Property Drainage Problem...Drywells, Hardscaping, etc.

[T_Connor]

Our property has storm water problems. We've dealt with runoff from the roof through downspout fixes. This fixed most, but not all of the issue. We now have to deal with the driveway, which I have put off too long.

The drive is about 60 ft long and slopes down from the sidewalk to a 10x20 concrete landing adjacent to our walkin basement. This is the low point for our property and it is slightly lower than the neighbor's property adjoining it. Water collects in the drive and pools at its terminus (too close to the house for comfort). We have dense clay soil. It does not drain well, for obvious reasons. At the end of the drive, the ground steps up several feet to a series of trees and out to the back yard, which is at least 2 feet above the low point in the drive.

We have had various landscaping and building pros out to look, I'm a civil engineer who deals with water for a living, and we bribed a friend who is a storm water expert to come look. All of us cannot find a solution to dealing with this water problem short of pumping/lifting it to the back yard and building a drywell there. A drywell at the end of the drive would be too close to our foundation, according to all the sources.

Hence, my basic problem is as follows (it's a bit embarassing to ask, given my profession as I mentioned above):

I don't know how to set up, where to buy, how to rig up, or even what to properly call the household lift pump we need.

I have a line on a catch basin product that we will use to collect the water (which will include a lift station for the pump). We have a good idea how to build the dry well and set up the drainage piping. It's this darn pump that is driving me nuts. Of course, I should have asked the pros when we had them out, but once they figured out that we were planning to do most of the work ourselves, they clammed up. Go figure. :^)

Anyway, I'd appreciate hearing from you kind folk with ideas and/or experience.

Also, how would you wire up one of these buggers? I thought it would be similar to wiring automatic sprinkler systems, but just thought I'd ask to make sure.

Cheers,
Tim

[deathwish2]

>Hence, my basic problem is as follows (it's a bit
>embarassing to ask, given my profession as I mentioned
>above):
>
>I don't know how to set up, where to buy, how to rig up,
>or even what to properly call the household lift pump we
>need.

On the low end you could use a sump pump in your catch basin.

If you have a high danger of getting things like leaves, doggy doo, sand or dirt washed into the 'drain' you could consider using a sewage ejection pump . . . the kind you'd use if you wanted to install a below grade toilet in your house's basement. That should take any catch basin maintenance headaches out of the equation down the road.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...+ejection+pump

Either option could be easily rigged for unattended operation.

I'm sure there's something in the middle . . . but most pumps I've seen are designed for 'clear' water . . . so they'd be no better at moving things than the sump pump . . . they are just cheaper because they leave out the 'sump' part ;) .

[randall]

Such a pump would likely want some sort of catch basin/holding tank and maybe a float activated switch like a sump pump has.

You want whats called a "trash pump", it's rugged pump designed to pump out dirty water full of mud, sediment, flotsam and jetsom like out of culverts and manholes where utilities are.

This 1/2 HP job might do and has an automatic float switch, will handle solids, 110 gal's a minute;

http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/wsp50.htm

http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/pumsub.htm


As far as wiring it goes, you will want a licensed electrician I'm sure for insurance/liability reasons maybe, since the suppy wiring almost certainly will have to be buried underground in conduit (assuming the pump is away from the house) on a dedicated circuit.

[carl civi]

Hi,we just put in a sand mound sewage system up at our cabin.It has a pump in a concrete tank which collets the liquid run off and pumps it up and into the sand mound for proper dranage through the ground.The pump is no biggie just runs off a 110 breaker.What it has atached to it is a alarm system to let us know the power is on and all is working.We have this little gizmo in the cabin,the wire to it is something like bell wire.we have it attached near the breaker box.
Something like that should work. Good Luck. Carl

[T_Connor]

Hey all,

Great advice. I'll talk with an electrician about this for sure...buried underground conduit is not my cup of tea. Thanks for the advice. Carl, I may have a question for you later when we get farther along.

On an interesting developmental note, our neighbor around the corner just began the same project as we are planning. It will be interesting to pick his/her head, as they seem to believe that the can build a dry well in their drive (same topography/drainage as us with the drive being the low point on the property) and not use a pump...

Anyway, thanks again.

Tim

[T_Connor]

Just a little follow up...

The neighbor with the identical drainage problem to us has not had success with his driveway as drywell experiment. Funny enough, I just learned that he is a landscaper. He's a great guy, and I'm glad for the opportunity to meet him through this shared problem. His solution was to excavate his entire driveway 1-1/2 feet. Put in 8 inches of gravel over an expensive porous drainage fabric, and then apply pavers over this. Well, I'm glad he didn't buy the pavers yet, as we had a few small storms recently and his "dry well" ain't too dry. It's got 6 inches of standing water and has drained all of 1/2 inch the past two days (my theory is that this was evaporation and there has been no drainage).

When I asked what he planned to do, he said, "I guess I'll have to pump it out to a drywell in the back yard, away from the foundation." Now I'll get a chance to see how he does this too. It's great having neighbors doing all the experimenting for you.

I suggested he look into the trash pump you all suggested, and he dismissed it saying "they're all gas powered." Well, I'll wait a few days before I follow up and gently let on that not all the trash pumps are gas powered nowadays.

Great fun.

Tim

[DaveZ]

>>>>>We have dense clay soil. It does not drain well<<<<<

This should tell you that a drywell is a waste of time. A drywell needs to perc, which in your soil it will not. It will act like a holding tank and once it's full, your drainage problem will reappear.
You need to find a way to run that water to "daylight". Is there any place you can pump it to, where it can run off?

[T_Connor]

DaveZ,

In the hopes of simplifying the subject, I glossed over the nuances of our property's soil and topography. There are layers of sand and clay that form the hill that I live on. There is an area in the backyard that, when you dig down about 5 feet, is high-perc sand. Previous owners built a drywell in the yard that works like a charm for draining the roof downspouts. It's at least 25 yards from our house, which is nice but requires pumping to reach from the drive.

This is an odd area that I am in...seems there was a sand quarry near our property in the 1800's. My house's concrete block foundation is made, in part, from quarry sand. Evidently they excavated a bunch of clay and basically landscaped with it...plus there are naturally stratified layers of sand, sandy-clay, and pure clay.

The neighbor believed (without researching it) that he could build a drywell in the spot of his drive because his backyard, literally, was the site of the sand quarry. When I asked him if he did a perc test, he pointed to the standing water and said, "well, obviously not." He did mention that his next door neighbors have a functioning dry well not more than ten feet from his drive...but they dug down 6 feet.

It's fun and games!

Cheers,
Tim