Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with drainage

Can a cherry tree survive in North Carolina clay?

reverend cuttle — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:31:41 -0800

New tree planted in clay with poor drainage. Can it / should it be saved? The tree is a young Yoshino Cherry Tree, trunk diameter of about 1.5 inches. I planted it a full sun area in the yard, and broke up the dirt to about twice the diameter of the root ball as directed. It's been in the ground for about 3 weeks.

Now every time it rains, more leaves turn yellow and drop off. At this point it's probably lost 15-20% of its foliage, but there's not much new growth either. I assume this is because of the soil's high clay content and poor drainage. Can I do anything to save the tree? Dig it up, aerate, and replant? Should I just wait and see if it makes it, possibly watching it die a slow death? What's the prognosis? I live in SE North Carolina, which is fairly damp.

Keeping a patio clean from above balcony

wongcorgi — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:39:51 -0800

How do I keep my 1st floor patio clean/dry while being able to spray clean an overhead balcony? I have a balcony that regularly gets dirty from leaves, pine needles, dirt and I hose it off once every couple weeks. I have a cement patio directly below that gets extremely dirty from this as well as flooding of the area in front of the patio.

Now that the weather is nice, I'd like to start using this lower patio, and possibly use the 2-3ft area in front to grow some vegetables.

I do want to be able to clean my balcony regularly. Does anyone know of any solutions to handle both?

I was thinking a gutter but I would be washing a lot of debris into it, plus I'm usually spraying with some pressure so the dirt might even fly over the gutter.

Neighbor impeding water runoff

tronec — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:44:38 -0800

How do I approach a business owner whose work on his adjoining property is causing excess water to pool on our lawn? . . . details inside. . . A portion of our home’s grass backyard serves as a drainage path for water from our neighbors’ yards. When the ground is saturated or frozen, sometimes water will pool in our yard, roughly 6” deep, 25’x35’, for a couple of days following heavy rains. The downstream adjoining property (zoned for business) was purchased last summer. Over the winter, the new owner dumped some 15 truckloads of soil/gravel on his property where the water used to flow on down from our lawn. Following March rains, our “pool” is now at least a foot deep and has lasted for more than a week. It encompasses a much larger area including the bases of two 30’ trees in our back yard. I don’t want the water to stand so long that it would kill the trees, nor do I want a semi-permanent bog/mosquito hatchery in our backyard.

I will speak to the property owner, but how should I approach him? What do I have to negotiate with? Do I talk with him first, or with the city/state officials to find out legally what our rights are? I do not have $ for a lawyer. (Illinois city of 20,000)

I would like at least a return to the relatively unimpeded flow of water from our yard. This would likely mean at least the installation of some sort of drainage tile on his property.

Building raised beds on asphault

ottereroticist — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:43:23 -0800

Building a raised garden bed on an asphault driveway. What about drainage? We're building raised garden beds at the end of the driveway -- right next to the neighbor's converted mother-in-law garage. What, if anything, should we do to ensure good drainage for the beds, and to avoid any possible runoff problems for the neighbor?

A friend suggested punching drainage holes in the asphault. Is that a good idea, or will it just expose our veggies to toxins from the asphault-soaked soil? If we do that, how big/how many holes/what kind of tool to use? Thanks Mefi garden mavens!

Measuring relative heights of two points that are far away from each other is hard

cmm — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:52:27 -0800

How can I figure out the difference in height between where my sump pump outlet sits at my house to where I want it to drain so I can assure gravity is helping it drain? We just got a new sump system. This inside part works great, but the outside part not so much.

It currently dumps into the middle of the backyard, making about a 4' diameter swamp that the dog loves to play in. It also is leaking something fierce right outside the house. I've got the people who did the work coming in tomorrow to fix the house-side leak that is causing a huge puddle of water just outside the house, which just ends up draining back in and keeps the sump running. They are fixing this under warranty.

I don't expect them to kindly move the stupid outlet pipe to not be in the middle of the backyard under warranty. So I'm thinking about how to change this myself.

The sump pump does not pump the water down the outlet pipe. Instead, it just uses gravity. It comes up from the basement, out of the house and just drops straight down into the outlet (with little holes at the top so that if the outlet freezes, the pump can still pump up and out and onto the foundation directly). The only reason the outlet drains is because the house end is higher than the end that is in the middle of the yard (but not by much).

I'm thinking I can either just run it straight back to out behind the back fence (field behind the house) or I can take it out the side (we live on a corner) and down towards the sidewalk. Looking at it, it sure looks like the side is a lot more inclined than out the backyard.

But how can I find out for sure? If I take the time to dig up and move this stupid pipe, I want to be sure it works and drains, especially at the longer distance.

