I have an old house, built in 1943. It is a bungalow with a very pitched roof and no basement, which is good. However, because of it has no basement, and is so old, my property has no weeping tile or other solutions to deal with the threat of flooding. Most of the houses around me are exactly the same. You would think that no basement equals no problem, but there is always the danger that too much water will end up in the crawl space and not evaporate fast enough, and cause issues.
The grading around the house was pretty good to begin with — it the front and sides, it is perfect — and I have made improvements. Also, the level of ground in the crawl space is great over-all. However, because previous owners did not know how to care for a house and garden, my backyard sits a bit lower than my neighbors, and so gets flooded in bad rain storms.
I have a plan to prepare for a patio in the middle of my yard, and dig a trench two or three foot down, the width and length of my planned patio, then fill it with limestone screening, or granular A, to help with drainage. I also need to level my yard, so that the grade is better sending runoff away from my house. After a major rainstorm, I am also considering creating drainage pits in key parts of my garden — creating three or four foot deep holes, putting granular A in the bottom 70% and then filling the remaining 30% with soil.
Any other ideas or suggestions, or suggestion RE my plan? Does my plan make sense, over all?
Just to be clear, all the gardens adjacent to mine, and one of the two diagonally behind me, are old and so also have no weeping tile. And all the yards around me have been built up over time, so sit anywhere up to a half a foot higher than mine. Also, because there have been additions to all the houses, there is more runoff than was originally planned for.
I do not want to raise the level of my land by a full half foot over-all, for various reasons, I just want to keep the flood waters at the bottom of the garden, or no closer than the center, during the worst sort of weather (a rainstorm OR a major late-winter/early-spring melt).
Chosen Answer:
I was going to suggest leech fields,,But you nailed it,,It will still flood,but will drain away fast…
by: Brain Itch
on: 9th July 13
