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You might think about putting in a swale all along the bottom of the ridge to steer the water away from the house

I need to outside and walk it, but I'm thinking the land is like a V almost, with the lowest point on the perpendicular with that box drain. If so, I'm wondering if it will be hard to keep the water running along the ridge instead of coming out perpendicular toward the house.... Not sure now...

But I feel like I have a lot more possibilities now... Now if only the landscaper/water solutions company will call me back... :P

BTW, you mentioned this in your OP:

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How about water control? Mr. SK has built up the ground on the porch side, and between that and the "wall," the water goes the way we want it to now.

It's hard to tell from the photos how high the dirt is relative to the foundation under the front porch. Dirt should not go above the foundation. In other words, if you have dirt piled up against the first course or two of bricks under the front porch, that's not a good thing.

Great discussion! I have only a few minor things to add.

1. I have successfully cleared clogged landscape drains with a powered sewer snake. I happened to own one but you can easily rent one. They’re not hard to use.

Have a look at a few YouTube videos to get the hang of how they work. Start at the outlet (where the clog usually is) and proceed slowly. Wear heavy gloves. Who knows - you might just fix the problem and if you don’t you won’t have much invested.

2. The idea of using fresh wood chips as mulch is a good one, but they’ll have to be well aged or you’re going to have to supplement heavily with nitrogen to keep the wood chips from using up all of the nitrogen in the soil. The modern way to do that is with granulated ammonium nitrate/etc, but greener options such as cow or chicken manure work equally well. Make sure you use sterilized manure or you’ll end up with a spectacular crop of weeds.

3. Gravity based solutions (grading/swales) always work better than engineered solutions (landscape drains/diversions). You’ll want to be mindful of where the water ends up as most codes prohibit your draining your property on to the neighbors property. Flood your neighbors’ property and it’s going to be lawsuit city.

4. Avoid systems involving pumps if at all possible.

5. As PJ noted, Roundup and a paintbrush works well to eliminate weeds on a selective basis. The little trigger spray bottles work too. Weed burning torches also work but may not be ideal when working with poison ivy. Upside to weed torches as you don’t have to mess with chemicals and a weed torch is perfect for searing meat after sous vide.

6. If the poison ivy keeps coming back, see if you can find someone licensed to use Vapam or some other soil fumigant. They used to sell it to homeowners but took it off of the retail market - for good reason. It really works but you have to know what you’re doing.

One more:

7. Avoid mulches that float - like shredded coconut shells - even if they’re free.

Don’t ask how I know this.

I will add a warning about nut shells. Pecan shells, for instance, make great mulch. But they have tiny bits of nut left in them, which is a fact that does not escape the squirrels.

Hilarity ensues as the rodents redistribute the mulch....

NEVER burn poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac. Burning it releases its oils into the air which will cause very bad respiratory irritation. Don't burn it in place. Don't burn it after pulling it out.

Before I had my sewer line replaced, I'd rent a powered sewer auger for about $25 for 2 hours. You need to know the diameter of the pipe, and you probably want a round blade and a retriever hook.

It is a heck of a lot cheaper than hiring the rooter guys. And working on a yard drain would be a lot more pleasant than a home sewer. No sh....

...oh, never mind.

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if you have dirt piled up against the first course or two of bricks under the front porch, that's not a good thing.

This is news to me!!! Yikes! A quick google says you should have "at least four inches of your foundation (concrete, block, or stone) showing above the soil."

But I don't think any part of our house looks like that??? I'll have to look after work.

So, why, what problem does this cause?

See this photo:



There's no "foundation," only brick. I'm pretty sure it was like that when we moved in???

So, if we still want grading, what should we do, dig out along the house and make a gravel bed or something? But then there will be a nice gutter along the foundation where water can pool and do bad things, right??

Steve, thanks for all your comments!

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3. Gravity based solutions (grading/swales) always work better than engineered solutions (landscape drains/diversions).

So doesn't this make an argument for not putting money and/or effort into the box drain?

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You’ll want to be mindful of where the water ends up as most codes prohibit your draining your property on to the neighbors property. Flood your neighbors’ property and it’s going to be lawsuit city.

I'm pretty sure we're ok in this regard, but it's good to keep in mind.

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4. Avoid systems involving pumps if at all possible.

Because pumps fail?

