Providing Proper Drainage for Your Lawn

Have you ever noticed that some lawns don't exactly drain the best? When faced with such a situation, you can either fix it, or learn to live with the possible consequences. One of the more serious possible consequences that you can find yourself faced with is having the slow draining water resting against the foundation of your home, and end up with things like mold, or weakened foundations, and more. However, providing proper drainage for your lawn is a project that most people can handle, as long as they are willing to get a little dirty.

1. Inspect the current drainage. Before you can actually begin doing any kind of work on improving the drainage of your lawn, you need to see if there really is any problem. The best way to inspect the current drainage (without having to pay a huge water bill that is) is by looking at your lawn right after a heavy rain. Make note of the areas that have problems, and begin thinking of different ways that you can draw the water away from those areas.
2. Choose the drain system. Once you know what you are faced with, you will need to go and look at the various different types of drainage systems. Often you can find kits at your local home improvement store that you can use to improve the drainage.
3. Read and understand the instructions. Once you have chosen the kit type that you want to use, take it home and begin reading the instructions before you do anything else. On the average, you should really read through them at least two times to make sure that you really know and understand what to do.
4. Dig out the trenches. Dig out the trenches according to the instructions that came with your kit, and according to where your yard needs to most help. You can do this either with the help of a shovel, or a trencher. You can easily rent a trencher at most home improvement stores.
5. Install the pipes. Once again, according to the directions that came with your kit, begin installing the pipes. Be careful that you thoroughly seal and link each pipe together, and that you also use the right type of pipe for the job. Generally speaking, you want to use PVC pipe since it is less expensive and easier to work with.
6. Backfill. After you have installed the pipes, begin backfilling the trenches that you have already dug out. This is simply done by covering the pipes with the dirt that you dug out earlier. Continue to replace all the dirt until you have covered all of the pipes.
7. Test the work. Once you have finished filling in the trenches, it's time to go ahead and test your work. Simply do this by turning on the sprinklers, and letting them run for a good long while to simulate a rain storm. You should notice that there are no longer any standing pools of water, at least if you followed the directions on the kit properly.
8. Replant the grass. All that you have left to do is replant the grass on the dirt piles that you placed over the pipes. This can easily be done by either laying sod over the dirt tracks, or by planting grass seed.