Hello everyone. Maybe someone here can help me out. I am having some issues with my backyard. I have had numerous contractors (graders, drain tile expert, concrete contractor) come out to my home to help identify the problem. No one has given me a solid answer as to what the problem is.
sorry for being so long:
We'll start with a little background:
I have been at this house since Oct 2007, first home ever. When purchased the house the yard and lawn was a little wet but paid no attentioned to it. According to the disclosure, the previous owners have had drain tiles installed to improve drainage. I have also talked to some neighbors and they have noticed previous owners using various contractors working on the yard throughout the years. I guess after talking to the neighbors this area used to be a wet-land area and redeveloped to an established neighborhood. Neighbors had mentioned that they too have had drainage issues and some have brought in top soil dirt or contracted to have drain tiles installed.
Current status:
Come spring 2008 water was slowly building up in the backyard. We have had heavy rainstorms that spring, location IOWA. I let the yard dry up for days and other parts of the yard was dry, except for these particular areas and along hill side. Isn't water suppose to drain down a hill, ie slope? My father and I figured drainage issue. We rented a trencher, bought drain tiles, and order 8 tons of pea rock. As we attempted to begin trenching but every so feet we'd run into existing drain tiles and immediatedly stopped. We picked a different location to begin trenching. Once again ran into more existing drain tiles. . Picked another location, began, trench, same problem.
At this point, we were unable to determine the configuration of the exisiting layout of the tiles and gave up after 3 days. They were running up and down, left to right, diagonal. It was very difficult to navigate the trencher as the ground where we want the drain tiles to run through was very wet. We'd get stuck here and there. The ground is made up of clay dirt. The retaining water always had a foul smell, sat in numerous areas, and always had the film on top. Film easiest to described as if you pour gasoline on water. I thought it was sewage of some sort and call the city out to check. They stated that it was not sewage as no sewage pipes runs through the back yard.
I gave up all spring, summer, and fall of 2008. The yard has been a mess since then, kids can not play in yard without coming back muddy. I figured that I can put basketball court over everything( concrete slabs) but concrete man said it would crack and be very useless.
Analysis of contractors:
1. drainage issue, install more drain tiles, tear up old grass, bring in loads of top soil, lay sod. est: over 12k. No guarantee this could fix problem.
2. Underground spring, must channel water away using drain tiles, but won't do the work.
3. Concrete guy: no can do due to unstable ground. Risk of concrete cracking
4. drainage issue, must bring in dirt regrade. No guarantee to fix.
5. Put in a swimming pool
6. Flat out said: I DON'T KNOW and left.
Plea:
Can someone out there anywhere, that has run into this issue before, please help me? Or at least help me figure out how to temporary fix so I can sell this POS . I am not going to spend 12k-20k on a no guarantee fix. Someone please please help!!!!
Pictures: 38 photos total
Pictures click here!!!
sorry for being so long:
We'll start with a little background:
I have been at this house since Oct 2007, first home ever. When purchased the house the yard and lawn was a little wet but paid no attentioned to it. According to the disclosure, the previous owners have had drain tiles installed to improve drainage. I have also talked to some neighbors and they have noticed previous owners using various contractors working on the yard throughout the years. I guess after talking to the neighbors this area used to be a wet-land area and redeveloped to an established neighborhood. Neighbors had mentioned that they too have had drainage issues and some have brought in top soil dirt or contracted to have drain tiles installed.
Current status:
Come spring 2008 water was slowly building up in the backyard. We have had heavy rainstorms that spring, location IOWA. I let the yard dry up for days and other parts of the yard was dry, except for these particular areas and along hill side. Isn't water suppose to drain down a hill, ie slope? My father and I figured drainage issue. We rented a trencher, bought drain tiles, and order 8 tons of pea rock. As we attempted to begin trenching but every so feet we'd run into existing drain tiles and immediatedly stopped. We picked a different location to begin trenching. Once again ran into more existing drain tiles. . Picked another location, began, trench, same problem.
At this point, we were unable to determine the configuration of the exisiting layout of the tiles and gave up after 3 days. They were running up and down, left to right, diagonal. It was very difficult to navigate the trencher as the ground where we want the drain tiles to run through was very wet. We'd get stuck here and there. The ground is made up of clay dirt. The retaining water always had a foul smell, sat in numerous areas, and always had the film on top. Film easiest to described as if you pour gasoline on water. I thought it was sewage of some sort and call the city out to check. They stated that it was not sewage as no sewage pipes runs through the back yard.
I gave up all spring, summer, and fall of 2008. The yard has been a mess since then, kids can not play in yard without coming back muddy. I figured that I can put basketball court over everything( concrete slabs) but concrete man said it would crack and be very useless.
Analysis of contractors:
1. drainage issue, install more drain tiles, tear up old grass, bring in loads of top soil, lay sod. est: over 12k. No guarantee this could fix problem.
2. Underground spring, must channel water away using drain tiles, but won't do the work.
3. Concrete guy: no can do due to unstable ground. Risk of concrete cracking
4. drainage issue, must bring in dirt regrade. No guarantee to fix.
5. Put in a swimming pool
6. Flat out said: I DON'T KNOW and left.
Plea:
Can someone out there anywhere, that has run into this issue before, please help me? Or at least help me figure out how to temporary fix so I can sell this POS . I am not going to spend 12k-20k on a no guarantee fix. Someone please please help!!!!
Pictures: 38 photos total
Pictures click here!!!
You really need to find more contractors to give you better advice for your area. The soils in your area will determine what will work. You may need to truck in tons sand as one solution, but if you put it on wet clay, it will sink in.
