Tricky Drainage Situation with SRW

[MexicanAmerican1]

When is the las time anybody saw discharge from one of these pipes that is werth mentioning?

[Swampy]

The only other thing I could think of is to do what was mentioned, then build a swale (SP?) on the neighbors property. If the neighbor doesn't want anything to do with it, tell him it has to be done unless he wants to closer to his neighbors ie his house sliding into theirs. LOL

[DVS Hardscaper]

Lewie C'mon now buddy. You're not communicating well with this client. You're trying to appease them.


The drain system is necessary. And they must day light every 50-feet.

You're either gonna need to install a dry well, or you're gonna have to move the wall back, or you're gonna have to explain to the client that if they want this wall they're gonna need to work with you and do whats appropriate to ensure a properly constructed wall.

I would not be cutting the pipe "flush" with the block. At a minimum it should extend past the 24" aggregate base. If in the event the drainage chimney does as intended - the water discharged could undermine the toe of the wall. If a wall job is done correctly, you should NEVER see water come out of those pipes. But....they are there as a last resort, so you don't wanna mess around with them.





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[JimLewis]

No. You don't understand. Look at my diagrams again. My client is the guy in the UPPER house (the house on the LEFT in both diagrams) The wall I'm referring to is the upper retaining wall in the 2nd diagram. It belongs to the homeowner UPhill. He's the one paying me to build the wall. The problem is that if I install a pipe to outlet water then the person on the downhill side starts to get all pissed off and, understandably, doesn't want water being diverted onto their property.

Most of the time, just for the fact that they are the lower property, they already have fairly serious water problems. So people around here are just on edge already. Then they see me building a wall right on their property line (which they may or may not like) and all of a sudden I am stepping a few feet onto their property to build the thing too, I'm already sort of treading on thin ice at that point. But they can't really stop us because the wall is being built on my client's property, not theirs. But what they can and do stop is me diverting water to the top of their property. They usually won't go for that at all.

As for the dry well, that's what we do now, only because there isn't really any other choice. But I don't think you guys understand. We have all pure heavy clay soil here and a ton of rain. Those dry wells get totally full in less than a day when it really starts raining here. They clay soil pretty much makes the dry well into a bath tub. It might as well be lined with pond liner as slow as the clay allows water through. So they are fairly worthless. If you want to do drainage right in Oregon, you gotta get the water off the property somehow. Dry wells don't cut it. Even flo-wells don't cut it. They just get overwhelmed too quickly on a good rainy day.

[BrandonV]

Only thing left to do is to build the pit and install a pump in there to tie into your customer's tile. Just try to gt a big enough on to put up a good fight and make your pit big enough to give it a head start.
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[DVS Hardscaper]

WHO doesn't understand, Lewie???

If you don't wanna find a way to drain the wall, then install a huge blue tarp betwen the two houses roof to roof...........

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[JimLewis]

Originally Posted by BrandonV

Only thing left to do is to build the pit and install a pump in there to tie into your customer's tile. Just try to gt a big enough on to put up a good fight and make your pit big enough to give it a head start.
Posted via Mobile Device

Yah, I agree. That's the best I've ever been able to come up with too. I was just hoping maybe the gravel behind the wall was enough and I wouldn't have to do that pump. But that's basically what I've had to do in the past.

Originally Posted by DVS Hardscaper

WHO doesn't understand, Lewie???

If you don't wanna find a way to drain the wall, then install a huge blue tarp betwen the two houses roof to roof...........

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I think you don't. You're saying my problem is that I'm not working with my customer the right way. That's not the problem at all. My problem is the guy below who doesn't know me and doesn't want me dumping stuff onto his property.

My only real question for this entire thread was; Do I have to install a tile drain? Or can you just do a straight gravel drain behind a 4' SRW? That's all I really needed to know. If there has the be a tile drain, then the only thing I could do was install a dry well (or flo-well would be better) with a sump pump in it and pump it up to my clients drainage system.

[mrusk]

You need to represent your clients best interest and not worry about the neighbor. Right now the water is flowing into the neighbors property. So whats the big deal if your wall drains on to it? I am sure the neighbors property drains on to his other neighbors property.

[JimLewis]

Originally Posted by mrusk

You need to represent your clients best interest and not worry about the neighbor. Right now the water is flowing into the neighbors property. So whats the big deal if your wall drains on to it?

Well, every situation is different. But in most cases like this, there is already on old crappy wall there. Maybe made of Rail Road ties that are now falling apart. And so while it's true that there is no drainage at all behind those walls and so there probably is water going through the walls or undeground, it's just not the same as building a new SRW wall with a pipe that is going to DUMP water now onto the lower property. Even if it doesn't always "dump" water, that's the impression most people have when you start to do this. They freak out. Water and drainage is such a huge problem here that people won't allow it.

So what's the big deal??? Law Suits. They file a claim against your bond. They make a complaint with the contractors board. People get pissed and it turns out badly for you as the contractor. So just creating a new drain pipe and just out-letting into the top of their property is going to lead to major problems between me and that homeowner if I do that. No thank you.

Originally Posted by mrusk

I am sure the neighbors property drains on to his other neighbors property.

No. There is a street below that house. So all their water from their gutters and tile drains flow out to the street which hugs the curb until it goes down to a large metal sewer grate down the street.

You gotta realize, it's not just house after house after house after house. How would anyone ever get into their garage if the houses were all land-locked like that. The lower house always leads to a street below or at the same level as that house.

[juststartin]

Can you tap into the drain pipe at the street?