How Drainage Systems Work
Depending on the season, we can get some heavy rains in Annapolis, Maryland. During these rainfall events, it becomes easier to see drainage issues around your yard and home. If left alone, these drainage problems can cause serious issues and can ultimately have a negative effect on your home value.
At Paradise Landscape and Hardscape, LLC, we have seen and fixed every type of drainage problem that occurs in our area. Here is a short guide to help you recognize and fix common drainage problems that can occur.
How to Identify a Drainage Problem
The first step in fixing a drainage problem is to correctly identify that you have one. Then, you can begin evaluating drainage solutions for your property.
The easiest way to tell if you have a drainage problem is that you will have standing water on your property. This will most likely occur during and after rainfall. The standing water can occur anywhere but is commonly found in low points in your yard or up against your home.
Further evidence of a drainage problem can be: dead or dying landscaping plants, erosion, fungus, or mold growing on the side of your home. You can also identify a yard drainage problem if you walk on your lawn and it is squishy!
Common Causes of Drainage Problems
There are many reasons you can have a landscape drainage issue, but it all ultimately comes from the topography around your home and the design of your home. If the land is sloped down to your home or a low point in your yard, then you will get water flow in a rainfall event. More so, if your home is not designed to drain water properly, then you will also get water collecting around it.
In these cases, drainage solutions must be designed to prevent future problems.
Various hardcapes around your home can also contribute to a yard drainage problem. By definiton, hardscapes are surfaces that are impervious to water. They are commonly constructed of materials like cement or rock.
As a result, hardscape features like patios or walkways sheet water away, rather than absorbing it like soil does. If these features are not designed to drain properly, then they can commonly create a drainage issue. Team Paradise are experts in Annapolis hardscaping design, and can fix these issues when they occur.
What Happens if You Do Not Fix the Problem
If you have a drainage problem and choose not to fix it, then it can cost you greatly in the long term. Water collecting in and around your home can cause serious financial damage to your property.
Drainage problems can cause water to filter inside of your home and cause structural damage and mold. Drainage problems can kill lawn grasses and other expensive landscaping plants. Further, drainage problems can cause extensive erosion, which can cause cracks under your driveway, patio, or even the slab of your home.
In short, if you have a landscape drainage issue, then you need to correct the problem before it gets worse. If you think you have an extensive drainage issue, then you should consider consulting with a professional to evaluate it.
Hardscape Design
Hardscapes can add a great deal of value to your home and property. However, if your Annapolis hardscaping vendor did not consider drainage in their hardscape design, then you may be in for problems down the road.
Hardscaping features – like patios, walkways, boulders, or gravel- need to be built with drainage in mind. The design needs to factor in that these items do not absorb water. Water must be directed off of them into areas that are created to handle the flow.
Retaining Walls
Retaining walls can be a great element of the hardscape design of your yard. These structures are most often used when there is a steep elevation change. The wall is built in part to prevent the erosion of soil that is caused by rain.
Retaining walls can be combined with yard drains to simultaneously solve erosion and water flow problems. When installed professionally, these walls are not only practical, but can be a beautiful addition to your landscaping.
French Drains
French drains are commonly used drains in residential and commercial properties. These drains usually consist of a trench with a perferorated pipe at the bottom. The trench is generally then filled with gravel or rock.
French drains run at a slightly downward slope, commonly away from a home or building. They use gravity to divert water away from an area.
Channel Drains
A channel drain is similar to a French drain in that it is contained within a trench. Channel drains usually are at the surface and have a grated top, however. They then channel water away from the surface into underground drainage lines.
Channel drains are commonly installed across driveways and in front of garage doors. Their design allows for a high level of water capture from impervious surfaces.
Downspouts
A commonly overlooked contributor to landscape drainage issues is roof water runoff. The roofs of houses and other buildings are impervious surfaces. Accordingly, rainwater sheets off of roofs typically into gutters.
Gutters collect rainwater and then drain it to the ground through downspouts. The water can then be drained into various types of yard drains.
However, problems may arise if you either have poorly placed downspouts or too few of them. This is why evaluating your roof drainage is important in analyzing your overall drainage solutions.
Irrigation Design
One last possible source of drainage issues is your watering system design. Poor sprinkler system design can lead to a number of drainage problems on your property.
Some examples of these drainage problems are: overwatering, poorly placed sprinkler heads, and broken water lines. Any of these problems can cause water to collect in areas of your property. If this is the case, then it is highly recommended you contact a landscape professional to correct the issue.
Your Local Experts
Drainage problems can cause serious problems for you and your property. As stated before, these problems can get worse over time and ultimately negatively affect your home value. More so, drainage problems do not always have simple or easy solutions.
Paradise Landscape and Hardscape, LLC are professionals in landscaping and hardscaping in the greater Annapolis area. Contact us today for all of your drainage and irrigation solutions. Fill out our FREE ESTIMATE form below.