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5. As PJ noted, Roundup and a paintbrush works well to eliminate weeds on a selective basis. The little trigger spray bottles work too. Weed burning torches also work but may not be ideal when working with poison ivy. Upside to weed torches as you don’t have to mess with chemicals and a weed torch is perfect for searing meat after sous vide.

We will definitely not be using fire/torches etc. anywhere around here. First of all, there's probably poison ivy where we can't quite see it, so we'd risk burning that and killing everyone. Second of, there are lots of dried pine needles and whatnot, I don't want to risk having anything burn out of our control.

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6. If the poison ivy keeps coming back, see if you can find someone licensed to use Vapam or some other soil fumigant. They used to sell it to homeowners but took it off of the retail market - for good reason. It really works but you have to know what you’re doing.

I'll keep this in mind.

Thanks for all the other comments everyone!

We are definitely now too scared of unwanted consequences to use mulch or pebbles.

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So doesn't this make an argument for not putting money and/or effort into the box drain?

You already have the box drain. If you can get it running again for not-a-lot-of time and money, that's a good thing.

Where does the box drain drain to?

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quote:
3. Gravity based solutions (grading/swales) always work better than engineered solutions (landscape drains/diversions).


So doesn't this make an argument for not putting money and/or effort into the box drain?

I don't think so. Here's why I say that...

The approach that is most effective is keeping the water away from the house to begin with. I think the suggestions that Steve, pj, and I are putting forth all involve taking a broad view of the property and trying to address the water flow on the entire lot. Pooling water near the house is a symptom and the real problem is that it should never get there. The small "Band Aid" projects may seem like they're helping, but they are typically not very effective because the main issue hasn't been addressed. I know the big projects may seem daunting and expensive, but my experience is that you end up doing them anyway when all the intermediate efforts fail.

So back to the box drain....You've already got the box drain there. They do actually help move water away, and maybe yours isn't in top working condition. Cleaning it out and making sure that any collected water can get into rather than pooling around it might be really simple. If you're up for the DIY approach that Steve outlined, you can rent the snake from Home Depot for not much money. And it would get some water out of there.

OTOH, if you didn't already have the box drain, you might not want to make installing one your first approach.

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There's no "foundation," only brick. I'm pretty sure it was like that when we moved in???

Dig away that dirt; I'll bet there's a concrete footing that the bricks are sitting on.

Why it's a bad idea to pile dirt on:

https://www.askthebuilder.com/...ainst-a-brick-house/

https://www.turnbullmasonry.co...x-crumbling-masonry/

Also see my previous post about my neighbor's house where the water collected between her house and the house next door, and then overflowed the foundation...the soil was a little below the brick line, but the area simply filled up with water that was deep enough to go over the foundation. And the top of her foundation was slightly lower than the neighbor's. Water goes where it wants to go, and that was into her basement.

Only solution was to create a swale and regrade the surrounding area so the water didn't hang around in that particular spot.

I had no idea brick was so vulnerable.

Our rule is that dirt should be at least two inches below any wood siding because that's as high as termites will build a mudchute.

The article you linked two says dirt should be at least four inches from brick, six inches for wood siding.

I'd dig a bit and see what's under the brick that is the base of the front porch at Chez SK.

So, if you want a dry foundation, keep the soil down below the prescribed line, and slope it away -- again, the rule I've heard is one inch of vertical drop for every foot horizontally.

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
[Thanks Adagio!

I do love periwinkle, but doesn't it take over?

Well, I managed to kill the periwinkle, so apparently not too hardy for me!

WTG, thanks for those links!

Hmm, all of our foundations look the way they do in that photo above. And from what I could, so do most of the houses in this neighborhood!

Before we settled on the sump pump etc., I had a could foundation companies out here as well, no one ever said anything about it.

Which is not to say I'm suggesting it isn't a problem, just that ... well I don't know what to make of it. From what I've been reading online (WTG's links and others) I can't imagine how it could not be a problem, but this house and most in the neighborhood are all 50+ years old and don't seem to have foundation problems... I know, the key word here is "yet" though.

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Dig away that dirt; I'll bet there's a concrete footing that the bricks are sitting on.

Ugh, this will be fun. I will consult with Mr. SK and we'll have to igure out what to do first.

BTW, we don't have a water problem right now, the things we've done and had done have been successful... So, we don't want to create a new problem, nor do we want to have some maintenance issue (like this dirt/foundation problem) that we don't know about that causes a problem down the road... Sigh.