While a gentle, steady rain can be great for your trees, plants, and yard, a sudden downpour can do just the opposite. Flooded lawns can ruin your yard, cause odors, and lead to pests. If that pooled water leaks into your basement or foundation, you could also be left with water damage and mold.

Fortunately, there are some ways to help combat this. Let’s get right into them.

French Drains

French drains are slightly sloped trenches with a perforated pipe inside that’s surrounded by gravel and then buried. French drains are very effective in diverting groundwater away from your home to somewhere safer like the street, a drainage ditch, a dry well, or a low-lying area on your property.

By the way, this type of drain doesn’t get its name from the country, but from the person who invented it, a Massachusetts man by the name of Henry Flagg French. 😉

Channel Drains

Channel drains are similar to French drains only they work to remove surface water rather than groundwater. They are usually lined with concrete and covered with steel grates to help prevent debris from entering. Channel drains are great for driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, and around pool edges.

Dry Wells

Dry wells are great at distributing stormwater into local groundwater and work well as an end-point for channel drains and French drains. They consist of a hole in the ground with a perforated plastic barrel inside that is surrounded by stone or gravel. They hold water and slowly allow it to soak into the ground.

Catch Basins

Catch basins are large drains typically placed in low-lying areas in your yard. They’re designed to catch surface runoff water. Catch basins consist of a box that sits underground and a visible grate above to catch debris.

 

Sump Pumps

Sump pumps have a sump basin that collects water around your basement or foundation and pumps it out and away from your home and into a storm drain or dry well. They are especially helpful for properties with flat yards where standing water is common.

Yard Drainage Solutions

There are many advantages of having a drainage system installed on your property, especially here in the Portland and Vancouver metropolitan area where we experience a lot of heavy rainfall.

The licensed plumbers at D&F Plumbing, Heating and Cooling are well versed in drainage systems like French drains and catch basins. If you constantly suffer from basement leaks or standing water on your lawn, contact us.

Then once your yard drainage system is installed, we’ll perform the regular maintenance so that it will always work its best.