Rainscaping Your Landscape

December 15, 2012 - No Comments by David - Drainage

With the rainy season still in store for us in Northern California, it is vital that your landscaping have proper water drainage built in to the design. Without proper drainage, your home and landscape can suffer greatly. Not only can it destroy your plants, yard and your neighbors’ properties, but can lead to serious structural problems for your home and hardscapes, such as cracked housing foundations, water leaks, and flooded sump pumps.

To avoid the nightmare of rather expensive structural problems and flooding, DK Landscaping provides some solutions to poor drainage:

• Proper Grading: Grading (if surface drainage is possible) is often the most inexpensive and most effective solution to correcting an area with poor drainage.

• French Drains: A French drain is basically a ditch lined with rocks or gravel that helps drain water away from an area. French drain works on the principle of gravity, being slightly sloped down from the area to be drained to the area where one wishes to redirect the water. Excess ground and surface water percolates into the French drain and is directed away.

• Catch Basins:  Catch basins are simply a reservoir designed to trap debris so that it cannot enter the drainage pipes. Anytime your source of water is above ground, a catch basin can collect the water so that it can be piped away underground. Basins are used primarily when grading is either not possible or when it would create an undesired/unusable space.

• Sump Pumps: Commonly used back East where most homes have basements. Sump pumps are sometimes the only way to remove unwanted water from a location. Many homes have situations where there is no way to drain storm water from their property. If you don’t have a slope away from your property or there is a lower area or sunken area, a sump may be the solution to get the water out.

The primary goal of proper drainage is to remove the water and put it where it belongs: on the street! So whether you are doing it yourself or hiring a professional landscape company, you want to make sure the proper installation methods are being used. If you don’t know what the above bullet points mean, you probably want to hire professionals… this will not only save you a headache, but money in the long run!

For more information and a free consultation on your drainage system, please contact Kathy Lee at DK Landscaping. Kathy is our QWEL (Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper) Certified Irrigation Expert. We are also a certified WaterSense Partner. QWEL and WaterSense are certified by the EPA.