Shade-tolerant plant that will prevent bank erosion?

jeffmshaw — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:51:28 -0800

Looking for a shade-tolerant plant that will prevent bank erosion that I can grow in North Carolina's triangle region. I've recently moved to Durham, and my new place has exciting garden possibilities. One fix I want to make quickly involves the bank underneath my deck.

Elsewhere, the bank is covered by English ivy, which stabilizes the soil. But under the deck, there's not enough light for it to grow, meaning rain causes erosion and water flow toward my house.

I'm going to put in a french drain to try to catch much of this flow, but I'd also like to plant a shade-loving ground cover to help stabilize the bank. Any ideas for native plants?

Swamp thing/you make my heart sing

hecho de la basura — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:55:31 -0800

Home Drainage Filter: What can I do about a corner of my yard that develops standing water for ~36 hours after a good rain? So far I have lived in my house now for about 2 and a half weeks. In that time there has been a huge amount of rainfall. We received 3 inches just this past Friday! I've noticed that the right corner of my back yard develops some pretty serious standing water and I am utterly clueless as to what to do to remedy it.

There is a marked low spot of unknown origins there, approximately 5'x10'. The water in the low spot is of a depth to cover the (medium-size/mutt) dogs ankles when they stand and play in it. Which they do often. They have also dug at least one huge hole there, thereby increasing the low in the low spot. The water eventually drains/goes away after about 36 hours. I'm not sure if the spot ever really dries out completely as I have not lived here long enough to see 48 consecutive hours of dry weather. The corner is the corner where my yard and my three neighbors' yards meet. None of their yards have standing water in the adjacent corners.

My original thought was to simply plant a rain garden there but I read that a spot that has standing water for more than 24 hours is not good for rain gardens. I'm hoping this is incorrect information because I would dearly love to have a rain garden.

Is it possible to just fill in the low spot with top soil? Do I put gravel down and then dirt? Is a rain garden out of the question? I am desperately (perhaps pointlessly?) worried about the oncoming mosquito season. The water *does* drain eventually. It just takes a day and a half.

This is my very first house so every little thing is freaking me out!
Thanks!

How to fix an ailing sump pump?

Xazeru — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:35:55 -0800

SumpPumpFilter: Is my sump pump incorrectly installed? The pump runs periodically when it's wet in the basement, and the water seems to run back in the sump pump bucket immediately after the pump runs. I have a dehumidifier in my basement which drains into my sump pump. When it's wet, the sump pump bucket fills up, the pump turns on, and evacuates water into a tube which flows into an outdoor drainage system.

The tube goes up about eight feet, and the problem seems to be that the water doesn't ever get out of the tube into the outdoor system. So, the water just falls back into the pump and after a minute the process repeats.

I've tried to reposition the pump on the theory that it's a little too high or low in the bucket, but this didn't help. Other thoughts are that the diameter of the outlet pipe is too large or that the outdoor system is clogged. Any ideas, hive mind?

Can I use brick chunks instead of gravel for drainage?

cda — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 12:01:12 -0800

Can I use broken chunks of brick in place of gravel for landscape drainage? I don't have access to gravel right now but I have some old bricks and I need to make a small ditch next to a house drain well. The house is a very small guest cottage that I have had to dig a shallow ditch in front of for drainage (someone had piled dirt all the way up to the siding to cover pvc pipes with electric wires in them). Now I want to fill the ditch with gravel before winter but I can't really order a whole truckload of gravel for this small space.

I suppose I could buy bags of gravel somewhere (not sure - I've never done that). But I do have lots of bricks in the back yard.

My main concern would be that the bricks would absorb moisture. Or would they? Are there other reasons I wouldn't want to use brick chunks for this purpose?

How can I make my kitchen sink drain fully?

Brian James — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:36:47 -0800

How to fix the drain of my kitchen sink? I have a stainless steel kitchen sink that does not drain fully.

The drain at the bottom is not flush with the bottom surface of the sink; the drain sticks out slightly above the bottom (maybe 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch), and so there is always a small "halo" of water surrounding the ring where the drain meets the bottom of the sink. It doesn't dry, and so I have to clean regularly or else mold forms there.

This strikes me as something that could be adjusted, but I don't know how. I'm generally pretty handy around the house although in the past I have steered clear of monkeying with plumbing lest I create a leak.

Anyone out there know what I'm talking about, and how to fix it?

Sewer gas smell in the basement?

nj_subgenius — Sat, 29 Jan 2005 07:13:50 -0800

SewerGasFilter. Help![+] This morning I detected the stink of sewer gas in my basement for the first time. My plumbing is clean, hasn't ever been worked on (at least in five yrs since I have lived here). Anybody, advice? I've looked for a cheap gas detector but Google-fu fails. I don't want to call the FD or a plumber if this is a transient problem. I'm in NJ where there's been some cold weather. Thanks in advance.