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How to fix water pooling between yards?

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  • May 17th, 2019 9:47 am
Deal Fanatic
Jul 7, 2004
6948 posts
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How to fix water pooling between yards?

It's raining right now and water is pooling between the houses, ruining the dirt I put down. In the winter it melts and freezes and kills the grass. Do I have to put a ton of soil there to build it up?
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Dec 12, 2006
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Messed Up Area
water and snow will not kill grass, you have something else killing grass from winter ( aka salts/sand/pet unrine/etc. in snow )


The pooling is occuring as its lowest point in yards and water is draining to it, the soil ground is not absorbing the water fast enough, or water table is too high. If you add soil to level out ground you may end up with pooling by house and possible leaking in basement.

A solution maybe to run a Solid Big O pipe from where the deepest part of hole is to by the sideway on a slop, this will act as a drain, but as well will cause water to flow onto sidewalk/driveways.
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Jul 31, 2007
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York Region
baz5 wrote: It's raining right now and water is pooling between the houses, ruining the dirt I put down. In the winter it melts and freezes and kills the grass. Do I have to put a ton of soil there to build it up?
Do not build it up. It is there for a purpose to drain water away from your house to the street.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 7, 2004
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theguyz wrote: water and snow will not kill grass, you have something else killing grass from winter ( aka salts/sand/pet unrine/etc. in snow )


The pooling is occuring as its lowest point in yards and water is draining to it, the soil ground is not absorbing the water fast enough, or water table is too high. If you add soil to level out ground you may end up with pooling by house and possible leaking in basement.

A solution maybe to run a Solid Big O pipe from where the deepest part of hole is to by the sideway on a slop, this will act as a drain, but as well will cause water to flow onto sidewalk/driveways.
May be salts from the water but in the winter it turns into a huge ice chunk.
Thanks for the advice
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Oct 23, 2008
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It's graded that way for a reason - unless you prefer the water to pool beside your house's foundation?

Leave it as is.

If you're concerned about your garden, build a stone retaining wall. Those plastic borders won't do much.
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Dec 25, 2007
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French drain with catch basins and a pop up emitter
Deal Fanatic
Jul 7, 2004
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chimaican wrote: It's graded that way for a reason - unless you prefer the water to pool beside your house's foundation?

Leave it as is.

If you're concerned about your garden, build a stone retaining wall. Those plastic borders won't do much.
I don't mean to flatten it out. Keep the 'valley' but just build it higher so it goes all the way to the road and doesn't stop halfway.
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Jul 7, 2004
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smitty9999 wrote: French drain with catch basins and a pop up emitter
I'll look into that. Thanks
Deal Addict
Dec 25, 2007
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baz5 wrote: I'll look into that. Thanks
Look up "Apple Drains" on YouTube
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Oct 23, 2017
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baz5 wrote: I don't mean to flatten it out. Keep the 'valley' but just build it higher so it goes all the way to the road and doesn't stop halfway.
Right. Lower the swale at the front so that the water drains to the front and doesn't pool between the houses. That is how the builder was supposed to grade it.
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Jul 7, 2004
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Dealmaker1945 wrote: Right. Lower the swale at the front so that the water drains to the front and doesn't pool between the houses. That is how the builder was supposed to grade it.
Never thought of that. That might make more sense but could lead to low grass at curb?
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Oct 22, 2016
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tsatsa wrote: Do not build it up. It is there for a purpose to drain water away from your house to the street.
Sound advice, and in the future you may be glad it is this way. Read about problems here with water into basements and sump pumps suck.

If anyone ever wants to run the drainage (big o) close to the sidewalk, the city may not like that. I got hell for it once for doing it that way.
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Sep 14, 2007
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Calgary, AB
Ideally, you should not have pooling anywhere.

The swale grade from front to back probably needs to be redone. On almost all my landscaping projects, I have to regrade the client's swale from front to back (or vice versa).

The builder either doesn't do it right or doesn't factor in foundation settling that occurs a year after. This, of course, is for a new build.

Is it grass all along this side of the property?

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