If you are a homeowner, you completely understand the need to upkeep and maintain the condition of your home to prevent more costly and serious issues down the line. One meaningful way to care for your home is to find backyard or front yard drainage solutions that divert water away from your home and prevent the collection of standing water in the low spots in your yard.
Why is it important to divert water away from my house?
When natural stormwater or irrigated water starts to pool around your house because it doesn’t get appropriately redirected, it can gradually cause some severe flooding and drainage issues to your home:
- Eroding the foundation of your house
- Damaging (like causing cracks) your driveway, patio, and other external areas
- Creating soggy lawns and sinking soil in the surrounding yard
- Exposing your family members to possible mold and mildew and putting their physical health at risk
- Damaging the aesthetic landscape of your yard and walls of your home
Whether you live on the hillside (at a downward slope or upward slope) or flat land, water is constantly moving across or pooling at different spots of your home!
But no need to worry because creating a yard drainage system to prevent the flooding of your yard is easier than you think.
How can I check if my yard has a drainage problem? What are some signs that I should look out for?
- First, check the way that your current irrigation system is installed: Is your automatic sprinkler or irrigation system pointed mostly towards your lawn and plants, or is it also misdirected towards the walls or edges of your house?
Payless Tip: Consider planting trees and plants close to your house but not against your house. This is so that when it comes to watering your greenery, sprinklers and drip irrigation could be installed at least a few feet away from your house to prevent the issues listed above.
- Secondly, during the raining season, observe how stormwater moves around your house. Does the water actively move away from the home? Or does it pool around your home and take a while for it to go away? If the water seems to linger and take time to disappear, there is a good chance that your yard is soaking up all the water. Of course, your yard does need some water (especially if you have a lawn, trees, plants, etc.) but if you do notice water pooling, you’ll want to set up a drainage pipe or a set of pipes in your yard that will guide water away from your home. Read below to get some ideas.
- Last but not least, after a rainstorm, immediately check the soil under your house to see if it is damp. You can do this by checking your home’s crawl space. (Note: You don’t need to go all the way in; you can simply open the door of the crawl space and check the soil from within the house.) It’s essential that the crawl space in your home stays dry to prevent mold, keep the soil from sinking, and proactively avert other possible damage to the foundation of your house.
Here are 3 useful ways to move water away from your home:
Drain Spout Extender
A simple and affordable drain spout extender can easily prevent more costly structural home and yard repairs down the line. Made of flexible plastic, these extenders connect to your existing downspouts. You can even connect multiple extenders together and use as many as you need to guide the stormwater from the rain to the street or to another drain. If the sleek black-colored pipes don’t fit your style, you can even bury the drain in the ground for more curb appeal.
Channel Drain (Trench Drain)
When water tends to pool around your walkway, driveway or any other areas around your home, installing a channel drain in the yard or edges of your patio is a great solution. These durable drains are perfect for high foot traffic areas and comes with features such as easy clean out, high strength, ADA compliance and UV protection for a long-lasting solution. They are fairly easy to install as you can use many different types of materials around it such as gravel, concrete and pavers.
French Drain (Corrugated Pipe)
Installing a french drain in the yard is a popular option people use to combat ongoing drainage problems in their home. Able to effectively collect water at different intervals, you can install corrugated pipes with slit holes that allow water to gradually fill inside (as water floods and rises in the ground) and funnel out to wherever the pipe ends. The pipe is usually buried anywhere from 8 to 24 inches (usually about 1-2 feet underground) and surrounded by some type of stones. Some even come with a “sock” that covers the entire pipe to stop dirt from clogging the inlets.
Payless Tip: To achieve the more aesthetically pleasing look that you desire after the installation of your pipes is complete, try adding rocks, sand, gravel, pavers, concrete, and more
Our local Payless Hardware, Rockery, and Nursery store carries the supplies you need to prevent and solve all of your yard drainage and irrigation problems. Come stop in and chat with one of our expert associates for any questions about all things home improvement.
