Drainage Area/Swale

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CarolinaMatt
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Drainage Area/Swale

Post by CarolinaMatt » June 30th, 2015, 1:52 pm

Hi All-

So through my backyard is a drainage swale the developer put for run off of water from the houses to the left. I would like to fill that in and put sod over it.

Any recommendations for what type of tubes to use? I was thinking black corrugated tubing, but was worried burying that would let to the tube being crushed.

Thanks!

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by ken-n-nancy » June 30th, 2015, 6:02 pm

CarolinaMatt wrote:So through my backyard is a drainage swale the developer put for run off of water from the houses to the left. I would like to fill that in and put sod over it.
First thought - "Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!"

Second thought - whether or not the swale can be replaced by something else depends on a lot of different things. However, this is an area in which to proceed with significant caution. The developer must have put the swale there for a reason -- simply eliminating the swale may exchange one problem (what is the problem with the current drainage swale, by the way?) for other, potentially worse problems...

What kind of swale is it -- does it have turf in it currently? Small crushed rocks? Fist-sized rocks? Bowling ball-sized rocks?

A few pictures of the swale and surrounding area might help a lot.

How long have you lived there to see various adverse weather conditions? (The swale may only be needed for near flood-like conditions like 2 inches of rain in a few hours, but it may practically be essential at such times...)

PS: I should note that I'm not saying you shouldn't consider changing the swale to something else, but that this is an area in which to tread with extreme caution.

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by Billybob » June 30th, 2015, 8:19 pm

I agree with him ^^^^ be careful about doing something on your own. You would have to contact the town or city in which you reside. Those Swales are there for a reason.....

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by CarolinaMatt » July 2nd, 2015, 9:23 am

I took some photos last night. With a rough estimate measure with my eyes I would say the deepest part is 2.5-3 ft below the level I would like it flat. If we get an absolute monsoon it does have a decent little river flowing through the backyard. So ideally if I could make it flat then I'd have to have a pretty good set of drainage pipes.

I like the idea of contacting the city. I spoke with my H.O.A. yesterday and they said since I was improving my home they did not care and I could do whatever i want.... but that does not exactly seem correct and my guess would come back to bite me when I sell the house someday.

The first two photos are from inside my fence and you can see where the water will come from my neighbors backyard and then flows into the 2nd two photos towards the sewer.

Image

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by BoatDrinksQ5 » July 2nd, 2015, 11:26 am

I suppose you could just use a few sock covered black french drain things (like the all in one with foam peanuts in them).

But personally I would maintain the area as a wild flower garden... with some natural looking non-spreading bunch grasses....milkweed...etc.

In the low spots maybe some irises or other wet tolerant flowers...

Border the edge with some boulders maybe

oh....and who's bagging.... :club:


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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by CarolinaMatt » July 2nd, 2015, 11:38 am

haha good catch on the clippings. I never bag, but that was after being gone on vacation and coming home to a jungle. Not a fan of when it takes forever for the clippings to disappear.

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by Billybob » July 2nd, 2015, 1:51 pm

You know what I would do.......buy some stone. Like river rock, not gravel. Looks good and maintenance free.

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by CarolinaMatt » July 2nd, 2015, 2:35 pm

and just fill it up all the way?

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by 1977212 » July 2nd, 2015, 3:20 pm

Some people by me use huge 400ft culverts just so they have a flat lawn. I assume you could do this also, but the culvert needs to end/start in your yard I believe.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by ken-n-nancy » July 2nd, 2015, 3:46 pm

Billybob wrote:You know what I would do.......buy some stone. Like river rock, not gravel. Looks good and maintenance free.
CarolinaMatt wrote:and just fill it up all the way?
Filling the swale up all the way with rocks, or part-way, would be fine for preserving the existing drainage. It's one of the best ways to preserve a swale.

Just a caution that although a rock swale is low maintenance, it isn't entirely maintenance free. You'll still need to regularly (probably seasonally) remove organic material such as grass clippings, leaves, twigs, etc., that accumulate between the rocks. You'll also need to figure out how to handle the rock to lawn interface. Depending upon what you do for that edge, it can make new work for trimming or edging the lawn.

Another thing to watch for is that if the rocks you use are too small (marble-sized is too small; the bigger the better!) then these decomposing organic materials will be sufficiently soil-like that weeds start growing amidst the rocks.

If you go the rock route, I'd suggest rocks of at least fist-size or larger. We have borders of crushed rock around our house and they require maintenance about once a season to remove accumulated organic matter and pluck out a weed here or there. We have a gas-powered backpack leaf blower that works really well for blowing out leaves and twigs.

We used to have crushed rock borders about 2-3 feet wide edging the driveway and the road, but removed them when renovating the front lawn, as the crushed rock border areas were too much work to keep weed-free. I personally think it's much easier to mow a couple extra feet of turf than to remove weeds from crushed rocks. Our crushed rocks were moderately small though, probably from a 2-inch or 3-inch screen, so they picked up a fair bit of organic matter between them. Larger rocks are less prone to this issue and wouldn't have been as frustrating.

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by CarolinaMatt » July 2nd, 2015, 4:26 pm

The idea of rock sounds easy/nice, but I do agree that mowing a few extra few of turf would not be much more work.

Ideally I think I do want to be able to lay bermuda sod. Would something like a french drain suffice? Or do I need to use drainage pipes run the whole length with different drains for the water to run into?

I'll check with the city after the holiday and see what if any options I have.

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by bernstem » July 4th, 2015, 8:39 am

I'll add my vote to the crowd arguing against filling it in and installing drain pipe. Consider it part of the landscape and plant water tolerant plants in it as a water garden. Another option would be an unmanaged wildflower garden. Throw seeds and forget. My first thought, honestly, was that it would be a good place for a mix of wildflowers and ornamental grasses. The easiest would probably be to sod it with turf, but I think the change in topography is asking for some sort of garden rather than grass.

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by HanLawn » July 4th, 2015, 11:52 am

Research "rain garden"

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by rtomek » July 6th, 2015, 12:08 pm

Another vote against filling it in. If you do decide to fill it in, check to make sure it's not a drainage easement. Filling in lower spots to get rid of any ponding is fine, but removing the slope and altering the drainage may require a permit. The HOA only gave you permission to do whatever you want within city code - not whatever you want.

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Re: Drainage Area/Swale

Post by CarolinaMatt » July 8th, 2015, 8:55 am

I've reached out to the city to see what I "can do" to it. I'm also checking out ideas for a rain garden.

At the moment I'm still leaning towards fill/sod, but the feedback from the city could quickly change that.

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