steadyhand
New Member
I have an outdoor patio that is about 2 feet below the rest of the yard surrounding my house. Because the patio cannot thus drain out above its level, it drains out about 75 feet away at a location where the yard is lower than patio level. The drain is 3 inch PVC all the way. There is a neighbors fence very close to the drain exit point, and the city stormwater drain is in the neighbors yard.
Everything works fine when the rain is light with water from the patio existing nicely from the drain end, then going under the neighbors fence into the storm drain.
However, when it rains heavily (over 1-2 inches an hour), the area around the storm drain and my side of the yard starts ponding big time. So much so that I notice that water level on my patio starts increasing to a point where it can enter through a doorway.
I suspect that there may be backflow from the large ponding that is happening near the storm drain. what are good solutions in this case? Some options I can think of are:
1) work with neighbor and somehow try to re-grade the entire area and see if water flows better and does not allow ponding. However, I am not sure if we will hit some upper capacity limit of city storm drains anyway where it cannot drain that amount of water any faster. I am not even sure the neighbor would want to do extensive regarding on his side on my behalf. I may need to get the city involved, but I need to be sure this will work. This is my last resort as it is fairly involved and contentious.
2) Use some kind of a backflow prevention device so that water can only go to the exit point not come back. I am not sure a check valve will work as once its opened in one direction due to water flow, it will likely stay open anyway because there will be more water wanting to go through, before water reverses direction at some point. If such a device can work, should it be at the drain emitter (easier to dig around) or or at the patio drain point (difficult to change much because of a concrete surround). Does anyone have experience with such devices (such as a duck bill valve) for landscape drainage?
I am surviving for now by using sandbags and a pump that kicks on when water reaches a certain level. But I feel that surely there must be an easier solution. I could just plug my patio drain completely (let water flow through from the patio to a sump pump inside my house), but that takes away the good it does for 95% of the rains when not heavy. Also, if the rain becomes heavy, my sump will have the extra work of dealing with water from the outside.
Everything works fine when the rain is light with water from the patio existing nicely from the drain end, then going under the neighbors fence into the storm drain.
However, when it rains heavily (over 1-2 inches an hour), the area around the storm drain and my side of the yard starts ponding big time. So much so that I notice that water level on my patio starts increasing to a point where it can enter through a doorway.
I suspect that there may be backflow from the large ponding that is happening near the storm drain. what are good solutions in this case? Some options I can think of are:
1) work with neighbor and somehow try to re-grade the entire area and see if water flows better and does not allow ponding. However, I am not sure if we will hit some upper capacity limit of city storm drains anyway where it cannot drain that amount of water any faster. I am not even sure the neighbor would want to do extensive regarding on his side on my behalf. I may need to get the city involved, but I need to be sure this will work. This is my last resort as it is fairly involved and contentious.
2) Use some kind of a backflow prevention device so that water can only go to the exit point not come back. I am not sure a check valve will work as once its opened in one direction due to water flow, it will likely stay open anyway because there will be more water wanting to go through, before water reverses direction at some point. If such a device can work, should it be at the drain emitter (easier to dig around) or or at the patio drain point (difficult to change much because of a concrete surround). Does anyone have experience with such devices (such as a duck bill valve) for landscape drainage?
I am surviving for now by using sandbags and a pump that kicks on when water reaches a certain level. But I feel that surely there must be an easier solution. I could just plug my patio drain completely (let water flow through from the patio to a sump pump inside my house), but that takes away the good it does for 95% of the rains when not heavy. Also, if the rain becomes heavy, my sump will have the extra work of dealing with water from the outside.