Do You Have To Worry About Pooling Water After A Rainstorm
Now, pooling water is fairly common after big rainstorms, and you shouldnt worry about it if the issue only occurs once in a while and resolves itself quickly. However, if it happens regularly, or the water doesnt drain out after a few days, thats a problem. Are there ways to stop it from happening? Absolutely. Want to know what you can do?
Why Is Aeration Important For Treating Wastewater
Aeration supplies oxygen to bacteria to purify and stabilize wastewater. Bacteria in wastewater break down carbonaceous organic matter into carbon dioxide and water using incoming oxygen. Without enough oxygen, bacteria cannot biodegrade the incoming organic matter in a reasonable amount of time.
It Can Damage The Foundation Of Your House
Its common knowledge that stagnant water can eventually damage the foundation of your property. You need to be pretty careful and prevent the water from seeping under the ground and eventually near the foundation of the property.
Stagnant water eventually finds its way under the ground, and as it does, there is a strong chance that it could weaken the concrete foundation of your property.
If that happens, the entire structure of your house is going to start sinking to one side. Needless to say, failure to take action could end up costing you a considerable amount of money.
You need to make sure that you dont let the water stand for more than a day or two!
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Check Your Yard Often To Prevent Future Yard Drainage Issues
Even after youve tackled your chosen DIY yard drainage project and your property is back on track, its important to take care of your soil and keep watch for unwanted standing water in the future. If youre concerned that your soil isnt aerating enough, a round of rototilling can loosen the earth and help it drain more quickly.
Decorative rocks in the yard, if not placed properly, can also create barriers to runoff, causing water to pool in the grass. Consider relocating or removing some rocks from the yard to ensure rainwater has a clear path out of your yard.
When your yard isnt draining the way it should be, its easy to feel overwhelmed by the task of fixing it. But with the right preparation and the right tools, you can take on a variety of DIY yard drainage ideas in a weekend or two to get your property back on track.
Looking to make other changes to your yard? No matter what youre working on, learn how to throw away all kinds of project debris with ease, from concrete and bricks to yard waste and dirt.
Improve Your Yard Grade
This one of the first things you should check if your yard continually floods after a rainstorm. The slope of your yard determines where and how the water will drain. That is why it is crucial to have an adequate slope to prevent water from pooling. An efficient drainage system typically requires a minimum slope of 2 percent away from your home . To improve the grade of your yard, you can spread topsoil along the foundation and in low areas. This will help facilitate better drainage.
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What Does The Aeration Process Do Animals
Aeration brings water and air into close contact, exposing droplets or thin layers of water to the air, or introducing tiny air bubbles and allowing them to rise through the water.
Dethatching bladeWhat is the purpose of dethatching? Basically the scarifier is designed to remove grass clippings or stubble from the ground. Stubble cultivation can be done as part of a landscape renovation or to remove an unnecessary grass species before adding another grass. The design of the scarifier is relatively simple.When to thatch and aerate your lawn?Fall may be the best time to aerate your lawn during the colder montâ¦
Install A French Drain
The purpose of a French drain is to direct water away from your home. It can be made inexpensively without a lot of materials or tools. Simply dig a trench to direct the water toward the perimeter of your property, preferably near a storm drain or dry well, a shallow trench that has deep holes with rocks for drainage.
When water is diverted to a dry well, the water can gradually drain into the surrounding soil. To increase the longevity of the dry well, insert a perforated plastic tub to hold the rocks .
Fill the trench with gravel and place a plastic perforated pipe at the trenchs base and let gravity do the rest.
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Trench With The Grade
There is more to installing a french drain system tha simply digging a trench line. The key is to make sure that a continuous slope is present throughout the system.
The area where standing water exists should serve as the high point. You will want to ensure that the drainage pipe leading from this point has at least a small slope to ensure that water runs effectively toward the endpoint.
When it comes to digging the trench, you can do this with a plain old shovel and muscle power if your soil is not too hard and the distance is not far. In both of my cases, it was more sensible to use a small excavator.
Note: The grade doesnt have to be precise. You can always backfill the trench where you need to in order to ensure a proper grade. Just make sure that the overall slope ensures water drainage in the direction you want.
