this issue has been bothering me ever since I moved into this house (8 yrs ago). Here are some pics: https://imgur.com/a/IbFxT6C

My driveway slopes towards my house, but short of the garage, the water get channeled over to the side of the house as shown....it then creates a mud pit at my gate. This is also where I have to have my garbage cans, and they have to be behind the gate (HOA), so dragging them through the mud each week is a PITA.

That small square of driveway I am guessing is where people put their one trashcan back in the day before recycling and larger city owned bins, but it is kind of useless.

My first inclination is to put some sort of a catch basin at the dip of the concrete and then run the runoff underground out to the back yard. Problem is, right at that gate is where utility (phone and cable for certain) are buried, and they run diagonally out and up to the street. Our cable line is now exposed (you can just see it coming out from under the driveway funnel, curving toward the house, in that second pic).

The total drop from driveway to back of house is approx 3' 4", and of course I have AC units to contend with.

Here is what I'd like to do, but willing to listen to other options:

1). move the gate back towards AC units 3-4'....this give me more room to work with for...item 2
2). Have a slab similar to the lone square one for two cans, up agains the fence line that will sit in front of the moved gate.
3). have a small fence right at driveway edge, over to fence line that covers up the garbage cans to satisfy the HOA
4). have the ability to roll the cans on concrete the whole way out and up the driveway.
5). somehow catch the water coming from the runoff and not let it erode that area.
6). maybe tier the side of the house, totalling about 3-4 tiers, and trying to control things that way.

I think the easiest thing to do is concrete that whole area (over the utility lines) and then move the catch basin further back at the newly moved gate, but I just don't know what I am setting myself up for if I go the conrete route..

thoughts appreciated, TIA.

a quick fix could be to use concrete pavers surrounded by rocks to where you put your trash and recycle bins\cans. Then you won't be in the mud anymore.

If you add concrete, pour it in 3 slabs with the middle one being over the buried utilities. If anything ever needs to be worked on, it will be a lot easier to just bust out one narrow slab that's precut and then replace it.

Instead of tiers, I'd go with your suggestion of trying to catch the water and carry it in a pipe. You can even add occasional inlets in case the first one misses some of the flow so that the flow doesn't build up flowing down that slope.

Before you go that route though, I'm wondering if the cheap and easy solution is just throw down some pea gravel. It will help slow the flow and reduce erosion and keep you from having to walk in the mud. Not sure if hoa will allow that though.

....but pulling heavy trash bins through pea gravel is likely harder than on packed mud...

I've thought about some pavers, but I just don't know how to configure it all...was thinking some parallel pavers to make tracks for the wheels of each can, and just doing rive rocks amongst all that...

another thought would be a channel drain, since it doen's need to be buried more than 4-6", and have that channel drain feed into a buried catch basin which would be close to my ACs...it's just a lot of water though not sure if a channel drain could handle it.

I added a third image to the link above to show how the lines run (I had utility company mark them at one time:

Decomposed granite with binder.

Even better, do pavers on a crushed stone bed. Use polymeric sand to seal the joints.

Just put some big ass wheels on the trash can

Builder93 said:

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Decomposed granite with binder.

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Not if you have dogs, kids or any flooring except for tile

Unless you want to destroy your flooring


Have you found a binding product that 100% stops tracking from pets and shoes ?


I would be interested in it as I have never seen one that worked to prevent this issue

Builder93 said:

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Decomposed granite with binder.

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Is that pretty much caliche? What do you recommend for a binder?

agnerd said:

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If you add concrete, pour it in 3 slabs with the middle one being over the buried utilities. If anything ever needs to be worked on, it will be a lot easier to just bust out one narrow slab that's precut and then replace it.

Instead of tiers, I'd go with your suggestion of trying to catch the water and carry it in a pipe. You can even add occasional inlets in case the first one misses some of the flow so that the flow doesn't build up flowing down that slope.

Before you go that route though, I'm wondering if the cheap and easy solution is just throw down some pea gravel. It will help slow the flow and reduce erosion and keep you from having to walk in the mud. Not sure if hoa will allow that though.

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If concrete i would run extra conduit for each type of service and if there is ever an issue it can always be pulled through without having to damage the existing concrete

I see this repeated often, but I have a lot of DG around my place. Granted, in the back yard it is in the beds and playscape only, so you have to walk through grass, then flagstone, then the deck into the house, I very rarely find a small piece of DG in the house. In the front yard, the walkway to my front door is DG and sawed limestone with only the front porch or the garage as a barrier before entering the house.

