back yard sump pump

[buckwheat]

have a drainage problem in my back yard. I have lived here for 10 years and there has been flooding problem every year when the spring rains come. The water drains from north to south and my yard was sloping the same way. neighbors yard south of me drains to my yard, and my yard used to drain on to neighbors north of me... there is a storm drain on neighbors property 3 houses down from me that is supposed to handle the storm run off for about 5 houses, but I think the problem is the drain is not big enough and the water backs up. a few years ago I decided to put in a vegetable garden. in order to do that I had to haul in several loads of top soil raising the grade on the north side an average of 6 inches. So I made an existing problem worse, as far as the flooding is concerned. for the last 2 or 3 years when the heavy rains arrive I have placed a couple of submersible pumps with long garden hose (going uphill about 12 to 18 inches and distance of 125 feet) if there is lots of rain the pumps don't do the job fast enough so some of the water will make its way across the garden area generally making a giant muddy mess.

I was looking at a youtube video, this guy put a 1/2 hp sump pump in his yard to address a similar problem, and I am thinking to try the same method. I will have to pump water out to street. Is this a good way to do it?

The other thing I was contemplating/planning...........I picked up a cement mixer and am thinking to put in a garden retaining wall so i can better level the garden and hopefully contain the water so it will no longer flow across the garden. the retaining wall will be about 90' long and I was thinking about 8 inches wide and 1' deep. At the lowest point at the very back, there would be about 9 inches of the wall above existing grade. So if I am calculating correctly that is 67.5 cubic feet of concrete which is about 2.5 yards.I have used the quikrete concrete mix bags for another project and was not impressed with the quality, and looks like it would take at least 100 80lb bags to do this job. so I am thinking to pick up portland cement and aggregate so I can mix stronger/better concrete.

how do i mix cement aggregate and should any additives be used?

I live in central Michigan by the way.

[geologist]

This will solve the problem::::::::::

Right next to your garden, dig a hole one mile wide and 5 miles long. Make the hole 1000 ft deep. Get a pump that can pump 100,000 gallons of water per second. You'll need 3 phase power lines brought in, if you dont have them now. Place the pump at the bottom of the hole, connect the wires to this pump, but dont turn it on yet. You must first run pipes from your hole to the nearest ocean.

First you will have to pay some professional mathematician to determine the correct diameter of the pipe needed to handle 100,000 gallons per second, based on the length from your yard to the ocean. Once you know this, install these pipes.

Turn on the pump, and enjoy a dry garden at all times. However, be sure to save enough water to water the plants in your garden with a hose and nozzel.

Note: If Reno Nevada is on the way to your nearest ocean, they may buy this water from you, which will help you pay the electric bill required to run the pump, and save you some piping to the ocean!

[Ed Pawlowski]

Depends on local regulations. You could get nailed for pumping water into the street.

[micky]

North to south. (After reading further, do you mean it used to drain from north to south?)

South to north. That's okay. The land or the stratum could be lowest at the south edge of your land.

But now you're saying that your yard used to drain south to north, the opposite of what it does now. Is that right?

Down, meaning south or north?

Again, I can't follow you. You think the water backs up OR you know the water backs up and that's why you think the drain is not big enough.

When you go out there during a (heavy) rain, is there a pool of water above the drain grid? **

Garden hoses come in 2 diameters iirc but even the big ones are not that big, and especially if the length is so long, 125 feet. they provide a lot of flow resistance.

It didn't work for me.

And 3 inches below grade?? Somehow I don't think that is enough. Even if there were no lateral forces on the wall, but iiuc there will be hydraulic/water force tending to push the wall down.

You'd have to build wooden forms to hold this stuff in place while you're pouring, plus maybe steel re-bar. Isn't this why people bulld walls like this out of brick or blocks or something so they don't have to mix so much concrete?

This sounds like a separate topic, once you decide if a wall will help you.

** (That's what I'm waiting to do now. There hasn't been a heavy rain here since last September, when I was about 25 miles away, and by the time I got back the rain had stopped and any pool had drained. But heavy rain was predicted for now (which is why I'm up) and again for 4 PM today. The rain is backing up either at the drain pipe or the entrance to the catchbasin at the curb of the road/parking lot, and if it rains enough, I'll find out which.)

[Stormin Mormon]

I don't remember the details, but wasn't (isn't) it Colorado which now outlaws all collecting of rain water? With the topsy turvey legislations in the US, I'd totally want a permit before moving ground water.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[Stormin Mormon]

Garden hose doesn't flow much water. I'd try larger discharge tubing (maybe inch and a quarter PVC) before investing a lot of effort into a new pump system.

I took some fire protection courses, and one was about water flow in systems. I don't have any stats for garden hose, but it's got to have a lot of pressure loss, compared to larger tubings.

Yes, I glanced at the video, and it looks totally workable.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[trader_4]

I took a quick look at parts of the video. The concept works, I've done it for small areas where there is a problem and no natural gravity drain solution.

You said there is some kind of existing drain that may not be working correctly. Is this private? Public? Starting there might be a better idea. Even if it's private, maybe you can chip in with someone else to fix it, improve it, etc.

As others have said, better check on ordinances regarding pumping the water to the street. Also, does this proposed sump pump have to only work when it's not freezing?

Retaining wall, that's a lot of concrete and a huge job,

100 bags to mix by hand. IDK how much looks matter, but there are retaining wall block products that would look better, but probably cost more.