What Are The Signs Of A Water Drainage Problem
A lake-sized puddle may be a little dramatic. The indicators of drainage issues in your yard may be a little more subtle than that. Here are a few telltale signs that indicate you need to divert water in your yard:
- Overflowing gutters
- Efflorescence or flaking walls in your basement
- Basement leaks
- Mold
Don’t let water surprise you.
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Fresh Water Plumbing Pipe Leak
Your fresh water system runs on a pressurized system. It pumps clean water from the city/meter into your home. The pipes are always full of water and ready to flow once you turn on the faucet to wash your hands, clean the dishes, and take a bath or shower. It also flushes your toilet and is ready when you start the washing machine to do laundry.
If there is a leak above your homes concrete slab from your fresh water pipes, you will most certainly have water on a floor or somewhere else. And because there is always water in this pressurized system, the water never stops flowing or dries up. Having a leak in a fresh water pipe is like turning on the faucet and leaving it on.
Now it is possible that the puddle is the result of a fresh water leak under the concrete slab. However, this is rarely the case. Its far more likely the puddle is a result of a leak above the slab.
With a leak under the slab, the water from the leak would have to build up enough to the point that it needs to find a path out. An under slab leak resulting in a puddle on your floor would mean that the only path out was up. Add to that the water then had to make it through 4 or 5 inches of thick concrete slab.
Again, while it is possible and has happened from time to time, keep in mind water typically flows downhill and not up. So its unlikely the only path out is up. Also there would already have to be some some sort of crack running all the way through the slab.
Problem #4 Bad Subsoils
The types of subsoils on your lot can greatly affect the water conditions of the property. There are certain soils that are nearly impossible to dry out once they get wet.
One of these is clay. Clay is made of tiny particles which hold water easily. When these soils become saturated they expand greatly. This can put a lot of pressure on your foundation walls as well as prevent moisture from draining off your property.
How do you know what subsoils you have?
Well, you could guess based upon the area you live in. These clay soils are very common in the Minneapolis area so its likely that your yard is clay. However, if you want to be sure, you could hire a professional to perform a soil test.
Whats the solution?
If poor subsoils were used to backfill around your homes foundation, the best solution is a soil correction. These are not cheap, but are a long term fix that prevents water from slowly damaging your foundation.
What is the best subsoil to use?
Recycled asphalt combined with concrete, known as con-bit, is the absolute best subsoil you could use. It does not hold water and compacts much better than clay does providing support to a home, driveway or garage. Since water is allowed to filter through the soil, the soil is much more stable and will not shrink and expand the way other soils can. This will ultimately lead to less standing water, swampy landscape, and a stronger foundation.
The following list will provide you with the worst and best subsoils:
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Get Rid Of Water In Flooded Patios And Walkways
When a patio or sidewalk sits lower than your yard, it can end up covered in standing water after a rainstorm. This water can take days to evaporate, leaving the paved area unusable during that time. You can raise the level of your patio or sidewalk to fix this issue. However, this tends to be labor-intensive and costly. A more practical solution would be to invest in storm drain channels, which are installed along the lowest slope of sidewalks or patios. When it rains, the water that runs onto your patio can drain through the grate, into the channel and through a French drain, finally reaching an easement or curb.
How To Find The Source Of A Water Leak In Your Front Yard
So theres a really wet spot or large pool of water in your front yard, and you suspect a water leak. But where is it?
The 2 most common places are:
- In the main service line between your water meter and home shutoff valve
- In your irrigation system
Were going to show you how to isolate these 2 parts of your plumbing system and use your water meter to find out where the leak is.
Dont worry, its easy: if you can turn a valve on and off, you can do this.
Note: Shut-off valves can break when you turn them on or off if theyre old or corroded.
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How Can Pond Aeration Improve Algae Control
Aerating your pond is the best thing you can do for your pond. If you are already using natural treatments, you can generally increase the effectiveness of these algae control methods in your pond by increasing the oxygen level in the water and improving blood circulation. Underwater ventilation helps in both cases.
Find A Lower Grade To Drain To
Once you have found and marked the areas you need to address, its time to figure out where you can drain that standing water. If your yard has a visible incline or nearby ditch, this may be easy to determine.
If not, there are tools that can be used to give you precision measurements. I purchased this Builders Level Package that comes with a tripod, measuring stick and level.
