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How to Install Yard Drainage
How to Install Yard Drainage. If a small pond is forming in your yard where you never had one before, consider installing a dry well. Installing a dry well is an inexpensive solution to channel water away from your home or other areas in your yard where water may collect and pool. This prevents possible water damage to your home and landscaping....
If a small pond is forming in your yard where you never had one before, consider installing a dry well. Installing a dry well is an inexpensive solution to channel water away from your home or other areas in your yard where water may collect and pool. This prevents possible water damage to your home and landscaping. The gravel and rocks located in a dry well help distribute water without eroding the soil.
Things You'll Need
Plastic trash can
Hammer
Trench spade
String
Stakes
Line level
Tape measure
Landscape fabric
Gravel
Marker
Jig saw
Large stones
Perforated drainpipe
Drill
?-inch drill bit
Catch basin
Garden hose
Mark a path running from the water buildup area on your lawn to the location where you will install a dry well (with your plastic trashcan) with stakes by gently tapping them into the ground with your hammer. Commonly, water is routed away from a home's downspout.
Remove a 12-inch strip of sod carefully with your spade trench. Set the sod aside keeping it moist, as you will reuse the sod later.
Dig a trench 10 inches wide and 14 inches deep along the path you staked with your spade trench.
Slope the trench slightly towards the dry well area about 2 inches every 8 feet. This ensures that water will flow easily through the drainpipe. Place a stake at each end of the trench and tie a string between the stakes. Level the string with a line level. Measure down with your tape measure from the string at 2-foot intervals. Add or remove soil as needed to adjust the slope of your trench.
Remove the sod in a circle pattern, 4 inches wider than the plastic trashcan with your spade trench. Dig a hole at least 4 inches deeper than the height of the plastic trash can.
Line the trench and hole you dug with landscape fabric. Fold the excess fabric back over each side of the trench and around the edges of the hole for the plastic trashcan.
Lay your gravel along the bottom of the trench approximately 1-inch thick. Place the perforated drainpipe onto the gravel in the bottom of your trench. Verify the holes in the perforated drainpipe face downward.
Trace the outline of the drainpipe onto the sides of trashcan, approximately three inches from the top of the can with your marker.
Cut the hole you marked in Step 8 on the trashcan with your jig saw. Drill holes approximately 1 inch in diameter in the sides and bottom of the trashcan.
Place your trashcan in the hole, and position it so the large hole you cut out faces the trench.
Insert your perforated drainpipe extending at least 2 inches inside the trashcan. Place your large stones inside the trashcan and fill the can to the top. Arrange the stones so the top layer of them are flat inside the trashcan.
Fold your landscape fabric over the rocks and fill the hole with soil
Connect the catch basin at the opposite end of the trench so your yards excess water will flow directly into it. Connect the catch basin to the drainpipe by snapping it in place.
Fill the entire trench with gravel, covering the drainpipe with at least 1 inch of gravel.
Fold the edges of the landscape fabric over the gravel-covered drainpipe.
Replace the soil you removed from the trench directly on top of the landscape fabric. Replace the sod directly on top of the soil you removed. Tamp it down lightly with the back of your spade and water it thoroughly with your garden hose.
