Help with a landscape lawn problem

[jymie]

Here is the problem, a customer wants us to make an area of his lawn drain away from a new section of a driveway he just had done, he wants to prevent water from running onto the new concrete deck. Any suggestions on how to go about doing this? He was thinking to shave down a 10 foot area and re-slope the section to angle away from the new driveway area. I'm thinking there must be a less painful way. The whole reason for this is he doesn't want to have to hose the area off anymore when dirt goes onto it when it rains. I'm like why not just make sure the edge is lower than the concrete, but if he wants to pay for a big production, so be it. My thought is lower say a foot around the new pad. How would you guys handle this? Basically the area he is referring to is the 1st picture. That area he wants to lower. What would be a charge to do this work?

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. http://www.lunchesruslawncare.com

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Last edited by jymie; 03-24-2012 at 10:44 AM.

[jymie]

Lawn care business tips

Anyone have any ideas??

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. http://www.lunchesruslawncare.com

[CraigOhio]

http://www.sky-bolt.com/images/frenchdrain350BW.jpg

Install a french drain alongside the drive on the wet side. As long as he does not mind a gravel border on that side of his drive. You can cover it with turf but if the water is fast-moving, it won't have time to filter through to the drain before making it onto the driveway. This is definitely a less painful alternative to regrading the area.

[brian'slawncare]

what do they use for pools? I wonder if you may be able to apply the same ideas to this?
Here is a pic..


What about a small retaining wall with a bed in it?

[Steve]

My first thought was using a french drain too.

Keep us posted on what you decide to go with.

[dpld]

you could try a french drain but being the ground is pretty flat i highly doubt it will do a thing.

if the work area in question is the side on the left of drive from the pictures perspective i would bring in some soil and create a bed along that side of the drive and with the slightly higher ground it will keep the water from spilling over the drive.

if there is a large amount of water to divert then you will have bigger issues abd then i would worry about there being a large puddle of water building up on that side.

also, you will need dirt there regardless because you don't want to leave that side of the drive exposed as it is because it will eventually deteriate that edge being exposed.

if creating a bed will be suffice with some plant material that would be the quickest and easiest thing to do but it won't neccesarily be the cheapest because of material cost.

if you do add a slightly raised bed i would also plant a couple of willow trees where the water might build up because they consume large quantities of water and the bigger they get the thirstier they get.
a mature willow under ideal conditions like clear blue cloudless skies and humidity lower then 60% they can consume several hundred gallons of water per day.
willows also thrive in wet locations and can tolerate soils with low oxygen levels due to excess water and or soil compaction.

hope that helps.

[jymie]

The customer asked me about a swell? Anyone know what that is?

[dpld]

Originally Posted by jymie

The customer asked me about a swell? Anyone know what that is?

he could be referring to a berm which obviously is a over sized plant bed or even a dry river bed where you can use either stone or turf in to guide the water away.

from the photo's you provided it looks pretty flat to do anything like that and i would myself try to go a more subtle route if his only real issue is just to keep water from flowing over the drive.

do you have any photo's standing in the area in question looking in all directions out from that to get a better feel for how much water might be coming his way?

as i said the area looks flat but for all we know outside of the camera shot there could be a hill or progressive incline where the water comes from and he is at the bottom end of it.

[picframer]

Looks too flat for a french drain, how much water does this fellow receive?

Personally I would put a dry well alongside the driveway, probably 2 feet deep, fill with 3/4" clear and top it off with say 5 or 6 inches of river rock or pea stone.

If it were mine however I would sod right up to the driveway as I think the other two options will look out of place.

If you go a dry well, man be careful digging around that new concrete, this is one of those fixing the issue after the fact.

[jymie]

Looking at the driveway, I honestly don't think he really needs to do anything. It appears to me that the driveway as it sits right now, is high up enough where that will not be an issue. I will need to get a closer look once they put in the tar at the end of the Driveway, I think the driveway sits up about 2 inches above right now. Of course we need to fill in a long the driveway and seed, but if we leave it an inch below, how can the water get on it?