Drainage help

So in the winter, when it gets warm, and snow starts to melt off the roof a little, the water runs through the gutter and down the drainpipe onto the frontlawn, which is tilted downwards and flows onto the sidewalk, where at night the temperatures drop, and low and behold, there's an ice rink on the sidewalk. So any ideas of how to prevent this, or spread out the waterflow or anything?

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I'd just sprinkle salt on the sidewalk so that someone doesn't slip on the ice and sue you. Or is there another direction that you could point the downspout that would put water somewhere more acceptable? Those are the cheap easy options, the other thing would be installing underground drainage that you could route the downspout into, but that's going to be expensive.

If your sidewalk is concrete salt will ruin it.

I wonder if you could put a french drain in to help with your problem. We had to put several in on our property and it really made a difference. Putting the french drain in would make a big mess but you could replant your grass seed. I wonder if having mud for awhile would be worse than ice..

I have a similar drainage issue, which doesn't result so much in slippery ice on the walk as it does in slippery moss. I'm going to put in a small reservoir (dig a hole, line it with landscape fabric and small pebbles) under the gutter runoff and see if that doesn't help to hold the water while the ground absorbs it. If that doesn't work, I'll dig a french drain to move the water past the problem spot.

Streetview

Any other options?

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Could you add some more pipework so that it can pick up the service drains from the house, or add a water butt to the down pipe and divert the melting water into that, then you can use the rain/ice water to your garden/house plants when required, is sure saves using tap water for the plants, then in summer IF you need the pipe water for the lawn, disconect the water butt and the water from the roof with once again run onto the lawn, dont know what zone you are in, but maybe a wide bed/border at the front of the house between the lawn and the house would take some of the melting water before it reaches the walkway and freezes, but cant say what to plant into the border till know if all your soil would freeze over the winter, in Uk we have to have all guttering drains and roof water attatched to the sewer drainage so we dont have your problems, could there be one of those under your path/car runway, then you could get that linked up into that drain and save the problem, Do your next door neighbours have this problem, if not, what have they done to prevent it????Good Luck. WeeNel.

Ok, so I am a gardener and so I would put in a garden that uses the water and perhaps diverts it. I have made a picture of an idea for you. You can purchase rain barrells or you could make your own. There are several ideas I could give you about them if you want.

Then landscape the lawn into a garden that redirects the water run off and puts it to use as it was meant by nature to be. This is just an idea that I attached. A place for you to start your own creative ideas. The rain barrels may freeze in the winter but you are saying that it rains, then water runs off and you get ice, so I am thinking you may not be in a full winter zone? Where are you located?

I also think that sustainable gardening may help. That being gardening that once it is established you don't have to do too much to make it look nice.

I get loads of my stuff from neighbours, friends, discount sales, master gardener club sales in.around the area.

French drains, basically as described are just a pit that collects and hold excess water, and so is a rain barrell. You can put a tap on the barrell and use it to water or when it gets full open it up and direct it with a hose to where you want it to go. They also have overflow hose that you can then tuck to the back of the garden in a way as to use the water wisely for the plants.

For mosquitos, it usally is not a problem if the unit is properly sealed. But you can add mosquito bits if it is problematic. A bottle of them from walmart is around 5 bucks, they prevent them from breeding/spawning or whatever they do in the water. I use them in one of my ponds.

I hope you have a subscription here, so that you can supersize the images. Let me know.

Susan Dove
dovebydesign!

see how easy it was for me to weed the driveway and put lawn in?


tehehehe

so much for that.....

Hi, Dovebydesign -

Thanks for your posts. I'm not the original poster, but am interested in anything that requires less labor than digging the trench for a french drain. I have an acre of property that slopes down from back to front. The house is near the front and the high and low points of the property are on opposites sides. So when we have heavy rain, which has not been typical for Seattle, but which seems to be happening more and more in the winter, the water wants to cross the property right at my cement driveway right in front of the house. There is a drain there, but the water seems to come too fast for it and I'm stuck with this wet strip that grows moss.

Is there another solution for me; e.g. plants that would absorb some of this water, rather than dig a trench for the french drain to redirect the water 20 feet farther so that the runoff would go in a different direction?

I do love your design and would much rather dig to put in a garden than a gravel-filled trench. :-)

well, yes there are many plants that love the water in your zone. But I tend to think this...if it loves to grow moss then why not grow moss? Put in a nice boulder or 2 and redirect the water a bit with them and then there are many different types of 'cool' mosses (is that spelling correct?) anyways, plant moss or some sort of creeping thyme or such that loves water!

Hee hee. Yes, it's easy to grow moss here, but hardly the landscape impression that I'm trying to create. In some ways it's like letting dandelions grow - hard to get rid of the first impression that the patch is untended rather than "taking advantage" of the dandelions.

Being in a rainforest, I will have moss, regardless, in the grass or bed eventually. What I'd like to do is intercept the surface and groundwater with thirsty plants to minimize the amount of water that runs into the drain and across the driveway. Right now I have only grass and that seems to be at its capacity.

Thanks for your input.

Kathy

Is it sun or shade area? Bog Rosemary does well where you are. (I am from Vancouver Canada & have been here only 5 years!)

Anyways I meant something interesting with moss.

Go to:

http://www.mossacres.com

Click on Photo Gallery! There is some lovely ideas there.

I also collect hosta and they like water and shade mostly. But moss around rocks would be pretty with some flowering this and that!!! Astible like a bit of water. Anyways see the pics and let me know and others maybe able to help too!