LESLIE: OK, now we’ve got Bea in Texas who’s dealing with a drainage issue, I guess. What’s going on, Bea?
BEA: My mother and I live in a retirement village. We’ve got small lots. We had a sunroom built on the back of the house and they put in a couple of great boxes with the four-inch pots going out. We had a rain. The rain came into the back of the room. We had someone come out and they put in French drains for us. We had another rain. We got flooded again. They came back out and extended the French drain and put another drain that tied into five downspouts between our house and the neighbor’s house. We’ve had a third rain and we’re at a loss now on what to do.
TOM: Hmm.
BEA: We’ve had two proposals and my question to you is which proposal do you think would be the best one. The first proposal is from the same gentleman that has been doing the French drains that have not worked (Leslie chuckles) and he says we need to put in a dry river bed behind the sunroom and down part of the side of the house.
The second proposal is by a new contractor and he is suggesting a channel drain with catch boxes.
TOM: And where is he going to drop the water once he collects it?
BEA: There will be one pipe that will go out the back of the sunroom; there’ll be one that will go down the side of the sunroom. They will be at 90-degree angles.
TOM: OK, but once we carry that water off beyond the sunroom, where is it going to end up?
BEA: It goes under the sidewalk and out to the street.
LESLIE: OK.
TOM: OK. Alright. That’s the idea I like. I think Contractor A is basically suggesting something we call a dry well which is essentially a hole with stone in it. And you know, that has a – it’s like a small retaining pond.
LESLIE: And that water still has to go somewhere.
TOM: Yeah, and theoretically it sits there and builds up and then it slowly goes back to the water table. But if you can get it around the house and out to the street, I think that’s your best chance of success.
BEA: OK, that’s what I needed to know.
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