How to Do a Drainage Ditch

Drainage ditches are used to channel stormwater out of your yard or to a reservoir or pond.

You need to install a drainage ditch if your lawn is overflowed with storm water or your neighbor's gutter ends flow straight into your yard and form puddles in your lawn. If your neighbor's house is slightly higher than yours, your lawn will tend to be wet until you redirect the water to the city drainage ditch or a pond, reservoir or river.

Things You'll Need

• Hammer
• Stakes
• String
• Tape measure
• Marker
• Trencher
• Spade
• Landscape fabric
• Coarse gravel
• Shovel
• Coarse sand
• River rocks
• Gravel
• Perforated plastic pipe
• Round gravel
• Straw
• Newspaper

Instructions

French Drain

1. Hammer one stake at one end of the slope in the direction where you want your drainage ditch to go. Hammer another stake at the top of the slope the same way. Tie a string between the stakes. Make sure you tie the string at an equal level from the ground on both stakes. Pull tight. Take a tape measure and a marker and make a mark on the string every 10 inches.

2. Dig a 5-inch-wide drainage ditch along the string with a trencher. You can rent a trencher for the week from a home improvement shop. You will need a 1 percent incline to help the water follow the drain down naturally by gravity. Dig the ditch 1 inch deeper into the ground every 10 inches along the string. Use the marker's mark to figure that out and measure the depth of the ditch using your tape measure. Use a spade to make the slope even.

3. Line the bottom of the ditch with landscape fabric to keep the mud away from the ditch. If the mud gets between the gravels, it will form a seal. You want the gravel to be able to let the water go through the pebbles and into the drain.

4. Put a layer of coarse gravel along the ditch with a shovel. Pull on the sides of the cover and wrap the landscape fabric around the gravels tightly. That will give you a tube of gravel wrapped into a landscape fabric.

5. Drop shovels of coarse sand over the drainage ditch and cover the sand with more landscape fabric. You can now add topsoil and sod to plant a lawn on top. The result should be invisible to the eyes.

Perforated Pipe

1. Align a 2-inch river gravel layer at the bottom of the ditch.

2. Lay a 5-inch perforated plastic pipe on top of it, holes-side up.

3. Fill three-fourth of the ditch with round gravel. Add straw until you cover the pipe entirely. Add newspaper on top to filter the dirt that could clog the pipe's holes.

Tips & Warnings

• Trenches are usually 5 to 6 inches wide, but you have to adjust depending on the gravity of your problem.

• Do not cover the drainage ditch with a clay soil because clay will prevent the water from reaching the drain and you will have the same problem as before.

• Use 10-foot-long white polyester pipes because they have connectors molded at the end of the pipes. Glue the sections together.

• Make sure your attempt to dig a drainage ditch will not impact anyone else's land if you do not want to end up in a lawsuit. Check your city codes before doing any work.

• Check where the underground utilities pipes and cables are on your property before digging to avoid breaking them. Call "Dig Safe" before starting excavating. Call the operator at 811 (not 911). They will send someone from your local utility to mark the lines for you.

References

• WebLife: Ditch Drains
• Carnation Construction: Techniques Drainage Ditches

Resources

• Vermont Agency of Natural Resources: Fact Sheet Maintaining Surface Water Drainage Ditches
• Gardening Articles: Getting Rid of Standing Water in Your Yard; Michael J. McGroarty