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How to Design Drainage
How to Design Drainage. Poor drainage can damage a landscape, attract bugs and create problems with a home's foundation. Designing a drainage system for your home is not difficult, but it does call for some problem-solving. Consider how water flows and where you notice puddles near the house after a big rainfall. Drainage problems with the house...
Poor drainage can damage a landscape, attract bugs and create problems with a home's foundation. Designing a drainage system for your home is not difficult, but it does call for some problem-solving. Consider how water flows and where you notice puddles near the house after a big rainfall. Drainage problems with the house gutters or near the building should be the first things you address.
Things You'll Need
Pencil
Paper
Highlighters
Map the layout of your yard with a pencil, and circle where the high and low points are. Mark the low points with a dark highlighter and the high points with a light color.
Identify the best exit point for excess water. This point could be the street or an active drainage ditch.
Walk your yard and locate a naturally low-lying area or a spot in the yard where you could dig out a depression for water to collect.
Make a drainage grid on your design plan. Plot out connections where drain pipe will run from high spots to your collection point. Include connections from low-lying areas to the depression, noting that the drainage pipes will need to be installed on a slope so the water will drain away from the problem areas.
Draw a primary drainage trench that will direct water away from the depression to the exit point. Ideally, the trench will extend from opposite sides of the depression and wrap around both sides of the house to provide drainage for the entire yard.
Plan to use perforated or corrugated drainage pipe that will allow water to enter from multiple points along drier areas of the yard. Use solid pipes in wet areas to quickly move the water. Note to add drainage grids at the lowest point in the depression to block sticks and debris from clogging the system.
Tips & Warnings
Use T connectors between the drainage pipes to allow water to flow into the drainage system. T connectors are positioned with the long stem facing the sky, and a drainage grid over the opening.
Once the drainage pipes are laid, cover the trench with pea gravel. Water can travel through gravel down into the drainage system, while sticks and rocks will get caught in the gravel. You can cover the gravel with sod to blend it in with your yard, or leave the gravel exposed for easier access to the pipes.
