What to do for drainage around garage?

[robertrov]

Hey guys, I've got my site cleared and should have my pole garage up in few months. I have some areas around the garage that are bare dirt. We had some heavy rains lately and I'm concerned about what the county is going to say about the bit of washout I had. Below are my pics.

Here is one side of the cleared area. (cleared area is graveled where garage will go). I got some water run off and it caused a few ruts which you will be able to see in the next pic. I have thought about getting some hay to put down here to satisfy the county but have heard varying accounts on using hay.

In this pic you can see one of the ruts in the lower portion of the picture. This happened during the heavy rains.

this is the other side of the cleared area. It is a sloped back hill of dirt. in the next pic you will see the ditch at the bottom of it. The ditch works great for diverting water. I have had no problems with it diverting rain water.

here is the drainage ditch as mentioned above.

and here is some of the rutting I'm getting on the hillside. It doesn't bother me and hasn't effected things much, but I'm concerned what the county will say about it.

so, the bottom line is I need to do something for cover for these bare dirst areas so I can keep the county happy when they come out for their inspection. Hay or planting grass have both been suggested to me but I want to get some other opinions on what would be my best route to go here. Thanks

 

[the_saint]

Without stabilization you may have issues as the slope continues to deteriorate.

Continued erosion with rain/water in the future may result in a tree coming down onto your garage/structure.

 

[Jimmy_B]

The problems you have with your county will depend upon.........wait for it.........YOUR COUNTY. They are all different. I had to have a soil erosion control plan in place. They waived a $2k escrow account for policing and fining me should I not have met their conditions, but I didn't have concerns like you do and disturbed a minimal amount of ground to build my shed. They said they wouldn't sign off on the final permit until I had grass growing in all areas with disturbed soil, but they signed off before that.

GL

 

[Flatland Dave]

Yes, looks to be in the PNW. Should be no problem with some wheat straw. maybe throw in some wheat/oats or Barley which will sprout quickly and help stabilize he soil.

 

[nmanitou]

Until you get some vegitation established the slope and ditch will continue to erode. Get some native grass/fern/ground cover seeded and cover it with a netted mulch blanket. The mulch will dispate rain and run off eosive force untive the vegetation takes root.

 

[robertrov]

thanks for all the replys guys. I guess my next step is to start planting on the hillside and gentle sloped area. I'm about 6 weeks out until the permit for the building is taken care of.

 

[theoldwizard1]

You have multiple issues.

First, rake out the ruts on the hillsides. Mix in some starter fertilizer or composted manure, seed and cover with grass seed starter mats. You will probably need to stake them in steep areas.

Next problem is controlling where the the water at the bottom of those hills is going to go. You need to make a French drain to carry the water away, or you will always have a problem.

Third, as mentioned, those trees at the tops of those little hills will likely fall over in a wind storm, right on you new garage.

 

[theoldwizard1]

The ditch works great for diverting water. I have had no problems with it diverting rain water.

That ditch will get a lot deeper from runoff and may compromise your footing over the years.

I still say a french drain, lined first with landscape fabric is the best solution.

 

[Outlawmws]

The advise on the seed mat and prep is good. another option is the wedge shaped interlocking retaining wall concrete blocks to stabilize the disturbed slope.

You will have more runoff problems down stream when the shop/garage is built. At a minimum, line that ditch with gravel and coarse sand to stabilize the creek bed you have created. before that and before you build the building, figure out where down spouts for gutter will be and use a walk behind trencher and put in 4" plastic drain pipes so you can route the down spouts to the drains and get the water to a natural drainage away from the building. this may also be part of a french drain setup. Wherever that drain comes out, more gravel, rock and coarse sand to keep it from cutting into the soil.

I had problems at my house with rain water collecting around the house and percolating up under the house and leaving standing water under it. (every house in the neighborhood has this issue, and we all have sump pumps. Once one house got so full under the house that water was actually coming out from some of the vents... ) Having down spouts and each corner dumping more water from the roof at the foundation was NOT helping...

I ran a french drain on one long wall, 4 foot off the foundation and connected that to two drain pipes going to the edge of my property near the sidewalk. The down spouts got connected to the drains, and all the water gets dumped 15 to 20 feet away from the foundations and almost 4 feet lower than the house. This crosses the sidewalk and into my parkways, which drain any overflow into the gutters.

Another drain gets the back down spouts and I installed another french drain at the back of the house as well as two actual yard drains for heavy rains on the same drain pipe.

No more standing water under my house; I removed the sump pump...

 

[jomobco]

I would do a channel drain on the slope side.