Hello. I recently found this forum. I have posted in several other forums like this as I really need to get to the bottom of my issue and do so as cost effectively as I can. If you have seen me post on other forums I do apologize but I am trying to gather as much information as possible.
This may be long, so please bear with me.
Purchased home last year and this is the first "rainy season" in central florida for us in this house. In heavy rains, which is almost every day, I get pooling on the side of my back patio. This includes in the yard and on the patio itself.
Setup: Covered/screened patio with a pool. There is a channel drain in the patio that exits on either side. Also on either side there is a downspout. Both sides flood but this one is the worse and what I want to tackle first. I set out to figure out the problem and discovered a few things. There was an existing "system" there but it is not functioning as intended as far as I can tell.
Pictures: (file names correspond to numbers below)
1. Overall view of what I am working with. Roof area here calculated to be around 700 sq ft This includes the main roof and the roof of the patio. This produces a lot of water runoff, especially being in central florida. You cannot see the channel drain but it runs the entire length of the patio and exits on both sides. There are two 4" downspouts (one seen here, the other on the other side of the patio.) The green extender was temporary while I worked.
2. Closeup of "system" that was there when I started. The channel drain can be seen near the top above the drain basin. That basin I didn't even know was there as it was buried under those rocks. It is very small with a single output in front. The output is connected to a y-pipe where the gutter downspout fed into as well (using only the dark green tube just shoved inside) From there is goes out to black corrugated pipe.
3. Where the current drain pipe terminated. It does slope down and appears to be designed as a french drain. Closer to the end there were a lot of rocks and the pipe is socked. Where I stopped digging is where it just ends. No pop up, just ends underground covered in the fabric material surrounded by rocks.
I dug up the existing system and discovered the pipe was clogged and was not installed well anyway. Most of it was connected with duct tape and I have no idea if it ever functioned as intended as this is our first rainy season here.
This is on the side of my house bordered by my home on one side and a fence then the neighbors yard and house on the other. To continue the existing trench out to the front yard would be 100+ feet of pipe plus it would run into the start of my irrigation system and the city water line before needing to go under a sidewalk. I realize this may be the best route but it will be very expensive and time consuming and is something I would like to avoid right now.
I instead, did the following:
1. Removed existing system.
2. Put in a larger basin at the front under the channel drain. Downspout directed into basin. Output of basin to 4" pipe
3. Dug new trench toward the tree in the back
4. Ran new 4" solid pipe back to the tree, terminated with a "t" and a pop up
The idea was the water would fill the basin then excess would go back to the tree where it would exit out of the pop up if it was too much. Well, that doesn't work. I discovered the water gets to the t but then has no place to go. Because of the depth of the basin and the slope of the pipe, the pop up is too high for the water to escape. So, it sits there then backs up and I have a flooded patio again.
The idea of a drywell was brought up...possibly with a submersible pump in it should the water be too much. Some said putting in a drywell at either end would not be recommended as it would either be close to the house or close to the pool. There is also no electrical back there so I would have to put in a GFCI outlet or wire up the pump somehow.
I am not sure what to do. My patio flooding is causing me to lose sleep lol.
This may be long, so please bear with me.
Purchased home last year and this is the first "rainy season" in central florida for us in this house. In heavy rains, which is almost every day, I get pooling on the side of my back patio. This includes in the yard and on the patio itself.
Setup: Covered/screened patio with a pool. There is a channel drain in the patio that exits on either side. Also on either side there is a downspout. Both sides flood but this one is the worse and what I want to tackle first. I set out to figure out the problem and discovered a few things. There was an existing "system" there but it is not functioning as intended as far as I can tell.
Pictures: (file names correspond to numbers below)
1. Overall view of what I am working with. Roof area here calculated to be around 700 sq ft This includes the main roof and the roof of the patio. This produces a lot of water runoff, especially being in central florida. You cannot see the channel drain but it runs the entire length of the patio and exits on both sides. There are two 4" downspouts (one seen here, the other on the other side of the patio.) The green extender was temporary while I worked.
2. Closeup of "system" that was there when I started. The channel drain can be seen near the top above the drain basin. That basin I didn't even know was there as it was buried under those rocks. It is very small with a single output in front. The output is connected to a y-pipe where the gutter downspout fed into as well (using only the dark green tube just shoved inside) From there is goes out to black corrugated pipe.
3. Where the current drain pipe terminated. It does slope down and appears to be designed as a french drain. Closer to the end there were a lot of rocks and the pipe is socked. Where I stopped digging is where it just ends. No pop up, just ends underground covered in the fabric material surrounded by rocks.
I dug up the existing system and discovered the pipe was clogged and was not installed well anyway. Most of it was connected with duct tape and I have no idea if it ever functioned as intended as this is our first rainy season here.
This is on the side of my house bordered by my home on one side and a fence then the neighbors yard and house on the other. To continue the existing trench out to the front yard would be 100+ feet of pipe plus it would run into the start of my irrigation system and the city water line before needing to go under a sidewalk. I realize this may be the best route but it will be very expensive and time consuming and is something I would like to avoid right now.
I instead, did the following:
1. Removed existing system.
2. Put in a larger basin at the front under the channel drain. Downspout directed into basin. Output of basin to 4" pipe
3. Dug new trench toward the tree in the back
4. Ran new 4" solid pipe back to the tree, terminated with a "t" and a pop up
The idea was the water would fill the basin then excess would go back to the tree where it would exit out of the pop up if it was too much. Well, that doesn't work. I discovered the water gets to the t but then has no place to go. Because of the depth of the basin and the slope of the pipe, the pop up is too high for the water to escape. So, it sits there then backs up and I have a flooded patio again.
The idea of a drywell was brought up...possibly with a submersible pump in it should the water be too much. Some said putting in a drywell at either end would not be recommended as it would either be close to the house or close to the pool. There is also no electrical back there so I would have to put in a GFCI outlet or wire up the pump somehow.
I am not sure what to do. My patio flooding is causing me to lose sleep lol.