Do you dread it every time the weatherman announces days of rain with heavy downpours? Do you have a wet basement or areas of your property where the water won’t drain for days?
There are ways that a New City landscape design/build company can improve drainage on your property so you don’t have a wet basement or soggy soil.
First of all, you need to know why water won’t drain on your property. Here are some common reasons for poor drainage:
- Water has no place to go when it goes through your downspouts.
- You have hardpan soil—dense soil that won’t absorb water.
- Your neighbor had some grading or construction work done on their home. And now, water from their property spills over into yours.
- You can have a moist or wet basement because the contractor who built your home incorrectly graded it. Also, your contractor may have incorrectly graded your sloped lawn. Thus, you have water flowing toward your home rather than away from it.
Once you or your landscape contractor discovers the reasons for poor drainage, you and he can work together to solve the problem. Here are eight ways a landscape design/build company can improve your property’s drainage in Bergen County, NJ or Rockland County, NY:
- Design and build a grassy swale: A swale simply directs water away from your home and property to go somewhere else. It involves excavating and planting grass to make it a natural part of your existing landscape. Swales are perfect if you have a sloping yard.
- Design and build a bog garden: There are a lot of plants that do well in our wetland areas. For example, red-twigged dogwoods, some maples and oaks, Southern magnolias, willows, and birches like soggy soil. Additionally, there are plenty of water-loving plants that will thrive in your bog garden, such as different varieties of lilies and irises; some ornamental grasses; and cattails.
- Excavate and build a French drain: A French drain consists of a trench, usually 18” wide by 24” deep, strategically located to catch and divert water. The trench is lined with fabric, and then a 4” perforated pipe is laid in the bottom. The trench is filled in with gravel, covered with fabric and covered with 2” of topsoil. Seed & hay finish the job and when the grass grows in you can’t even tell it’s there.
- Excavate and build a dry well: A dry well takes rain water from your downspouts and drains it to an underground storage well. The water gradually percolates through the well and refills the underground water table.
- Design and build a retaining wall: Retaining walls are not only beautiful to look at, they’re also effective for improving drainage in sloping yards. A retaining wall prevents erosion and water streaming into your home or onto the street.
- Excavate, grade, and add gypsum. You may have drainage problems on your property because you have hardpan soil. Hardpan soil doesn’t allow water to drain. If you have a hardpan layer of soil, a landscape contractor can excavate, grade, and add gypsum to it to loosen it up for better drainage.
- Excavate and add an inlet subsurface system. An inlet subsurface system involves piping and catch basins to collect excess water when it rains.
- Excavate and add a trench drain. If water is flowing down your driveway during downpours, you can have a trench drain built into the bottom of your driveway. A landscape contractor will level your trench drain so the water can flows toward it rather than toward the New City’s sewer system.
At Majestic Lawn and Landscape, we’ll visit your property to assess how rain water leaves it. We’re experts at design/build projects that include excavating, grading, and adding drains, dry wells, French drains, retaining walls, subsurface systems, swales or a bog garden to your property.
Are you tired of rain water not absorbing into the ground on your Bergen County, NJ or Rockland County, NY property? Then call us to improve your property’s drainage problems at (845) 708-2988 or fill out our contact form.
Sources:
Gilmer, Maureen. “How Much Does It Cost to Install a Drainage System? Landscaping Network.
Ibid. “Solutions for Homesite Drainage,” Landscaping Network.
Wikipedia.com “Hardpan.”