# Ground water and swells in the bqack yard



## wkearney99 (Apr 8, 2009)

Swale, you mean? Depending on your area you might want to be sure of just what you can or can't do to it. Some places have considerable restrictions on how runoff is handled. Those swales might be there for a reason. Or there may be local/regional watershed issues involved. 

They're collecting water, which is coming from where? How is that water going to move if you alter the landscape? You're a lot better off having it collect in a swale away from the house instead of running along a flatter surface right back toward your house. And if you did fill these in somehow, where would you be redirecting the water that would otherwise have collected in them?


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## jreid (Jun 10, 2012)

The swales in my back yard range from 4" to 8" deep. My back yard is sloped into various swales. The swale that seems to be soggy is 10 feet of my back door. The swale meets up with the swale that goes down the side of my house. It seems to be the water is not moving.

This is just rain water and is mostly generated from my yard.

Thanks


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## Yoyizit (Jul 11, 2008)

Searching on
improv increase "soil permeability"
didn't look too promising.

I'd put a 12v pump with a level switch into a sump that is covered over.


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## AllanJ (Nov 24, 2007)

You do not want to add weeping tiles that will cause more water to come closer to your foundation.

New weeping tiles out in the yard a foot or so below the surface connecting to existing weeping tiles say five to six feet down at your foundation footings will do just that, fill up the latter and then your sump pump has to work more.


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## wkearney99 (Apr 8, 2009)

You'd be wise to avoid bringing the water any closer to your house than it is now. I would not tie into an existing drain, especially if it's one that comes back into the house and uses an sump pump to expel it. Using a whole other drain is a better plan, but you've got to take into account where that line would run and where the water would go after that. Many places do have considerable restrictions on how ground water is handled. You really do need to check first.

If the builder took the time to create those swales it was for a reason. No builder is likely to spend the money to create them without being forced to do so. Now, it may have been more expensive for them to go the next step and create actual drains under them. Or there may be other restrictions that specifically prevented them from doing that. You need to check on that first. Before you start moving water around in ways that might end up making things worse for you or your neighbors.


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## AllanJ (Nov 24, 2007)

Before you think of drains under them you have to think about where the drains will go.

Just a big dry well under the affected location is not good enough because the dry well will fill up and we are back where we started.

If by chance you find some suitable place some distance away horizontally you might as well have the water go there over the surface (by regrading) rather than send it through a drain pipe. But chances are the developer already investigated and found no such place.


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