AboutMarc Chapelle, ASLA Expertise As a licensed Landscape Architect, I am available to answer general questions about style and design, ideas and suggestions for site amenities, larger site-planning issues, or recreational and park design. I prefer you ask somebody else why your petunias are not as perky as they should be...I'd LOVE to tell you how can use those petunias to increase your home's value!
Experience Member, American Society of Landscape Architects(ALSA); My clients are mostly contractors, developers and local civil engineering/architecture firms, plus the occasional homeowner. I am currently located in the dry Great Basin area (Reno/Sparks), so use of landscape materials OTHER than plants is emphasized. As a licensed Landscape Architect on the East and West Coasts, I have been in practice over 18 years. My website: DesertLA.com
Question Does a catch basin need an out?
Our front yard slopes toward the left front corner of the house. The lowest point is at the intersection of the driveway and the house. I would like to improve the drainage, but have no where for the water to go- other than over or under the concrete drive.
My thought was to put in a catch basin at this low point, but once it fills, where will excess water go? Maybe some sort of drain field or dry well?
Any suggestions?
Answer Depends on the amount of water you are talking about...Water seeks its own level, so if you don't give it a place to go, it will find one!!
You can create a dry well of gravel (sometimes called a "French drain"), but once it is full, the water will gurgle out and keep going. These can get quite large. As you mentioned, you can put it into a drain field, or even a cistern (a big, underground tank). I put one into a parking lot once, to hold rain warter, that could store several acres of water! And it was VERY expensive. And , youi eventually have to let the water out, somehow. Either by leaching it into the ground, or by pumping it out.
Sounds like you need to find a way to keep the water from entering the house, and if that means going UNDER the driveway by a pipe, then that is better than into the house, when the drainage system over-flows! Pipes under driveways are not that difficult - just expensive, once the driveway is already in.
I could suggest all sorts of pipes, but it would be worth it to consult a local landscape or building contractor who can look at your problem, and offer solutions that I just cannot "see" from this distance.
IF you want to see some cool drainage solutions, check out NDS website: www.ndspro.com
Maybe you could intercept the rain water BEFORE it enters your drainage problem area, using a ditrch or swale...I cannot know how to solve your problem without seeing it personally. I have had folks call me to fix a "drainage" problem, when it fact it was a broken water pipe!
