Backyard Floods Backporch

My backyard seems to be very uneven, and actually sloops down into my house, which has caused many noticable problems with the outside of the house. The backporch is attached to what used to be a bigger back porch, but my Dad and Uncle had made it into a game room a really long time ago. And back when they did it, we never had any problems with flooding when it rained really bad. But as the years went on our back yard seemed to sloop down toward our house. Now when it rains bad, the back porch will flood, which leads the game room to flood. Weve already had to rip up the carpet in the game room and now you can easily detect mold in the room.

I know that I will have to level out my backyard, either by hand, or if I can find a way to afford it, with a little bobcat. I dont mind doing it by hand, I have alot of time on my hands, what I dont have is alot of money. Currently I have built a baracade on the edge of the back porch where rain always entered in at, using 4X4's and rocks, I did that knowing that it was definatly only temporary, even though it works. But after I level out the backyard, what are ways I can go about fixing it so that everything is level? And making it so that the siding on the outside of the gameroom doesnt get ruined when I replace it as well. Its the base of the siding that is ruined.

Again when I am able to take pictures I will, but if there are any questions for me to better help anyone help me, I will glady answer them. Thanks, and sorry if what I described is confusing, I just dont know how to describe it.

Has this got a cement foundation or is it post and beam?
Normily you would have a trench around the pirimeter of the building and then away from the house with drain rock and 4 inch pvc for your gutter drains and 4 inch pvc perforated pipe for your pirimeter drain. This trench also is dug away from the house to divert any water.

Hey David:
Daryl has a good point with the French drain.
Another way to re-route the water is to dig a (swail) smooth rounded bottom ditch around the house, placing the dirt up next to the house. Make it smooth enough to mow it without any problem. I am picturing land that continues to slope toward the street in front of the house. The swail would break the water from hitting the house and rather make it drain around the house and on to the street.
The roughness of the backyard could be quickly and easily repaired with a small rental tractor with a "landscaping box" or with a drag made of a couple of beams or logs with spikes protuding from them. Either one will knock off the high spots and fill in the low spots. It will need to be seeded right away so the new grass will hold the dirt where you have placed it.
Glenn

Thanks for the idea Daryl, and thanks Glenn for answering to another one of my questions. The house is foundation, not pier and beam. Glenn has already helped me with the problem I have with the foundation cracking, luckily its nothing I needed to be alarmed about, because what he described, the house isnt sinking or anything. I actually had an idea like this, but didnt know if it would work or not, now that someone actually told me the way to do it, I am positive it will. Thanks again for the replies.

Just out of curiosity, about how long would an average sized backyard take to level out with having dirt brought in, and doing it by hand? I know it will be a huge pain, literally too, but I definatly dont have the money to rent any equipment like that. And Im trying to do this around my parents, again Im trying to say thanks to my parents, so its more of a, I start the project without them knowing it, then they cant say no. And everything I will be doing to the outside of the house I know they would love to have done. Because it is basically all of their ideas, I paid attention over the years, and asked questions alot here lately.

One thing I was thinking about doing was adding onto the backporch, making it so that the backporch would run to the end of the house. The only thing is that we have our HVAC unit toward the end of the house, but basically it would be apart of the newly formed porch. And I was actually looking at it, and if I added onto it, that alone would solve the majority of the slopping into the house. Plus my Mom wants a bigger kitchen, and the way I can do that is by moving the laundry room to the back porch, and knocking down a little wall that seperates the kitchen and laundry room, and then she'd have a bigger kitchen, and the game room wouldnt flood anymore.

This again is just what I think, more of a day dream, how hard is something like this? Another thing is that she wanted the kitchen to be wider, the only way I can think that will allow that to happen is if a wall or part of a wall comes down in either the living room, which is next to the kitchen, or the brick wall which would mean that part of the kitchen would be in what is now the backporch (the added on back porch). Naturally there would be a wall, it would just have been moved. And just from describing it, I just confused myself. Any ideas on how to make a kitchen wider?

