, you have all the rooftop water, water off the deck and out of the backyard.

Now you can see the top of the storm drain. It used to flow through here like a river. He gave a very good description of how the water would just flow through his yard like a river. He was able to contain and direct the water where you want it to go. Storm drain.

Now, this used to be a Lake. The water would come off of the house behind them and it would just lay right in here. So he went ahead and he built this berm and he left the swale in here. So this really, really, it was twofold to get rid of that Lake and it forced the water to be displaced, you know, elsewhere. Kind of pushes the water to go around and out of the yard and some water does make it down and through that pathway.

Now there’s water that does lay in here and there’s concern about the trees. He’s got beautiful conifer colors and they like soil that’s well-drained. So he doesn’t wanna lose these trees.

So he had us quote 30 feet of an open French drain to 30 feet of the discharge line. We’ll start at 14 inches deep. We’ll end up at 24 inches deep. We’ll have to disassemble and reassemble some of the neighbor’s landscape. But this storm drain is up on a hill and we’re going to get all the water that’s laying right there in the property line in the back here in that storm drain catch basins.

So remember, these only take in water when water builds up and flows in, and that’s bulk water, standing water. So we got to go down 24 inches and core through the sidewall of the concrete so that the open French drain can discharge right here and the storm drain catch basin.

All right guys, until the next video.