A cheaper but much less accurate solution would be to use a string level. I watched a couple of my neighbors measure their grade this way. Im not sure I would have the confidence in this approach though if there wasnt a somewhat noticeable natural grade already that you could easily follow.
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Standing Water In Yard
If water stands in your yard for hours or even days after a moderate rain, you have poor drainage, which can be caused by heavy, compacted soils or improper grading. If this occurs near your homes foundation, it can lead to nasty moisture issues in your basement or crawlspace. Fortunately, a French drain or re-grading the property can usually solve this problem.
How Often Should You Dethatch Lawn
Clean your lawn at least once a year or whenever the layer is more than 1/2 inch deep. The best time to loosen your lawn during hot and cold seasons is when the grass is growing in late spring or early fall.
Should I Roll My Lawn In The SpringWhen should I roll up and aerate the lawn?Ideally, roll up your lawn in early spring when there is still plenty of water. If you wait until the lawn is too dry, compress the lawn by blowing air bubbles out of the lawn, this can damage the roots of the grass. Rolling up your lawn makes it much easier to mow your lawn in the summer.Also, when should you roll up your lawn?A heavy roller compacts the soil and only a light weight is needed to get the job donâ¦
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What Is A French Drain And How Does It Work
If youve been looking up ways to deal with standing water in your yard, youve probably run across the term French drain. Sounds intimidating, right? Wondering what the heck it is? And what exactly it does?
This is one of those situations where the name makes it sound like a much bigger deal than it really is. The simplest way to describe a French drain is that its a flexible plastic drain pipe that you can place under your lawn to help channel water away.
Still sound complicated? Heres how to put in a French drain if you are experiencing drainage issues:
Now you have a French drain! Its a simple way to add very basic plumbing to your lawn and alleviate drainage issues in specific areas.
How To Improve Drainage In Your Yard
Water drainage problems in yards are a typical problem for many homeowners, particularly as storms get heavier and more intense. Most yard drainage solutions start with the soil. Oftentimes, the soil is too hard and compact so it cant absorb water. This leads to common drainage problems in yards from erosion to creating pools of stagnant water. In some cases, it can cause dampness or flooding in basements or crawl spaces.
We recommend using — or asking your landscaper to use — natural hydrology work to fix water drainage problems. Rather than building a huge retaining wall, natural hydrology is to work with nature instead. Of course, sometimes you just need a French drain, and thats okay too. Generally, the less foot traffic an area gets, the more you can work with natural solutions. Here are a couple that we recommend.
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Install A Rain Barrel
If you are unable to extend your downspout due to its location, a rain barrel could be another option. Instead of the water dumping onto the driveway or ground, it would dump into a rain barrel. The barrel would store the water until you can get rid of it, usually by reusing it to water your lawn.
This is especially helpful in reducing your water usage and lowering your water bill. While many people store their rain barrels beneath their downspouts, you can also place the barrel anywhere water collects from overhead sources.
If you decide to install a rain barrel on your property, make sure you place it on a flat surface that can hold the weight of a full barrel. Youll also want to get a rain water diverter, which keeps mosquitos out and prevents debris from flowing into the barrel.
Add An Underground Drainage Pipe
One of the best ways to get rid of water from a low spot is to simply drain it away through an underground drainage pipe. For this to work, you need an area to discharge the water that’s lower than the inlet. The underground drainage pipe should slope downhill at least 1/8 in. per foot. If you had a discharge outlet 100 ft. from the inlet, it would have to be about 1 ft. lower.
To create the drain, you’ll have to dig a gradually sloping trench from the source to the outlet. Then bury a plastic catch basin at the source and connect it to the discharge with PVC drainpipe. This system has a few advantages over a French drain . Since the pipe is solid, and not perforated, there’s no need to provide gravel for drainage along the length of the drainpipe. Also, smooth-wall pipe drains water quickly, and if it gets clogged, you can use a drain snake to clean it out.
Drainpipe discharge: The discharge end of your drainpipe can be connected to pop up yard drain emitter that sits flush to the lawn when no water is flowing.Drainpipe inlet: Position the inlet catch basin at the low spot of your soggy area. The grate will sit flush to the lawn for easy mowing.
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