How to Control Groundwater Runoff

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

Rate: (2 Ratings)

You can control groundwater runoff to prevent water from seeping into cellars or eroding your home's foundation. Use roof gutters and downspouts to carry water into pipes that divert water away from the foundation and into a dry well pit.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Tape measure
Long-handled shovel
Handsaw
Rake
PVC perforated drain pipe, 4-inch diameter
2 elbows
Downspout adapter
Liquid PVC cement
Gravel
Plastic sheeting
Sand

Step1

Dig a 1-foot-deep trench. Have it lead 2 to 4 feet away from the downspout, just wide enough to bury a perforated drain pipe 4 inches in diameter.

Step2

Dig the dry well hole large enough to accommodate your prefabricated dry well. A typical dry well cylinder for a home will be about 2 feet in diameter by 2 feet tall, made of either concrete or high-density polyethylene.

Step3

Cut a length of perforated drain pipe about 6 inches shorter than the depth of the dry well hole. Cut another two lengths of 4-inch-diameter drain pipe. Cut one about 12 inches long to extend the downspout into the trench. Cut another long enough to lie in the trench.

Step4

Loosely assemble the pipe lengths before gluing. Fit a downspout adapter onto one end of the 12-inch extender. Add an elbow to the other end and fit it to the trench pipe. Add a second elbow between the trench pipe and the dry well pipe at the end.

Step5

Draw a pencil line across each joint so you can line them up correctly again. Glue the assembly together by coating each face with all-purpose PVC cement. Press into place with pencil marks lined up. After the glue dries, place the assembly into the trench and down into the dry well.

Step6

Shovel 3/4-inch gravel into the trench, dry well hole and around the pipe. Stop filling when the gravel in the hole and trench is even with the top of the pipe in the trench.

Step7

Cover the gravel with sheet plastic to prevent landscaping dirt from clogging the holes in the drain pipe. Continue filling the hole and trench with sand so that water drains instead of pooling next to the foundation.