Managing run-off water on your property protects your home from flooding.
Managing water run-off from your roof and property is the most effective method to prevent a wet basement and protect your investment. Even modern basement waterproofing is only water-resistant at best. If enough water rests against your foundation, it will find a path into your home. To complicate things, most municipalities require you to manage the water on your property is a way that doesn't affect your neighbors. The means moving it out to the road or dissipating it into the ground. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Swale
1. Determine the most effective direction to move the water on your property. This is typically towards the road as most properties have surrounding neighbors.
2. Spray paint lines to show where you want the water to go. This is typically a "U" shape 10 to 15 feet from the house, with the open part of the "U" facing the road. The spray-painted lines are the bottom of the swale. A swale is a "V" shaped lot grading detail that is slightly higher on one end, to move the water in a given direction. For a residential property, the backyard portion of the swale is slightly higher than the sides and the front is the lowest area. This moves the water away from the home, along the sides of the house and out the front of the property.
3. Dig down with the shovel and wheelbarrow, using the painted lines as your guide. The line represents the bottom of the swale. Continue moving dirt until you have created the "V" shape around the property. A mini-excavator may be used for large properties or just to make the labor less intensive.
4. Lay grass sod on top of the dirt and water immediately. Sod should be staggered like brick work and the joints butted together snugly. You need to water the sod twice a day for the first two weeks, then once a day for two more weeks. The roots of the sod prevent erosion of the soil on the property.
French Drain
5. Dig a large hole at least 15 feet from your home. The size of the hole will depend on the amount of water your home's roof generates during the largest annual rainfall and the drainage qualities of the soil. A good starting point is 10 foot wide by 6 feet deep.
6. Dig ditches from your home's downspouts to the hole. The ditches should have 1/4 inch of slope every two feet, towards the hole.
7. Install a 90-degree elbow on the end of four-inch ABS pipe and connect to the downspout. Lay the pipe in the ditch and connect to other sections of straight ABS pipe to direct the water into the French drain.
8. Fill the hole with gravel up to one foot from the top. Lay landscaping cloth on top of the gravel.
9. Fill the remaining 12 inches of the hole and the ditches with top soil. Lay sod on top the hole and ditches and water immediately.
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