Hey David:
If the money is that tight, maybe you should consider a couple of shovels and a garden rake. A load of dirt would cost more thana rental tractor, so just use what you have there and redistribute it.
If you include an air conditioner in a porch, be careful how close a roof is allowed; check the owner's manual.
Be careful about removing walls; they may be load bearing. Like the brick wall; I would say it is definitely load bearing. That means the roof could cave in on you.
Glenn

yours sounds more serious than mine, i don't have any seepage into the house or foundation, but back in the early spring when it was rainier i saw my back yard got kind of swampy after agood steady rain (i just moved here last feb.). i kind of made a little trench from puddle to puddle till i had a small stream out to a drainage ditch behind the back yard.

it's been pretty dry here since then, but i'm gathering materials and reading up on methods (there's a thread here too) to leave the trench as a dry creek bed that will work as drainage when nessesary. don't know if that would work for your situation, just throwin' it out there.

Thanks again guys for the replies, I think I am going to do what Daryl suggested, it seems just right for my situation and the formation of my backyard. And either way, even when I level out my backyard, I will still have a problem during heavy rain, so either way I will do it. I quickly changed my mind, well my Mom helped me change my mind, when I insinuated that I was thinking of knocking down a wall to give her the bigger kitchen she wanted, it wasnt even a split second she got paranoid and yelled out no.

Needless to say, I think she was freaking out, I understand too. I will probably end up knocking down the wall that separates the kitchen and the laundry room, because I know its not load bearing, and add on to the kitchen that way. Move the laundry room to the now backporch, put up walls and the proper connections. Then add on a new backporch, which wouldnt have walls, but would definatly have a roof, and steel posts to support the roof, or brick posts, and maybe screen it in.

Either way the kitchen would become bigger, which my Mom wants, no major walls would have to come down, and we would get a bigger back porch, which to me and my parents, would make our back yard look better. If I screened in the backporch though, I would have to have the screen door with a doggy door in it, I have 3 small dogs. The big ones are gone now. This would also take care of the flooding problem all together.

I have fixed the flooding problem with the suggestion of Daryl, thanks man, it worked wonderfully. It hasnt rained since I did it, but what I did was I filled up my dogs swimming pool, the ones used for little kids, and I dumped it over where all the water ran into the area where my backyard sinks down to my back porch. Only a tiny bit of water went on the back porch, so yeah it worked wonderfully, I made it pretty wide, not on the overkill side, but it definatly does the trick. Thanks so much for the advice, I greatly appreciate it, and thanks to everyone else for the advice on leveling out my back yard.

Now I have another problem that I need to address quickly, the game room, which is what was getting flooded due to the back porch getting flooded. Because it has been flooded so many times, I guess moisture has gotten into the floor, and you can just smell the mold because of it. Well I use this room to exercise in and practice my MMA training, and because of the mold, I get very light headed when training. I need to fix it as quickly as possible. The game room was added on to the house before we bought it, originally it was a full length back porch that was screened in and had a roof over it. My Dad and Uncle turned it into an actual room, putting down carpet, a ceiling, insulation, the whole nine yards.

Im sure the flooding problem wasnt thought of when they did it, otherwise they wouldnt have. The room is very stable and is flawless except for the damage that occured from the flooding. They had to rip up the carpet, leaving the bare concrete floor, and the paneling that is on the walls has bowed significantly all around the bottom. And like I said, you can just easily smell the mold and moisture. What can I do to fix this problem?

I will be replacing the panelling on the walls, eventually I will actually raise the height of the floor, because when you step into the game room from the house, it is lowered about 6 inches from the height of the house. Dont get me wrong, the foundation is very strong, but I think that by raising the floor of the game room to be level with the rest of the house, I can raise the back porch too, and lengthen it to the AC unit, and add on to the roof to cover the added on portion of the back porch. By doing this I wouldnt have to even out the whole back yard, I would just have to fill in the deep slope where needed after adding on to the back porch.

This is what I would like to do in the future, but for now, the trench works perfectly, and if I could just get rid of the moisture and mold that has built up over the years of flooding, I will be great for now. This would allow me to concentrate on other parts of the house that affect everyone, not just me. I am the only person that uses this room, my weights, floor standing punching bags, heavy bags, speed bag, headache bag, grappling dummy, floor mat for grappling, and other equipment takes up basically the whole room. Thanks for any advice on this problem and a huge thanks for the help with the flooding problem, I truely appreciate it.

I have not had to deal with mold issues in my business to much over the years but first you will have to remove anything in the infected area and wash it with the appropiate cleaner( not sure what to use for this).Make sure you use a mask and well ventilate this room while working on this. Then you will need to dry the area with a heater. I would then Apply 2 coats of Kilz Original oil based primer and let sit for a couple of days and then rebuild what you took out. There are other members who have delt with this a lot more than I have and I am sure they will be around shortly.