Drainage Installations And Repair Solutions In Los Angeles

Drainage Is Important!

Most of the foundation problems are caused by drainage deficiencies. Water pooling by a downspout is not as inoffensive as it looks.

It most likely is causing long-term irreparable problems.

As water penetrates the soil, its pressure, flow and other physical properties, can undermine certain areas, wash away essential support from under your foundation, push and pull in subtle ways that will be noticed only when it is too late! Keep water away from any structural or decorative construction elements. You may ask, “how do I do this?” — The easiest answer is by calling us. To simplify the answer is Drainage!

A properly designed drainage system will divert water away from any structural or decorative elements of a home; that includes retaining walls, walkways, driveways, ROOFS, …yes, ROOFS, patios, crawl spaces, near fence posts, or anything within your property!

You tell us where water is pooling and we come up with the solution. We are able to come up with drain systems that efficiently drain water uphill! We have done this several times. Call us right now and we will help you.

The three questions that make up a drainage plan

Drainage sounds complicated and it reduces to three questions. Most yards have never had any of the three answered.

1. Where does water go when it leaves the roof?

2. Where does it go when it leaves the hardscape?

3. Where does it leave the property?

If the third answer is the neighbor's yard, you do not have a drainage plan. You have a dispute waiting for a wet winter.

Grade first, pipes second

The cheapest drainage is shape. Before any pipe goes in the ground, the ground itself should move water away from the building.

The standard most inspectors work to is a fall of six inches within the first ten feet away from the foundation. That single slope solves more water problems than any product you can buy.

Where there is not ten feet, or where the neighboring grade is higher, the slope alone cannot do it and a system has to carry the water instead. That is the point at which drainage stops being landscaping and becomes construction.

The systems, and what each one is actually for

• Downspout extensions. The simplest and the most neglected. A downspout discharging at the base of a wall is concentrating the entire roof onto one spot of soil

• Area drains. Grated inlets at the low points of a yard or patio, piped to a discharge. They handle surface water, and they silt up if nobody ever cleans them

• Channel drains. A linear grate, used where a wide surface meets a building or a garage apron. The right answer where a driveway slopes toward the house

• French drains. A perforated pipe in gravel, wrapped in filter fabric. These handle water moving through the soil rather than across the surface, which is a different problem

• Dry wells. A holding volume that lets water infiltrate slowly. They work where the soil accepts water, and they are close to useless where it does not

That last point matters here more than anywhere else.

Expansive clay changes the answer

Across large parts of Riverside County and inland Los Angeles County, the soil is expansive clay. Clay swells when it takes on water and shrinks when it dries, and it does not absorb quickly. A dry well in clay fills and stays full. It is the same soil behavior that moves slabs and cracks patios: concrete driveways and patios in Temecula and Murrieta.

In clay, the strategy is to move water off the property rather than to store it on the property. That usually means a piped system with a real outlet, not an infiltration solution.

What water actually does to a foundation

The damage is rarely dramatic and it is almost never fast.

Soil that takes on water at one corner of a house and not at another does not move evenly. The slab or the footing follows the soil. Over years that shows up as doors that stop latching, cracks that open in the same places every winter, and tile that lifts along a line.

By the time it is visible inside the house, it has been happening outside the house for a long time. That is why the drainage answer is worth having before there is a symptom.

Where the water may not go

• Onto the neighboring property. This is the most common cause of a yard project turning into a legal problem

• Against your own foundation, which is what an unextended downspout does

• Into a sanitary sewer. Storm water and sewage are separate systems and connecting them is a violation

• Into a storm drain or channel without approval, where a flood control facility is involved

When it is part of a larger project

Drainage is step one of a backyard, before hardscape and before structures, because everything built afterwards either helps it or fights it: planning a backyard in Riverside County.

It is also the difference between a turf lawn that works and one that holds water under the surface: artificial turf and yard drainage. And on a sloped lot the retaining and the drainage behind it are one design, not two: retaining walls: important to know.

Start with a free 15-minute call

Tell us where the water shows up, whether it is after every rain or only after a heavy one, whether the yard slopes toward the house, and where you think it could leave the property. In fifteen minutes we can usually tell you whether this is a grading fix, a piped system, or a symptom of something structural.

Call (323) 651-0635 to book the free 15-minute consultation.

The Ultimate Pro, Inc. CA License 831700, Class B General Building. Serving Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties since 1996.