I'd be worried about the soil underneath pavers getting washed away. Agree with JP that conduit is better. If it were my place, I'd continue the concrete "channel" past the gate and outside of the AC units like this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.5959982,-96.3151598,3a,58y,229.98h,65.46t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRLG_6llbcx2SegoaiR79TQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

You can add some rocks after the channel ends to slow down the flow and reduce erosion, and just let it go down the hill after that.

You can order DG with a binder from some suppliers or for a small batch use one of these:

https://technisoil.com/g3-pathway-stabilizer.html

https://www.alliancegator.com/products/binding-agents/gator-stone-bond-xp/

I would also divert that downspout or take it to a pipe underground. it looks like you could stand to raise all of the grade there and that would give you room to install a pipe to an outlet at a lower point. Be sure to do a utility locate first.

If you leave the downspout where it is, I would recommend pavers with the polymeric joint sand like I said above. Both of these manufacturers make them.

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If concrete i would run extra conduit for each type of service and if there is ever an issue it can always be pulled through without having to damage the existing concrete

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yes, I have thought of doing that...I just don't know how many services/cables or sizes would be necessary.

It's just such a jacked up area all around. I'd like to concrete the area up to the ACs flat, with a catch basin, and run the output of that under the layer of concrete down the hill...but the utilities are there. I just don't know how deep I can dig right there. clearly the cable TV/internet is already exposed. I was thinking of digging under the concrete a bit, cutting the cable, splicing in some newer cable and having some longer cable with which to navigate under the concrete and over to the house, rather than cutting it diagonally like it is now....if that is the shallowest cable, then I've gained some depth to work with and might could do the channel drain ideas

How much of the water is coming from the gutter and how much is coming from the driveway? Any idea of a ratio?

Continue it all into a concrete flume (sealed concrete with flow line) with a downspout leg. Make sure the flume is set below grade on both sides and then put whatever finishing material you desire on both sides. Also make sure to continue the open aggregate/pea gravel finish on the new concrete so it doesn't look like *****

I have an idea. Flip the gate to the single post so it opens toward the house. Use pavers to build a pad that goes from the driveway to about 5 feet inside the gate but turn it against the fence where you can build a pad for the trash cans. I would elevate it a bit and make a concrete curb to hold the pavers and make a step down where it transitions back to grade near the AC Compressor. Run the downspout into a receptor and run the pipe under the paver and make it exit through the curb. Now you have a neat and clean place for your trash cans and the water exits where you want it.

You could even remove the fence panel, put down the pavers, and then put the fence back up. I would not do concrete over those utilities. And I would not leave a splice in the cable line underground. You are asking for trouble.

keep garbage cans in the garage.

I'd put down stone and a box past the wires towards the backyard. Assuming there is a place to route/drain the water from there.

Typically you want to get water to the street, but that doesn't seem possible in your case

Couple of comments...

I assume your driveway slab slopes towards the street from the top of the slab by the downspout, therefore I would remove the downspout elbow and replace it with a side discharge elbow to shoot the water directly onto the driveway, If necessary, you could add a flexible downspout extension onto the side discharge elbow to get it to reach the driveway, as I can't tell the distance from the downspout to the slab from the pics.

Also as noted by a poster earlier, regarding the splice...I definitely would heed that warning!

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And I would not leave a splice in the cable line underground. You are asking for trouble.

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another pic for context....no my house sits below street level. Street level is right at eye level when standing at my front door, so approx 6' of slope. You can see where the driveway run off gets diverted over to the basketball goal and then hits what you have previously seen...

no room

CapCity12thMan said:

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no room

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I stand by my recommendation above with the pavers, and a curb to hold it all together.

If you want the easiest solution: decomposed granite.

Had similar problem w/o utility issues. Drive slopes toward house and needed to get water all the way from back to street in front. At least you have a decent elevation difference to work with. I will try and add pics but don't do it often.

"Sunken" flagstone walkway on bed of DG;
Converts into river rock on DG/pondliner base river rock stream;
Converts to flagstone/boulder/river rock dry stream bed at exit.to street

You could use a combination of these and make it look nice.

BWnDallas said:

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Had similar problem w/o utility issues. Drive slopes toward house and needed to get water all the way from back to street in front. At least you have a decent elevation difference to work with. I will try and add pics but don't do it often.

"Sunken" flagstone walkway on bed of DG;
Converts into river rock on DG/pondliner base river rock stream;
Converts to flagstone/boulder/river rock dry stream bed at exit.to street

You could use a combination of these and make it look nice.

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Here's the pics...









BTW, great job!!!

Wow, those pictures are amazing. OP, I've been wanting to do something with my side yard for a while now. FYI, I joined pinterest just to get ideas, and if you enter yard or landscaping drainage ideas or swales etc, you'll get lots more pictures of different ways folks have skinned this cat.