OK...I'm gonna make a long post here...
We closed on this house on March 9 of this year. The sellers did disclose that the garage gets water inside when it rains. Ok...we thought they meant like a puddle. About two week ago, we got 4 inches of rain in one hour. The garage had a 3-4 inch deep river running through it!!! We were sweeping and squeegeeing it out the back garage door onto the back patio which has good drainage.
Here are the photos I took while it was happening:
This is looking up the street where the water comes from. You can see it is a straight downhill slope right into our driveway. By the way, there is no curbing and no under street drainage in this entire neighborhood. There is also a creek named Lightning Creek that runs all over south Oklahoma City and right through the middle of this neighborhood. This square mile or so was registered as a township when it was developed. It was developed in the late 50's. At that time, coming to this area of town was like driving out to the country.
Here's the corner of the driveway where the water comes in like a river.
This is the current that is created mid driveway where the river smashes into the standing water.
Here's where it all ends up at the garage and around the side of the house.
Here's my feet in "Lake Corner of the Garage."
Here's the more swallow side of "Lake Corner of the Garage"...where our cars wade around.
ok...now I'm starting photos from this morning in the daylight...I walked the property and tried to get every angle...
This is coming out of the garage this morning. You can see there is standing water on the drive. This is from the rain we had two days ago. It was just off and on moderate showers for about 6 hours. The garage got a thin smallish puddle that stayed in the outside corner.
Grate at end of driveway that previous owners installed to try and alleviate the problem...it's a joke. It doesn't even begin to handle the amount of water we get. I will show where it drains to shortly. Looks to be 4" PVC. It works...it just doesn't handle the volume. And the end point is not ideal. It is also not located in the most prime spot on the driveway to catch the most water. It's looks to be too far forward.
Here's the corner where the river runs in.
Here are views looking down the North side of the house and yard which leads to the equipment pad.
Here is past the gate, still on North side of garage in yard going to equipment pad. You can see here we have a jerry rigged drainage gutter for the sump pump that's in the basement. That has got to be tied in to some kind of underground system. The water also runs down this side of the house to the equipment pad. The pad enclosure had 8 inches of water in it. Argh!!!! You can see that the previous owners tried the little trick of strategically taking out several bricks around the bottom of the fence in this area. The neighbors promptly cemented over these areas and that's when the fight began around here. We've been filled in by our neighbor to the West that they absolutely could not stand the lady that owned this house.
Here's a nice little feature where the sand has washed out underneath the concrete and created a natural drainage underground water holding tank. There's a space between the concrete and the grass where you can turn on the hose and it will fill up with water in 50-100 gallons...I'm guessing. You can see there are areas of concrete that have been cut in several places over the years. I'm guessing to work on the clean out and drains that are along this strip. Photos up next.
Here is looking South from the Northwest corner of the back of house. There is a drain clean out closest to the grass and then two drains that do underground somewhere...who knows where they end up...I guess in the clean out? These drains work well and water does not pond on the pool deck or patio.
There is also a drain here on the inner patio itself. Miraculously it works. Still down know where the water goes. There are also two drain clean outs under the concrete in this inner patio area.
And now going out the south end of the yard...this is the lowest area on the property.
ok...back to the front yard. These are walking due south to the circle drive in front of the house. The french drain for the grate in the driveway goes across the yard here about 8-10 feet from the street. It goes under the circle drive and then diagonal in front of that hedge row and then comes out on that side of the yard. The opening is just the 4" pvc pipe sticking out in the grass about 8 feet from the street. The pics of the larger pipe hole and ditch right at the corner of the front yard is from a grated box that is on the other side of the street to catch the water that is rushing down here from the street that meets our property from the east. It is also a downhill grade right into the front yard. So there is a ditch there. I guess somebody around here got the city to install that. It is not an actual plumbed drain that takes the water to a proper drainage pipe somewhere. It just stops in the corner of our front yard and then supposedly the water goes on down the street. But it mostly just sit there in the corner of our yard.
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So in this one you can see that the street is a constant erosion problem. The red brick mailbox is ours. You are looking West at that. So any water we put out here basically just becomes our neighbor's. There are a few people who have installed tin horns under their drives along this street going west.
Whew!!! ....So we've had several companies and individuals out here to do estimates and give opinions. The first guy from a drainage solutions company here in Oklahoma wanted to expand the existing drainage grate at the end of the driveway to 8 inch pvc. He also wanted to run a french drain around the the North side of the house and clear out the missing brick holes at the bottom of the brick fence and dump it all on the neighbors. We are not up for that. And besides the neighbors can just block any openings on their side.
The second guy was more of sideman guy. He seemed pretty with it and capable. His plan involved expanding the existing grate to 8 inches and moving it to a better place on the drive. He also wanted to put another grate closer to the garage doors and run a new french drain from that going north across the front yard under the front walkway to the porch and out past the mailbox, which will again put all that water in our neighbors drive and yard. He wants $6000.
A man that owns a rooter company came out and basically had no answer.
Another came out and said there is no solution.
Another is coming out this Thursday with a laser level to tell us what he thinks.
Sigh.....Any body?
I'm wonder if I could make a buried water tank on the north side yard in back and sump pump it into the pool??? I know it would have to be filtered somehow. But this would save us on the water bill and contain the water.
Ready for the brain storm session to begin.
Thank you!
