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Ask The Yard Doctor

Improving Drainage

17 years ago

Hi, we sit about four feet below our neighbor's property. There is a hill/slope area that transitions between the two properties.

Our neighbor has their gutter and their swimming pool drains routed to drain onto our property. I have mentioned to my neighbor that this "IS" a problem and she is hostile about it. I have called the code inspector for our area but he has not contacted me nor them as far as I know.

As a result, what can we do to ammend our soil to improve the drainage?

Property Information:

We are in West Tennessee and the soil is clay. We have bermuda grass on the hill but with their water flow, the hill is being washed away and there are sunken areas on top of the hill. This area gets full sun all day. When it rains there are pools of water in the yard below the hill. However, once the rain stops the water flows off swiftly. There is never any standing water after the rain (only when she drains her swimming pool onto our property).

I hope this falls into the category of questions you are answering.

Thanks very much.

Comments (5)

yarddoctor
17 years ago
I want to help here, so I am trying to get a mental picture. My first reaction is to simply attach a further drain to hers so that I can divert the water in the direction where I want it to go. Will this work?
flowermum
Original Author
17 years ago
My husband said he would try your suggestion.

They burried their pipe underground and their water shoots 'under' our hill, thus the sunken areas in the hill. The water has made a deep trench pathway down the hill, practically splitting the hill in two.

We have 1.5 acres that my husband would have to travel the drain pipe across. Do you have any suggestions as to the prep and installation of extending the drain? How deep?

Thank you very much.
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yarddoctor
17 years ago
For the water to flow you must have 0.5% slope minmimum and given the ditance to travel that it what I would suggest. Where will this drain end?
flowermum
Original Author
17 years ago
There is a drainage easement at the front of our property and an easement to the side where we would route the drain pipes.

If you were to take a rectangle, our home sits about 25 feet from the Northeast property line. The hill is on this side as well. To the far left of the rectangle there is a 35 foot drainage easement. This is where we would have to route the water.

It is a lot of work involved for us, that is why we had hoped our neighbor would do the right thing and just reroute her pipe to flow onto her own property and not ours.
neilaz
17 years ago
Plug the pipe so it backs up into his pool. Then it will get fixed :)

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