[Lanelle]

I looked at a residence recently that is having drainage problems. Here's what I saw: The carport slab had been enclosed to make a garage so 'raw' cinderblocks were sitting on the slab which was about even with the grade of the side yard. A landscape bed with lots of mulch had been installed against the block. When it rains, water goes into the garage (big surprise) and the homeowner put a sealer coat on the inside so now the water can't escape back outside. He has had various 'experts' out to view this situation and was advised to have the landscape bed lowered. That's easy enough except that the grade beyond the bed is equal or slightly higher than the slab so getting positive flow away from the slab will be minimal.
Also, a major portion of the house roof drains into the gutter on this problem side of the garage. I recommended going to a six-inch gutter there. The back yard has some fall so water can be routed that way.
I can certainly install ADS lines but I'm wondering if there is more that should be done?

[Stonehenge]

What's an ADS line?

[site]

How about moving the soil then sealing the block and replacing the soil?

[Rex Mann]

ADS is just a brand name of drain products. They make drain tile, catch basins and the like.

Peace,

[jwholden]

Lanelle is referring to the coiled pipe that comes in rolls.

[Stonehenge]

Ah.

One thing I saw done at a home we did some work on was a concrete gutter that ran along 3 sides of the garage. The home was built about 100 years ago, the garage more recently (but still pretty old). We tied into both ends and ran a grated paver trench down both sides of the paver drive to provide outlet for the water.

Maybe something like this could be done for this project.

[Lanelle]

I'm thinking of connecting the non-perforated corregated drain line (4 or 6") to the downspouts,burying it and daylighting it in the backyard. Then maybe put in a french drain with perfed line at the bottom of the gravel-filled channel along the garage--maybe a foot away from the concrete. Another idea I'm wondering about is to dig away the dirt and to 'glue' a strip of rubber pond liner on to the edge of the concrete slab and up on to the cinder blocks. There is siding that comes down within 6 inches of the soil line so not much block is exposed. Right now the mulch almost touches the siding. Maybe there is some other way of dealing with this. So what's the best way to solve the problem?

[Pelican]

Kind of tough to help out without seeing the property. What's the lay of the land? Is there a substantially lower point close by? In situations like this, I've dug slight swales out about 6' from the building, sloping the soil away from the walls. You have to extend your swale to a point lower than the bottom of the swale so it can drain.

Piping out the gutters will definately lessen the water load you're dealing with, you could incorporate the swale into the ditch you dig for the pipe.