Trying to keep your yard looking fresh and well-watered without it looking swampy is a difficult task to accomplish. Too little water and your lawn will look dead and dry. Too much water and your lawn will look like a jungle. Even worse – it will be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other unfavorable insects. Not only is it not great to look at, but it can also cause serious issues to a foundation if the water stands too close for too long and starts to seep into the foundation and weaken it. Luckily, if you do have a lawn like this, there are a few things that you can do for backyard drainage solutions, ranging from gutter downspouts to creating a creek bed or installing a French drain.
Inspect Gutter Downspouts
The best place to start is by inspecting the gutter downspouts. Oftentimes, gutter downspouts are not extended far enough past the house, leaving it to dump all of its collected water right against the home to seep into the foundation and cause a lot of damage. The easy choice is to simply extend it, dispersing the water far enough away from the house that it will not cause any damage! This is very simple to do, and can be a good first step to take before installing a creek bed or a French drain.?
Make a Creek Bed
Installing a creek bed is a wonderful way to not only keep your lawn dry, but it can look incredible! A dry creek bed is at its most basic a ditch that moves through your lawn to channel water away from a low spot in the yard. Low spots in a yard are where the water will collect and turn into a swamp, so moving the water elsewhere and dispersing it can benefit your entire lawn and save your foundation. Creek beds can also be redirected to allow for the water to be placed in a rain garden or a dry well. There are a lot of options for how you want your creek bed to look, but the most common is to build one out of beautiful rocks and lining it with different low-growing and drought-tolerant plants to give it a more wonderful look.
French Drains
French drains are a time-honored classic solution for water issues in a lawn! At its most basic, a French drain is nothing more than a gravel-lined ditch with a pipe that carries the water away from the home. This is a really good alternative to gutters on a ground level. Instead of letting the water pool in one spot, this buried pipe will take the water and direct it wherever you want it to go – whether that’s dispersing it to the rest of the lawn or directing the water into a well. This is a good alternative for those that do not want to have ditches in their yard and would prefer to have it all buried and out of the way. The process is relatively simple, and something that Allied Foundation is happy to help with in order to protect your lawn, your foundation, and the well-being of your entire home.
Your perfect lawn is just a few steps away, and Allied Foundation can help. Turn your swamp into a beautiful, well-kept lawn with just a quick call to Allied Foundation to set up a free estimate. Whether it’s something as small as tweaking gutter spouts to installing a French drain, Allied Foundation will be there every step of the way. Protecting your lawn protects your foundation, leaving your home in the best condition it can be to keep you safe, warm, and happy. For more information on all things home and foundation, please review our past posts.