I've got a big water problem. It seems to be coming from the ground. It's not my septic system. (To far away and uphill)
The spot in question is at the bottom of a hill, clay soil, cut into the hill about four foot high to level. Neighbor living about 200 feet up the hill. However the water doesn't "seem" to be sewage or anything. This "swamp" is getting unbearable and I'm looking for ideas??? I can take pictures if it'd help.
It sounds like you have a spot where water is traveling in the rock layers underground and that cut into the hill is allowing it to escape.
Our previous house had a lot that had that same problem, anytime you dug water would come out of the ground. The lot was sloping and I think had rock layers underground that caused problems like you are seeing. We had to trench and put in corrugated drainage pipe to drain the seepage away.
My neighbor dug about a foot down to plant rose bushes, and water promptly started coming up. We had to put a drainage tube right next to his rose bushes to collect the water and take it away. That side of the yard was always green, the other side ( 50 foot wide lot ) would really dry out in the summer.
rcr, I have several places on my property that run water like a spring for weeks after any decent rain. I have a couple large areas (40 acres or so, each) that has a gentle slope. It has about 12-18 inches of "top soil" and then about 5-6 feet of sand, some heavily compressed and is almost sandstone then a rock shelf. The shelf varies in depth but 5-6 foot depth is typical and places are 12 ft or more. Rain soaks into the sand and is caught by the rock where it very slowly runs downhill underground. It serves to "spring feed" some of my ponds as well as provide lots of seeps at the surface (temporary springs.)
Some of these flow well enough sometimes to have small creek beds (erosion ditches?) to carry their output. There is one by a drive way that flows for several weeks after a good rain so at times it never stops, just changes volume. I had to put a drainage ditch to direct the flow where I wanted it to go.
I agree with twstanley. I think you may have a situation similar to mine. An architecture professor from OU got an architectural design award for desiging an earth sheltered (underground) home down slope from a housing development where everyone watered their lawns. He had subsurface water flowing fairly heavily through his building site.
I have a French drain both inside and outside of my basement's foundation at the level of the top of the foundation (below the stem wall.) I also have an intercepting trench with a French drain in it about 8 feet upslope of my basement. The outer foundation drain and the intercepting trench's drain have been flowing water continuously since they were installed (over 2 years ago.) A test bore to gather data for foundation design prior to starting construction filled with water overnight after it was made to within 5 feet of the original grade. This puts the level of the ground water about 3 feet above the floor of my basement which would be a swimming pool without the French drains.
You can install an intercepting trench with a French drain just upslope of any problem area. Dig a trench deeper than any digging to be done in the problem area and shape the ditch in a "U" shape with the open side of the "U" aimed downslope. Put down geotextile in the bottom of the trench and then nearly fill it with washed septic gravel or ground recycled tires with a perforated drain pipe of 4 inches or larger. The gravel should be fully wrapped in geotextile on all sides and at the ends. Lowe's and others sell sleeving to put over 4 inch drain perforated drain lines. The sleeving in concert with the textile will serve to prevent fines from plugging the drain pipe and the gravel bed. You can stop short of the surface by enough to have some topsoil so you can have grass grow over the trench.
Run a non-perforated continuation of the 4 inch line down slope till it can drain to daylight.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Sounds like a plan. A french drain it is! A new project for my new ck30 tractor! Yeah...
BTW, I moved here (Cleveland Ok) from duncan ok. We're practicaly neighbors! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
And why do they call them French drains? I used one of those at my previous house to solve our drainage issues....
rcrcomputing, Did you grow up in Duncan or at least go to high school there? My favorite aunt, now deceased, taught highschool biology there for eons. She taught at least three generations. Even her doctor was one of her former students.
I have also lived in beautiful Ohio for nearly 8 years, just a block or so out of the city limits of Lima.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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