Crystal
We closed on this house on March 9 of this year. The sellers did disclose that the garage gets water inside when it rains. Ok...we thought they meant like a puddle. About two week ago, we got 4 inches of rain in one hour. The garage had a 3-4 inch deep river running through it!!! We were sweeping and squeegeeing it out the back garage door onto the back patio which has good drainage.
Here are the photos I took while it was happening:
This is looking up the street where the water comes from. You can see it is a straight downhill slope right into our driveway. By the way, there is no curbing and no under street drainage in this entire neighborhood. There is also a creek named Lightning Creek that runs all over south Oklahoma City and right through the middle of this neighborhood. This square mile or so was registered as a township when it was developed. It was developed in the late 50's. At that time, coming to this area of town was like driving out to the country.
Here's the corner of the driveway where the water comes in like a river.
This is the current that is created mid driveway where the river smashes into the standing water.
Here's where it all ends up at the garage and around the side of the house.
Here's my feet in "Lake Corner of the Garage."
Here's the more swallow side of "Lake Corner of the Garage"...where our cars wade around.
ok...now I'm starting photos from this morning in the daylight...I walked the property and tried to get every angle...
This is coming out of the garage this morning. You can see there is standing water on the drive. This is from the rain we had two days ago. It was just off and on moderate showers for about 6 hours. The garage got a thin smallish puddle that stayed in the outside corner.
Grate at end of driveway that previous owners installed to try and alleviate the problem...it's a joke. It doesn't even begin to handle the amount of water we get. I will show where it drains to shortly. Looks to be 4" PVC. It works...it just doesn't handle the volume. And the end point is not ideal. It is also not located in the most prime spot on the driveway to catch the most water. It's looks to be too far forward.
Here's the corner where the river runs in.
Here are views looking down the North side of the house and yard which leads to the equipment pad.
Here is past the gate, still on North side of garage in yard going to equipment pad. You can see here we have a jerry rigged drainage gutter for the sump pump that's in the basement. That has got to be tied in to some kind of underground system. The water also runs down this side of the house to the equipment pad. The pad enclosure had 8 inches of water in it. Argh!!!! You can see that the previous owners tried the little trick of strategically taking out several bricks around the bottom of the fence in this area. The neighbors promptly cemented over these areas and that's when the fight began around here. We've been filled in by our neighbor to the West that they absolutely could not stand the lady that owned this house.
Here's a nice little feature where the sand has washed out underneath the concrete and created a natural drainage underground water holding tank. There's a space between the concrete and the grass where you can turn on the hose and it will fill up with water in 50-100 gallons...I'm guessing. You can see there are areas of concrete that have been cut in several places over the years. I'm guessing to work on the clean out and drains that are along this strip. Photos up next.
Here is looking South from the Northwest corner of the back of house. There is a drain clean out closest to the grass and then two drains that do underground somewhere...who knows where they end up...I guess in the clean out? These drains work well and water does not pond on the pool deck or patio.
There is also a drain here on the inner patio itself. Miraculously it works. Still down know where the water goes. There are also two drain clean outs under the concrete in this inner patio area.
And now going out the south end of the yard...this is the lowest area on the property.
ok...back to the front yard. These are walking due south to the circle drive in front of the house. The french drain for the grate in the driveway goes across the yard here about 8-10 feet from the street. It goes under the circle drive and then diagonal in front of that hedge row and then comes out on that side of the yard. The opening is just the 4" pvc pipe sticking out in the grass about 8 feet from the street. The pics of the larger pipe hole and ditch right at the corner of the front yard is from a grated box that is on the other side of the street to catch the water that is rushing down here from the street that meets our property from the east. It is also a downhill grade right into the front yard. So there is a ditch there. I guess somebody around here got the city to install that. It is not an actual plumbed drain that takes the water to a proper drainage pipe somewhere. It just stops in the corner of our front yard and then supposedly the water goes on down the street. But it mostly just sit there in the corner of our yard.
<a href="http://s1146.photobucket.com/user/musicatokc/media/IMG_2713_zpsiq4qp0s8.jpg.html" target="_blank"><imsrc="http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o530/musicatokc/IMG_2713_zpsiIMG_2713_zpsiq4qp0s8.jpg"/></a>
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</center>
So in this one you can see that the street is a constant erosion problem. The red brick mailbox is ours. You are looking West at that. So any water we put out here basically just becomes our neighbor's. There are a few people who have installed tin horns under their drives along this street going west.
Whew!!! ....So we've had several companies and individuals out here to do estimates and give opinions. The first guy from a drainage solutions company here in Oklahoma wanted to expand the existing drainage grate at the end of the driveway to 8 inch pvc. He also wanted to run a french drain around the the North side of the house and clear out the missing brick holes at the bottom of the brick fence and dump it all on the neighbors. We are not up for that. And besides the neighbors can just block any openings on their side.
The second guy was more of sideman guy. He seemed pretty with it and capable. His plan involved expanding the existing grate to 8 inches and moving it to a better place on the drive. He also wanted to put another grate closer to the garage doors and run a new french drain from that going north across the front yard under the front walkway to the porch and out past the mailbox, which will again put all that water in our neighbors drive and yard. He wants $6000.
A man that owns a rooter company came out and basically had no answer.
Another came out and said there is no solution.
Another is coming out this Thursday with a laser level to tell us what he thinks.
Sigh.....Any body?
I'm wonder if I could make a buried water tank on the north side yard in back and sump pump it into the pool??? I know it would have to be filtered somehow. But this would save us on the water bill and contain the water.
Ready for the brain storm session to begin.
Thank you!
Crystal
