Completely new at this :/

[HarleyHappy]

Before you go too far consider this.
The drain you mentioned is actually the code for around here.
there needs to be drainage around the high side of every house so it doesn’t flood the basement.
You need to address the waterproofing of your foundation.
You can swale and swallow and whatever you want but if you’re getting water intrusion, you should check the sealer.
whomever did the retaining wall and site drainages on that job sucked ass.
You may consider hiring someone that knows what to do at least in the civil engineering side of it.
You may do the work yourself but when I look at your pics I would cut the **** out that place.
There looks to be too much rolly poley all around your house and no good slopes.

 

[Project-man]

Thanks for all of the points to consider....the basement is as dry as a bone all of the time. We have very sandy/rocky soil that does not hold water thankfully. My problem happens when we have 1-3 inches of rain per hour which will saturate the ground and send rainwater down into the basement/garage area where the 50' of perforated drainage pipe cannot handle the deluge of steady heavy rainwater. If I can prevent 30% of the side yard water runoff from reaching my basement area I will be in good shape.

And you are right, the side yard is rolly polly with 50-60% of it gradually draining to a very steep hillside but the other parts are inconsistently graded. Today I was standing by my red barn and looked at the whole side yard mess and summarized it would probably be best done with a bulldozer and more fill to build up the lowest area near the basement and properly grade the whole area so all of the rain runoff heads to the hill side.

I'm wondering how much damage can I do on a bulldozer or after playing around with it for a couple of days, would I be able to crudely grade it properly enough to solve my once a year basement flood problem?? I'm enclosing some pics Crane Operator asked me to send from different angles.... Again thanks for all of the input and ideas......this is the best time to figure this out before spring....

 

[Tinkerer]

My choice would be replace the existing drain tile with a larger one with a lot of fall to it.
The one you have now may have been laid too flat (not enough slope).
and is too small. Maybe both.

 

[skyking1]

might be silted in and a simple jetting could clear it. Wish you had led with the picture of that drain grate.

 

[HarleyHappy]

^^^^^^ For this you can use a smallish backhoe and is a much better sol than cutting the hell out of the place.
You just scared me a lot when you asked what kind of damage you could do with a dozer.
The answer, is a lot.
Dozers are one of the hardest pieces of equipment to run well.
With a grader being the hardest, in my opinion.
You could also do the larger pipe with a mini ex on a weekend and finish up with a skid steer and a load of loam.

 

[Project-man]

Yes to both recommendations....the drain by the garage door is a small catch basin and leads into another drain inside the basement where the 50' of perforated coiled drain line is buried. I have thought about getting it roto rooted but would much rather build a berm / swale to prevent the deluge of rainwater from reaching the drains in the 1st place. Last year the town @ 15 miles from our home had 5" of rainwater in @ 3 hours and completely flooded a number of homes and businesses. I can only imagine the damage this kind or rainfall would do to my basement in a matter of hours.

We have already been canceled by one of our homeowners ins for the damage we sustained from our 1st flood so I'm really over worrying about flooding and want to eliminate the chances for it ever happening again.

I'm sure I could do alot of damage with a bulldozer considering I don't know what I'm doing. I'm open to learning how to operate different types of equipment in my yard working on this particular project. I'm sure an expert can do it faster and more efficiently than I ever would but this project presents an opportunity to plan, execute and hopefully finish before summer hit.

So again, I really appreciate all of the feedback and different strategies that have been shared from the members of this forum.

 

[skyking1]

Ok that is totally bass -awkwards! Why on earth would you bring outside water into the basement envelope to drain pipe?
All you need to do is take the water from that outside drain AWAY towards the parking area.

 

[Delmer]

I still can't tell the elevations very well. It looks like three blocks so 24" but does the soil surface keep rising from that point? and how much or how far? If it's 20', I'd sharpen a shovel and air up the wheelbarrow tire, and do some exercise every morning and you'll be done before you know it. Even if the drain goes to daylight now, which I bet it does, I'd still want the ground surface to drain away. It doesn't look that far.

 

[MG84]

You want to shape everything to get ALL of the water away from the house naturally, without relying on drains, if at all possible.

A large CTL will do all the dirt moving you need, and be easier for a novice to get 'decent' results with than a dozer. In the grand scheme of things even reshaping the whole back yard is not that big of a project. I think you are way underestimating the ability of a lot of this equipment, an experienced operator could do what you need done in a day or two. Even for a complete novice, a week rental should be sufficient.

 

[Tinkerer]

You could (maybe) consider putting a check valve in the line draining the basement to prevent the outside water from going into it.
I did in my own basement drain.
I have two down spout drains that have check valves in the end of the buried 4" PVC they drain into.
Those pipes drain out to the backyard and dump on the surface.
Not for water backup, but to keep critters from going into them and dieing.
I have also put them in farm tiles that dump into creeks for the same reason.

