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 I'm getting ready to land scape my backyard after a detached garage rebuild. I have clay not soil and am on a private street with a poorly designed French drain. We don't want to send our water into the street since it usually has enough to deal with.
What are my optins to address water drainage issues?? and who should I talk to about
Answer Boy, you're in a pickle. I don't know about your specific situation (How much rain you get, how intense, or how your lot normally drains). But in general, concentrating water causes a real headache, because now you have to "manage" it.
Some of the best products I've found for drainage situations are manufactured by NDS (ndspro.com). Their catalog has all sorts of catch basins and pipe drains to catch, control, and convey water away. I've specified and used their products for years. There are also other products like a subsurface "sheet" drain or an on-site leach chamber, made by ADS (ads-pipe.com)
These products are usually offered by local irrigation or landscape supply houses, and if not the NDS or ADS product lines, a reasonable substitute. These local folks are also a good resource for assistance.
Maybe you'll need a combination of these pipe products and a NEW French drain system, depending on how well your lot & local soil conditions can percolate away this new storm water crated by the added garage.
Some areas just don't work because of high ground water, lousy percolation rates, or outrageously intense storm events, like parts of Florida, Texas, and the Midwest.
If you are not the "do it yourself" type, I'd contact a local landscape contractor with experience in corrective drainage, or even consult a local Civil Engineer or Landscape Architect (in the Yellow Pages or yellowbook.com).
