For the longest time, we were having problems with water getting into our basement.   Heavy clay content in the soil tends to make water move laterally rather than sinking into the ground – especially during heavy downpours – so our efforts at soil amendments have helped some. And we made sure our gutters were in good shape, with downspouts leading away from the house.  We even have rain barrels.  But  we were still getting water in the basement during heavy rains.  We needed to find a way to move the water rapidly away from the house.

Since we’re on a slope, you would think that it would be fairly simple (but you’d be wrong).  We didn’t want to just create a stream between our house and our neighbor’s when it rained.  For one thing, streams tend to erode whatever path they take.  We needed a system for transferring water from the front of the house to the creek at the back of our property.   It needed to be attractive, safe and non-eroding.

One day we were at the side of the house puzzling over what to do.  We knew that we needed a drainage system, but we weren’t sure where to put it.  We didn’t want to dig up the plantings we already had, and we knew that we shouldn’t plant on top of whatever system we installed because the roots would just clog the pipes.  That’s when the small path we had created caught our attention.  It was perfect.  It already went from front to back and we wouldn’t have to worry about roots and dirt filling the piping.  At that point it was just a small, one person wide, path, which was proving to be unsuitable anyway, so we set to work on designing something better.

The path we settled on is three foot wide.  We dug down 6″ and, after shaping and smoothing the “trench” bottom and walls, anchored flexible black plastic borders along both sides of the entire length.  Then we laid landscape fabric on the bottom of the trench to keep things from growing up from below.

We put in drainage pipe.  You’ve seen it, I’m sure.  About 4″ in diameter, with holes all along it’s length to allow water to enter.  Black.  You can get it in long coils at any home supply store.  We used about 50′ of it.  Once we anchored the drainage pipe, we filled the entire trench with a good coarse gravel, and we tamped it down.   We just used cheap gray gravel for this, since it wouldn’t be seen.  A trench 3′ wide and 6″ deep and 50′ long uses a surprisingly large amount of gravel.  I think I filled my truck bed at least twice, maybe more. At this point, we had a good solid path.  Very walkable and a veritable highway for water.  But it didn’t look great.

So we covered it with more garden fabric to keep the gray gravel from mixing with the decorative stone we would be using, and then we added the red stone chips that you see in the photo.

As you can see in the photo at the left, the path curves to the right to go into the center of the yard.  Well, naturally that’s not where we wanted the water to go (which we realized after it actually did go there).  So just before it turns right, we put a barrier down into the gravel (we used plastic border material) to divert the water to the left instead, where there is a natural slope down toward the creek. This natural slope meant that we didn’t have to extend the drain all the way to the creek.  Just a couple of feet from where we put the barrier to move the water to the left, we let it end and flow on its own.  An added bonus of doing this was that the trees we had planted in that area get an extra helping of water every time there’s a rain. 

To make it a little more natural looking, and to give a nice little effect when water is rushing out, we added a stone “stream bed”.   We only get the full effect of course when it’s raining (and we aren’t out there when it’s raining), but it’s attractive on its own (and we can see it from the covered deck when it is raining).

The whole thing works remarkable well.  It moves a lot of water.  The only time we ever get any water in the basement now is when we have really heavy rain for days and days.  Even then, we only get little spots of water, and not the small pools that we used to get.  So it’s rare to ever get water in the basement now, but we’re still working on stopping even that. One step at a time.

By the way, the other side of the house isn’t a problem, because that’s where the driveway and carport are.

Filed under: Our Garden