 

[crane operator]

.the drain by the garage door is a small catch basin and leads into another drain inside the basement where the 50' of perforated coiled drain line is buried.

Are you sure that the outside grate drains to the inside sump/pit?

I'm guessing the interior pit may be a collection sump for your footing tiles, and it drains or sump pumps to the outside pit, which then runs through that pipe to the driveway. You need to do a little investigating to see what's really going on there.

I would want a exterior grate to run the width of the "driveway" / entrance, instead of the small inlet it currently has, and it should drain off to the blacktop driveway- that's 60' away from the house.

Much better would be if you could shape the yard so it will natural fall away from the house, all the way toward that blacktop driveway. Don't try to hold it with a berm. Slope it all away.

You're going to have to establish the slope/ grade yourself, if you want to do this with a rental machine.

Determining what you have for slope, and the elevations you are going to need, is where the "experience" factor is going to come into play. Some guys can naturally see the slope from the seat, other guys need some reference stakes and elevations set with a transit/ laser to be where they need to be. I'm guessing you don't have either of those skill sets.

You can rent a compact track loader for a couple days, and if you get it all screwed up, then you can hire the expert to fix it right.

 

[Welder Dave]

Might be good to have someone experienced come and give an estimate. By the time you rent a machine and figure out what you're doing, an experienced operator could be finished. It might not cost any more than if you had to rent a machine for a longer time period. An experienced operator could do the job at least twice as fast and do a better job for the cost of renting a machine for a week. Sometimes it's better to let someone experienced do jobs that have to be done right. You can learn a lot watching how they do things so that you may want to tackle a less critical job in the future.

 

[Project-man]

Yes I'm sure the outside drain goes right into the basement garage area drain which in turn drains into a 50' perforated coiled piping under the basement floor as described by the pervious home owner. Believe me when I tell everyone the soil composition on my property drains fast and the basement is dry as a bone all of the time.....except of course when we have extended downpours that saturate the soil allowing runoff to collect in the garage/basement area.

I like the idea of creating a slope/grade away from the house and at the same time, I'm thinking of constructing a wide pathway from our double pool gate and curving to the front yard area. This pool gate pathway would be level with the elevation of the front yard and would prevent rainwater runoff from collecting in the garage/basement area. With that constructed, I believe it would be easier to reshape the remainder of the side yard and create the proper slope to drain heavy downpours to the hillside that's perpendicular to the red barn you see in the pictures.

Creating this pathway would require some dump truck loads of clean fill, I'm estimating about 8 cubic yards more or less. This week I can stake out the length and width of the pathway and how much material it would take to make this pathway level with the front yard area. This would make more sense than a berm because it will have a utilitarian purpose.

Thanks again for the ideas and recommendations....I'm already excited to plan it all out.....with your help!!

 

[Welder Dave]

A dump truck carries 10 to 12 yards depending how heavy it is. You might get enough fill after other parts are reshaped.

 

[Project-man]

Thanks Welder Dave for the information.....I had a local experienced guy over last summer and he quoted @ $3500 for the pathway and the regrading job but could not start the project until spring.

That's why I'm considering doing the job myself and learning how to operate some rental machinery and decide if owning a piece of equipment for some other jobs I'd like to tackle would be worth it in the long run.......and as always I really appreciate all of the help and knowledge shared by people who know what they are doing.......

 

[rumblecloud]

Just curious, have you considered a pond?
Wall off the doors, block the drain and voila...pond.

 

[Project-man]

Yes, I have considered a pond on my property but not in that side yard area...... Thinking about constructing a pond, (which I know little about) I have a spot in mind in a low area near my driveway in a wooded area. I would need to remove @ 10 mature trees and stumps to clear an area of @ 1/10 of an acre for a small shallow pond. My biggest reservation is that it would be only filled by rainwater and whether or not the water would become brackish over the summer without any way of naturally circulating the water. I know I can make the pond as deep as I want but have not searched for any information regarding it because it is a "back burner" project.....I like the idea of a pond in my golden years....

 

[rumblecloud]

Okay...I guess that wasn't as funny as I originally thought.

I get the reference though... "pond...golden years" Henry and Jane...

Touche.

 

[aighead]

Maybe an auxiliary pool with the blocked off garage, instead of the pond!

 

[Project-man]

Sure....I'll take all ideas into consideration...:/ I'm going to stake out the pathway dimensions and see what I come up with for fill material requirements.....Looking at the basement/garage area from the highest point and if I had an unlimited money supply, I should raise the retaining wall facing the front yard and build another retaining wall to meet the retaining wall next to the pool gate.....basically squaring off the ramp leading to the garage/basement area and building stairs to access the walkout basement area....but that's definitely a job for a professional and probably very expensive too.....

I'll stake out my pathway plan and see what I can come up with. This project is really making me consider whether or not it's worth doing myself.....