Lawn Drainage Problem

Hello,

I recently purchased my first home this past fall. Now that we made it to through winter to the spring, we have come to notice that our backyard does not drain well at all. Our yard is not level and we get ponds that last a week in the low spots. We have been looking into different options but being I just graduate College I'm on a budget.
I just had a couple landscaping companies come out to quote how to fix it. One said to grad the lawn, dig a trench and lay a drain out to the street. It would cost $5000. Another came out and said they would "Bore the lawn" 7-14 times throughout the yard and fill with Pea gravel, then lay 17 yards of top soil, then seed. This would cost $2100. I like the second idea but wanted to know if this would work. It also seems pretty easy for a DIY. Just need steps on what I need to do.

My other thought was to slope the dirt into a rain garden, if that would work.

If you have any other ideas or can help me with the steps needed to do this myself it would be much appreciated.


The Yard size is about 1000 sqft. And my property seems to be higher than our neighbors.

 

Welcome to the forums.

What kind of soil do you have?

 

A pit filled with gravel works but if there is more water than the pit can collect and the ground can absorb - the water will still collect on the surface. As noted above the soil type and how much rain is expected will play a big part as to how effective it would be.

 

My property is higher than my neighbors as well but one must be careful in pushing water onto their property. Is there any kind of drainage built in? As an example, the back 15' or so of our lots is a designated waterway that turns almost into a creek in a heavy rain so I am free to divert water into that area.

 

Without pictures, diagrams or an explanation of where the water comes from it's difficult to make recommendations. Here's the thing, depending on where the water is coming from the problem can be easy or maybe very difficult to solve. For example, my neighbor had water from a broken sprinkler line.

Do you have water in your basement or do you notice mildew nor dampness in the home? How far is the water from the house? How long does it last? A day? A week? A month? These are big issues.

Now that I said that, I'll offer an opinion, anyway.

If you have house moisture issues from the water, that needs to be resolved as a top priority. You can get mold from water seeping into the house.

The first step I'd try is getting a few yards of dirt and leveling the low areas, given that it sounds like your property should drain - excluding soil issues.