Virginia’s heavy clay soils coupled with heavy rain or snow storms causes water drainage issues for many homeowners in the Northern Virginia region. After storms, portions of lawns can remain puddled and soggy for days, which can cause serious problems for your lawn, plantings, walkways and even your home’s foundation. A long-term solution is needed to prevent avoidable drainage problems – let’s dive right into the details.
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Issues Caused by Water Drainage Problems
It’s common for homeowners to see water drainage issues as little more than a nuisance, but unfortunately, these problems can worsen over time. Without being addressed, water will continue to pool in the same spots on your lawn and/or next to your home. It simply has nowhere else to go.
The lack of drainage can put your landscaping and lawn care efforts to waste in those areas. Drainage issues may worsen over time, as the ponding water begins to drown the roots of your plants, shrubs, trees and turf grass.
In addition, as ponding and poor drainage is allowed to continue on a property, soil is exposed and begins to erode. The path of water will further erode the soil, making it more difficult to grow turf grass without protective measures such as erosion control blankets, topsoil or straw mulch. It’s also worth mentioning that conditions for soil erosion cause nutrient runoff, adding to waterway pollution.
Standing water is also a breeding ground for lawn diseases, mold and fungi. Especially in the summer, your lawn is highly susceptible to diseases that negatively affect its appearance and health. Added to these are possible health concerns, as standing water is an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. Even the most aggressive spray treatments won’t guard against the entire infestation hatching in ponding areas of your property.
Excess water from downspouts and roof lines can also pool next to your home. This water can undermine and weaken the structure of your walkways and driveways, even causing them to crack in extreme circumstances. Drainage issues can cause the soil level next to the home to sink as the water works its way downward, and as it freezes, expands and thaws, it can even eventually crack your foundation itself.
Long-Term Drainage Solutions for Redirecting Water Runoff
The primary issue with excess water from downspouts and roof runoff is that it deposits too much water next to the home, and there’s nowhere for the water to go after the ground is already saturated. The goal is to displace or recirculate the water with a long-term drainage solution. Whether the puddles of water are right next to your home or in a dip in the yard, the right drainage solution can be used to divert the standing water elsewhere.
For oversaturation and puddles in your planting beds, often the best option is to install a catch basin with atrium gates. A catch basin collects rainwater below ground level, drawing the water away from the surface. Atrium gates help protect the roots of your plants while preventing debris from filling up and clogging the catch basin.
If the standing water next to your home is quite severe, you may need a catch basin with a built-in underground pipe. This type of catch basin is able to effectively divert larger amounts of water away from the home by collecting rainwater and piping it out elsewhere on the property.
When there’s a dip in your yard that collects rainwater, the problem is not redirection but redistribution. A Flo-Well® stormwater retention system captures excess water so it can slowly leach back into the soil, preventing it from pooling at the dio in the surface. Another option is an EZflow®. It works like a traditional French Drain system, but is a gravel-free alternative. An EZflow® system uses underground pipes to collect and redistribute water into the subsoil, preventing oversaturation and standing water in dips on your property
Contact Yard Drainage Professionals for The Right Solution Today
If you want to eliminate standing water and soggy lawns, avoid drowning your plant and grass, prevent soil erosion and foundation cracking and solve your yard drainage problem, it’s time to call the experts. For lasting solutions tailored to your property’s drainage needs, contact Bio Green today. A member of our team will walk your property to analyze, diagnose and recommend the right-size solution for your water drainage needs. Contact us today to learn more.
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