If you live in a part of the world that receives a fair bit of rain, then you are probably pretty mindful of water and how it effects your property.
I live in the beautiful state of Maryland. My home is built on clay soils. And when it rains you can bet that not all of that water quickly percolates through and into the earth.
The purpose of this "how to" is to serve as a visual reference for constructing a hidden drainage ditch in your yard if you have limited standing water issues on your property.
A common term for this kind of approach is a "French Drain"
Oh disclaimer time: Before you dig ANYWHERE, make sure you contact your local utilities people. It can't be stressed enough that the danger of damaging a line in your yard is a real possibility whenever you dig (It also becomes your responsibility if you knock out your neighborhoods power, so call first then dig.) Also, do not do this procedure very close to your foundation. Check with a landscaping company if you don't want to get your hands dirty. A little bit of research and you can feel pretty confident to do this one on your own.
Alright? Let's go!
I live in the beautiful state of Maryland. My home is built on clay soils. And when it rains you can bet that not all of that water quickly percolates through and into the earth.
The purpose of this "how to" is to serve as a visual reference for constructing a hidden drainage ditch in your yard if you have limited standing water issues on your property.
A common term for this kind of approach is a "French Drain"
Oh disclaimer time: Before you dig ANYWHERE, make sure you contact your local utilities people. It can't be stressed enough that the danger of damaging a line in your yard is a real possibility whenever you dig (It also becomes your responsibility if you knock out your neighborhoods power, so call first then dig.) Also, do not do this procedure very close to your foundation. Check with a landscaping company if you don't want to get your hands dirty. A little bit of research and you can feel pretty confident to do this one on your own.
Alright? Let's go!
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials and Methods
Required Equipment
A muddy poorly drained yard.
A cast iron constitution if you're digging this by hand.
A long length of string/rope
A line level
A couple of round point shovels
Iron tooth rake
Wheel barrow
Landscaping Cloth
Utility Knife
Bucket
Water source
Topsoil
Grass Seed
and
Stones
Stones of various sizes, depending on your project you will need quite a lot of pea gravel, stones, rocks, etc. Usually come in 0.5 cu/ft bags. You can acquire a lot of stone from your local garden center. Just do your math. Length x width x Depth of your trench will be your total volume. Buy more rock than that and you'll be good to go.
A muddy poorly drained yard.
A cast iron constitution if you're digging this by hand.
A long length of string/rope
A line level
A couple of round point shovels
Iron tooth rake
Wheel barrow
Landscaping Cloth
Utility Knife
Bucket
Water source
Topsoil
Grass Seed
and
Stones
Stones of various sizes, depending on your project you will need quite a lot of pea gravel, stones, rocks, etc. Usually come in 0.5 cu/ft bags. You can acquire a lot of stone from your local garden center. Just do your math. Length x width x Depth of your trench will be your total volume. Buy more rock than that and you'll be good to go.
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when i did it, i had a shed in the way of the view so we used a laser surveyors transit. we shot a line from each end of the drain to the back wall, drove in a nail where the dot landed. Between the nails there was a 4in drop. in the trench, i laid the black perforated plastic drainpipe covered with landscape cloth. it's lasted for years.
There are areas where the lines are supposed to go but on our front lawn, when the guy tried to scan it, it looked like the installers had a very long cable and didn't want to cut it and add new ends. They just tossed the extra cable out of their way. There were loops of cable all over(under!) the lawn.They finally gave up, cut it and put in a new line.
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p.s. I agree with your use of the french drain in your situation, and I am grateful for your post because my backyard is essentially in the same situation as yours.
Clogged drain
One I installed for a larger area that always flooded I installed 3 pipes that gave it much more capacity. Plus was able to dedicate 2 lines for the gutter & downpipes with multiple surface boxes also made cleaning out lines if needed.
Some big box hardware stores sell pipe pre-drilled with drainage holes for a quick French drain, but you'll still need to do the digging, lay the gravel, and everything else you've done here. I prefer this old school method, and the results are awesome. No more mud pit.