Duluth-Peachtree Bluff-Drainage Solution

I did a lot of drainage work for these folks last summer, but one problem area remained. During heavy rain surface water from the street was jumping their driveway and rushing into a narrow space between the two houses. An existing 12" drain could handle a normal rainfall but would be overwhelmed by heavy rain. Our solution was to replace the 12" basin with a much larger 18" basin and ties in into a 6" line I installed in the back last year. A small wall was built to corral the water and creek flats were place around the basin to curtail erosion.

House Proud Project - West End

I did this small but fairly complicated job for House Proud....a non - profit organization that uses grant money to do home repairs for low income families. The house was built in 1955, and according to the current homeowner the front of the house has "sunk" approx. 2' since they moved into the house in 1967. This created a major problem as surface water now collects against the front of the house and, during periods of heavy rain, floods the basement. There was no way to collect the water and disperse it elsewhere via gravity.... so I built a masonry catch basin in the lowest area of the front, installed a 3600 gph pump, and piped the outlet around (uphill) into the back yard. Tested it out today and it works great.

Collier Rd./Atlanta-More Prep and Starting Irrigation

Never know what you will find at these older homes. On this one it seems to be rock..many different varieties and shapes added over the years. I am trying to think of someway to work them into the project. Finished with the Bobcat work before the weekend rains-did some materials pickup yesterday and started trenching for the irrigation system today. Good progress-rain actually helped soften things up a bit.

Tucker- Windfield Circle

This was a drainage project dealing with surface water coming off the neighboring lot. Permission was given by the neighbor to pipe her downspouts into the system as they were causing much of the problem. Those downspouts and one on the property were all piped across the front of the house to empty onto the driveway and eventually into a county storm drain. A timber wall was built to protect the A/C unit, then fill dirt was added along the side of the house and graded to divert a large volume of water coming from the back yard of the neighboring lot. Finished this project today and moved on to Chastain Park to start a dry creek bed and entrance planting.

Suwanee-Settles Point

This is a pretty large job that I started over the weekend with the timber planter installation and continued today with trenching and installing drain lines. This job will end up with around 500' of 4" drain line. Still to come: Catch basins, surge stone drainage pits, and more timber work-steps filled with gravel adjacent to the planter.

French Drain and Rain Barrels...

I'm installing a French Drain at this house as more of a preventative measure. There are no problems with water getting into the house, but the grade along the side doesn't really allow for water to drain away from the structure. There is no basement along this side, the house is built on a slab-the concern is that saturated ground under and next to the slab could cause problems down the road. This client uses rain barrels to collect water for a very nicely landscaped back yard-and up till now she really didn't have a way to deal with the overflow from the barrels. Part of this project is to go ahead and route the overflow from the rain barrels into the drain line I am installing-and move a rain barrel to the front of the house where it can also overflow into the same line.

Briarlake Drainage Phase 3-New Discovery

This project became a bit more interesting with the discovery of a "cavern" underneath the porch. As seen in the top two photos, water had obviously been doing it's work in this spot-and the location corresponds well with the area of the basement where water has been entering. Fill dirt has now been added and compacted all along the foundation, including almost a 1/2 cu. yard of soil to fill in the 'cavern". Today I will be doing some minor grading and pine straw which will complete this phase of the drainage project here.

Briarlake Soil Replacement

This should be the final chapter of drainage solutions for this job. Soil Engineers came out and did some core samples and an inspection for the homeowner before I started on any work here. The homeowner presented my plan for dealing with the surface water which they approved and has been completed-and suggested this final step in addition. The soil surrounding the house outside of where the water was entering the basement is very high in organic matter content and sand. The engineers felt like this was allowing water to pool below ground and up against the foundation. The recommendation was to remove the existing soil 18" deep and 2' back from the structure, then replace that with native clay fill which will be compacted as it is added. I had planned to start this job next week but I shuffled some things around so that I could take advantage of 3 days with no rain chance. I started the excavation today and the clay fill will be delivered tomorrow.

More Drainage Work Coming Up-

February looks to be busy with more drainage/water related projects. I will be doing the final phase of the Briarlake job-soil replacement around the foundation per the recommendation of the client's engineering firm. Just down the street in the same area, I will be installing a French Drain and installing a rain barrel with some creek stone. In Dunwoody I will be installing a fairly elaborate French Drain and pathway for a new client that will involve about 200' of piping. We had some more flooding rain in the area just last night- a local independent remote weather station was reporting a rain rate of almost 6" per hour at around 4:30 yesterday..that is heavy rain. I hope it didn't cause anyone problems...I'm thankful for the work the rains have brought, but as a landscape designer/contractor I would much rather be creating things than repairing things!

Briarlake Phase 2- Completed

Warming weather really helped to speed up the completion of this project last Thursday and especially Friday. Amazing how much better things go when all the soil isn't frozen!

Breaking the Ice-Briarlake

Spent the day today digging french drain/drain line trenches. Have to break through a 2-3" crust of frozen soil to get anything done-but making good progress. Ready for it to warm up a bit!

2nd Phase of Briarlake Drainage Project Underway

After working to eliminate water problems in the back of this house, I have started to tackle some less severe problems on the side of the house. What you see in the photos below is basically a "water trap"-the area enclose by the house and brick walls needs more positive drainage for the water to get out during heavy rains. I am installing 2 French Drains..one down the center and one against the house. There will also be a solid 4" line installed that will drain a condensation line coming out of the basement-this line will also tie into a 9" drop inlet to remove excess water quickly. The entire area will be regraded for positive drainage then a ground cover of small pea gravel will be the final step.

Briarlake Drainage Improvements

This was another bad drainage/wet basement project. Based on my design and suggestions from soil engineers hired by the client, a fairly extensive drainage system and dry creek bad was installed. A steep hill with it's base only 20' from the back of the house on the basement end, combined with downspout water and surface runoff was congregating large amounts of rainwater in one small area-and it was finding it's way into the basement. A main 6" line with 3 drop inlets was installed parallel to the house-a french drain was installed within a problem area and piped into the main line along with the downspouts. The grade was altered for better water flow and the collection area/swale was covered with large egg rock.

So far so good-I spoke with my client today. 2" of rain in 6 hours the day after I finished and no water in the basement! Will be doing more drainage work on the side of the house after the first of the year.