This homeowner was dealing with a major drainage problem which we were able to fix through the installation of three parallel french drains. It was so bad that it was turning the side yard into a river during rainstorms, and taking soil and debris with it, creating a mess along the side of the house.
To better undesrtand this French Drain project, know that there is a slope going towards the front yard. So from the standpoint of the picture taker, the yard is sloping down the flagstone path and towards the fence.
Drainage Grading
There was some grading required for this project. There was a negative slope towards the house. We were able to turn this slope into a positive slope that effectively directs water away from the house in order to greatly minimize the chance of flooding.
French Drains
In the photo above you can clearly see 3 green drains. The purpose of these drains is to collect water from the backyard, safely move this water underneath the side yard, to an exit point in the front yard. This turns a destructive, rushing flow of water into a gentle spring in the front yard that moves water from where it isn’t wanted to where it can be used.
Flagstone Walkway
To enhance the look, we installed a flagstone walkway. You can see that we like for our flagstone installations to have small seams, and we take the time to do precision cutting to make sure that our flagstone pieces fit together perfectly.
We don’t use mortar for the spaces between the flagstone – we use polymeric sand. Polymeric sand has the advantage of holding things in place much better than mortar. It is much less likely to bulge, raise and chip away.
We use galvanized steel rolltop edging along the flagstone walkway to create a nice border between the walkway the rocks / planting area to the sides.
Landscaping Fabric and Rocks
You can see that we put in rocks alongside the house and around the aspen on top of some landscaping fabric. This will help to ensure a low maintenance area alongside the house.
Soil Planting Area
We also graded the area to the left of the walkway as the homeowner wanted to use this space as a planting area.
