Successful-Land8681 t1_j7d7i04 wrote on February 5, 2023 at 10:48 PM

Frost lines are not related to drainage. They are only a concern with footing depth for buildings where freeze thaw can cause damage and heave to the soil supporting the structure.

PVC gets brittle and will break then collapse blocking your efforts in only a matter of a few years. Use the black pipe, it should be HDPE.

Bottom of hill comments = runoff to me. French drain won’t work as the water needs to absorb to get to the drain. Swale your yard and give the water some where to go.

Last resort would be to create dry diversion beds out of decorative landscaping rock. You have to line the trenches with landscaping fabric. Never use woven fabric, water does not pass it well, use the punctured fabric.

Sorry for the diatribe, I’m a civil engineer/ nerd.

Dredly OP t1_j7dfdff wrote on February 5, 2023 at 11:46 PM

I was worried about the water freezing in the pipe causing it to freeze / expand / crack but I may be over thinking that problem.

It is all run off down the mountain, as well as water from my gutter discharge. I'm at the bottom of approx a 1mile long slope however there are multiple areas that are flat-ish along the way so I'm not getting the entire hills worth of water in my yard / across my driveway and patio.

I can put a Swale in, but in order get the water to go with the slope, and clear my driveway and outbuilding, It would have to be 50+ yards up away from my house, and wouldn't catch all the water

Successful-Land8681 t1_j7e2sxf wrote on February 6, 2023 at 2:48 AM

You could did a couple dry wells (stone pits below ground wrapped in geotextile). You can run your gutters to them and then give them a drain pipe further away if you want.

French drain will work too if you have somewhere to discharge it.

Either way I think you are going down the correct path.

Dredly OP t1_j7ec8kv wrote on February 6, 2023 at 4:06 AM

My ultimate 2 problems are 1. my backyard and side yard just basically is unusable for a day or 2 after rain because of the water and 2. massive runoff is eroding the edges of my driveway, causing it to crack and I REALLY don't want to replace it if I can avoid it...

only thing I can think of is to divert the water around the 2 problem areas... but I can't go the "easy" path as its fully blocked by my driveway (it has a "T" section that goes to a separate garage, so its not as simple as just run a drain along it