Today had the majority of our new drainage infrastructure put in place. The yard was re-graded to properly divert water both away from the house and away from the pool area. The way our yard sloped before, the water would naturally flow across the intended pool area toward the neighbor’s back yard (and so on down the street). Now we’re redirecting all that toward the front yard instead. Three collection/catch basins were also installed where most of the downspout and runoff water will be collected. These may be overkill, but we’re engineering on the conservative side so that we will not have to go back later to address a problem that could have been avoided. We have relatively low profile curbs so the original plan to have the water piped down to the street and then out through a hole in the curb is in question at the moment. I’m looking at this as a possible solution.
You can see both downspouts are now redirected into the new drainage system and the grate for one of the catch basins in the center of the image.
Here is another of the catch basin grates, plus a couple more downspouts redirected and at the top of the picture you can see trenching for the pipes that will carry the water to the curb.
These are the pipes ready to go when we’ve sorted out how to introduce the drainage water to the street in an attractive fashion
But the big news is that the actual pool dig has begun. You can finally get a sense of our plans becoming reality as we see the pool carved out of the ground.
Note the sloppy clay from last night’s rainfall
This picture gives a sense of the formerly forested part of our back yard. I’m hopeful that we can do something back here that can recapture some of that untamed aspect.
This blue pipe is a rough-in for the downspout that will eventually come from the “supergutter” that will serve both drainage and support functions in the finished lanai
We’re doing a fair amount of planning right now to ensure that we make the most of our other planned enhancements. Namely to change the slope profile of the front yard and the driveway and to widen the driveway. We may be lucky enough to consume nearly ALL of the dug soil/clay in these other parts. Meanwhile the pile of dirt in the front yard continues to grow.
Of course all of this is not without cost. Rich (of DC Enclosures) is working with us to try to find cost effective options for issues as they arise. We have not had any real surprises so far.
2012 Home Renovations – Part 05 – Digging the trench for the retaining wall footer
2012 Home Renovations – Part 07 – The major part of the Pool dig is done