# Drainage Question.



## Bill_in_PDX (Jun 12, 2009)

I'm currinetly redoing a part of my front yard to house my garden railroad. One section is 13'x16'. The house sits on one of the 16' sides with the driveway on the other 16' side. I will be adding 2 layers of landscape stone around the driveway perimeter to bring up the level for a rock garden/stream area. My concern is once it is built up abit, will the water run off towards the house be a issue?? I havent had any issues with water on the foundation before but I rather be safe than sorry now. Would a simple trench with a layer of gravel..like a creek bed be alright or should I go all out and put a french drain in?? Thanks ahead of time Bill


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Bill_in_PDX on 06/16/2009 8:23 PM
...My concern is once it is built up a bit, will the water run off towards the house be a issue?? ... Would a simple trench with a layer of gravel..like a creek bed be alright or should I go all out and put a french drain in?? Thanks ahead of time Bill 


You NEVER want water running towards a house. While you can put in all kinds of rainfall diversion systems, none are fool proof.


Now...can you engineer a raised garden railroad area that is higher than your bottom floor...sure. Where it sits, you build up, install french drains along at least along the walls on the inside of the walls..but you do NOT change the grade from the house so that land slopes down to the house (I'm assuming the land now slopes down away from the house in all directions). It's OK to have a swale in the ground that is about 5' out from the house to carry water away from or along the house to a lower elevation. The swale should be in the center technically...meaning a 10' separation from the house to any raised bed for the GRR...but I can't see why the swale couldn't be at the base of a wall on the edge of your GRR area. This is an area where your building department can tell you the rules. There are setback issues too if you build walls.


When it comes to a swale (creekbed as you call it) or a french drain...always go simple. French drains and sump pumps are the items of last choice IMHO.


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## Bill_in_PDX (Jun 12, 2009)

Thanks Mike... 

Yes water towards the house is bad. Simple is good. 

The area was already humped in the middle. Not much...perhaps 4". My border on the driveway side is going to go up 6" Soil is clay as well. 

I never had drainage issues in this area before...just trying not to create a new problem is all. 

Bill


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## White Deer RR (May 15, 2009)

Fellow NW resident here--also clay soil. I've had some minor ponding in the winter in a non-railroad part of my yard after installing some pre-cast concrete borders, planting a tree and having neighbors pile bark dust against the fence. In short, in the winter the water absolutely must have somewhere to go. At a certain point clay just won't take any more water.


We had a neighbor who had "French drains" installed but they were traditional French drains in that they simply had gravel at the bottom with no outlet pipe connected. The next owners had to re-do them with drains connected to outlets.


I was concerned about drainage on my short oval of track in a flower bed next to the house, so I did a sub-roadbed of about two inches of crushed rock and a couple of "culverts" made out of PVC pipe painted gray. I probably overbuilt it actually. No problems with drainage on the small railroad.


Maybe some mini-culverts would work for you? PVC is so cheap, easy to conceal and if they prove unneeded easy to remove and replace with ballast or soil. Just an idea.


Best!


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