So What Caused My House To Flood? Let’s Make A Plan To Fix It.

[kevinherdman]

you are over thinking it. Just dig a wide ditch about 5 foot away from the house. sloping to a nice fall down away. no need for a retaining wall.

[Blazer]

Maybe a swale on the hill behind the trees to divert it away from the house. Add a French drain below to catch to rain between the swale and house.

[GMorganC]

Your idea scooping to the top of the hill would be great & leave the trees. Definitely French drain with gravel next to the house.
Hang in there! 😊

[mmiller]

A single ditch should work well enough to direct water around the house. Maybe an additional smaller one halfway up to catch heavy heavy rainfall.

[AlexeiTetenov]

3:50 Pile the leaves onto a tarp and the drag the tarp to where you want to dump the leaves.

[dorianmorton]

Just put in a good French drain. Hope you get the inspection done soon! 🇨🇦❤️

[kathyhayward]

Here's an idea that's not a French drain... build a concrete retaining wall between your house and the trees. Lots of examples if you Google it. It's fast and cheap and will last forever if you drive a couple of rebar rods into each bag to tie the whole thing together. Once the wall is high enough, backfill on the side facing the trees to create the swale you need to divert the water.

[fhuber]

Ditch for redirecting water off the hill ASAP. Decide on the final solution later. The ditch should make the water have to overcome a foot of rise to get to the foundation. You'll need the ditch for whatever the final solution is.

To footer the wall in (doing a wall) you'll have to go deeper.

[mathehack]

I like the idea of a swale style ditch along the side of the house. If you can make that work so the bulk of the water flows away from foundation and then add an additional French style drain to catch whatever seeps down through the ground to the house that might be the ticket to fixing that cheaper.

[prairiefork]

Hey Dalton, I don't think you need to go to all the work and expense of a retaining wall. Perhaps all that would be needed is to install a couple of gently rolled water breaks cut into the hillside running parallel to the length of your home? Also, maybe place a perforated 4" tile pipe along the perimeter of the foundation wall to help drain accumulated ground water or overflow from plugged gutters. Construction projects always have the little aggravations like inspections or delays, just don't let these drag you down. Look forward to seeing more progress.

[anadaneen]

need a french ditch straight across the back, and a retainer wall just outside of ghat, so runoff from the fence line hits concrete and routes way off to the outside of the house corners. I'd dump gravel between the wall and the house and just add stepping stones. (Maybe pour concrete about 3 feet tall with 6 ft rebar. Top the upper 3 ft of rebar with cinder blocks?)

[joshua_lee]

What if you stretch the culvert up above the tree so you can avoid cutting it down?

[melissaroth]

Our tree removal quotes last year ranged from $3-8, 000 for one tree overhanging the house. Cash payment and telling them you will take care of the wood after they fell it helps. Midwest location.

[markdemi]

You are not just dealing with surface water runoff in that setup. You are also likely getting groundwater intrusion. As long as the ground immediately surrounding your foundation is higher than it is, you are going to have water and/or moisture problems. Building a couple french drains or surface water diverters might fix "flooding" issues, but they aren't going to correct the moisture problem. Negative grade will destroy your place over time.

[onamissionfortruth]

like you've got another project for us to watch. You're going to be a master at all things very soon, especially the retaining walls. All great experience & probably not a ton of $$, mostly time. At least you found this out before you had the place all finished and perfect so there IS a bright side to all of this. Can't wait to see how you do it. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

[anadaneen]

As for the tree....is there a bucket truck you can get access to for a day that will hoist you up enough to start dropping limbs from up high and work your way down until its manageable from the ground?

[zoeazsss]

Yea, that sloping back yard towards the back of the house is a real dilemna. Almost like you gotta make a cement wall next to the house with a drainage to some specific area.

[daveelly]

I like the trench idea set back from the house. you basically just need to make a channel that diverts water flow around you house like a horse shoe. On the flip side, if you did do a retaining wall you could make a pretty neat patio area with a grill over there. that's a nice view vs the storage units on the other side for a hang out spot.

[kenyugordey]

You could easily build a simple rock trench.... Do it about 4 feet away from the house, and make it 2 feet wide and about 3 feet deep. Line it and fill it with gravel. You can make a path way and use the gravel as an accent or make a garden bed and turn the soil lots of simple things you can do.. ive done a gravel trench before and it worked perfect with no slope or nothing 👍

[moto_story]

Concrete trench down the length of the house to the culvert. Use concrete post forms cut in half lengthwise to make a bunch of half pipes all connected. I have no idea if that’d work but it sounds good.