French drain or...?

[Let's go Brandon!]

My back yard has always been slow to drain in particular area. It has gotten increasingly worse over the years thanks to our lovely heavy clay soil. It's my understanding that it has just become more and more compact and hardened due the long drought we are hopefully coming out of.

Has anyone ever gone the French drain route? Is it ok or common to simply tap that or some other pipe into the sewer drainage? (which is nearby).

Changing the grade of the property is probably not do-able as I can't imagine where I could even send the water.

[JES]

in my experience the French drain is slow, I would go with a real drain out to street or to your closest storm water drain.

[meltingfeather]

It is not OK to tap a french drain or any other non-DWV pipe into the sewer.
It is illegal (plumbing code) and dangerous.

[Let's go Brandon!]

in my experience the French drain is slow, I would go with a real drain out to street or to your closest storm water drain.

that's one of many things Brownwood doesn't have, storm drainage. And the street up hill 50+ yards away

[Johnny Dangerr]

I have a 4 inch drain that struggles to keep up at times. It has a 2 foot grate that I screen to catch lawn clippings and leaves that I have to clean a couple of times a year. It a pain but my garage stays dry.
It dumps into the street......

[ramrod]

Sounds like your best bet would be a plastic catch basin with a pump. Then just figure the best direction to pump the water.

[JES]

If you put a drain system in, do not, I repeat DO NOT stick the nozzle of your mosquito fogger in a drain. Apparently methane gas is given off from decomposing organic matter...if you do this it will result in flames shooting out of all drains and poop in your pants and singed hair on the hand holding said fogger.

[Outbreaker]

I had a house that had issues with drainage to the point of flooding. We solved most of the issues by installing 6" pipe and drains all over the back and side yards. They would then gravity drain to the street.

[AZST_bowhunter]

My back yard has always been slow to drain in particular area. It has gotten increasingly worse over the years thanks to our lovely heavy clay soil. It's my understanding that it has just become more and more compact and hardened due the long drought we are hopefully coming out of.

Has anyone ever gone the French drain route? Is it ok or common to simply tap that or some other pipe into the sewer drainage? (which is nearby).

Changing the grade of the property is probably not do-able as I can't imagine where I could even send the water.

I have a french drain that gathers and drains through a 16" pipe pout of my backyard into a drainage ditch

[scott.str]

I'm in the same boat. I tilled up the hard dirt. Previous owner let flooded water sit so it really made it concrete. That helped a ton and added better gutters. It will not flood unless it's alot of rain. Thinking about doing an electric sump in the bad area and plugging it in when it gets bad. Was quoted on the phone 2500-2700 to go 80ft. That sound high?

[Let's go Brandon!]

I had a house that had issues with drainage to the point of flooding. We solved most of the issues by installing 6" pipe and drains all over the back and side yards. They would then gravity drain to the street.

Getting to the street is still an issue in this case.

Aside from the bazillion tree roots, it's quite a distance and enough of an uphill grade that I would come out under the street. I was hoping this type of drainage simple allowed the standing water to get below surface so it could be soaked up naturally. Or maybe I have a build up of clay top soil in that area.

The door in the reflection is to my shop in the back.

[Briar Friar]

Always always always move water over the soil surface. French drains will clog with soil, roots and dead critters etc. Cut a swale. Find a way. Now is the best time to find a path...when water is standing...it wants to move. The ditch/trench doesnt need to be very big to move alot of water...width of a pickaxe or grubhoe is sufficient. If youve concrete in the way...bust it out. I dig my drainage ditches in the rain...using gravity and God.

Good luck.

[txpitdog]

We ran all our gutters, pool deck drains, and French drain tand the street through 4” slotted hard pipe. The drain is about 1 foot deep in a trench surrounded by gravel. During Harvey we had a solid 4” diameter bolt of water blasting into the street from the drain, but the backyard did not flood at all.

If your street is uphill you may have to put in a collection sump and pump to move the water


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jerp]

I had the same problem. For several days after a multi-inch rain, water would flow under my back fence from a big property behind us and flood my yard. The water would pond in my yard then slowly drain to a ditch between my lot and my neighbor's before making it's way to a culvert on the street. My solution was to build an artificial creek bed running the length of my back fence and down the side fence to that ditch. It is 4' wide and about 6-8" deep and filled with river rock. It works well as long as I periodically clear the leaves and other debris out of it.

[nursejenn]

We ha e a French drain in the front of our house that runs into a basin with a sump pup and is then hard piped across the driveway into the pasture on the other side.