Beginner Gardening: Foundation Plantings, 0 by Diana_K

Diana_K wrote:
Depends on the existing conditions. If you get a lot of water against that side of the house, and on the roof then directing it away from the foundation is pretty important.
Have you looking into camouflaging the pipe with some rocks? Bigger rock, not the plastic sheeting and little pebbles. Make it something like a rock garden effect.

The soil can probably handle the rain and snow melt from whatever lands right there, it is the extra coming off the roof that I would worry about.

If there really is so much water (rain, snow) landing on the soil that the water moves sideways through the soil into the basement then a proper drainage system might be needed. The concept is commonly called a French drain. It is a pipe in a deep trench that is filled with rock. Any water that is moving sideways through the soil gets stopped by the rock and directed into the pipe. The pipe carries the water away. There needs to be somewhere down hill from the area so the pipe will drain. You can set up 2 pipes: one is a perforated pipe to pick up the sub surface water, the other is solid and picks up water from the down spouts and any surface drains.