I am redoing an existing drainage pipe that runs along my retaining wall and have questions. My goal is to divert as much ground water away from the wall to the back of the property. After the exceptional amount of rain that has recently come through, the wall became bowed out slightly and is seeping into my neighbors yard. I’m afraid its holding too much pressure. The existing pipe comes off the downspout, is corrugated (non perforated) and sits just below the soil surface. There is also lots of gravel behind the wall as backfill.
My initial idea was to dig everything out to about the second level of ties where the anchors or deadman timbers are, digging lower than that by hand becomes more than I can do, and install at least two sections of EZ drain that has the sock filled with a rock-like material. Those will go into the middle section of the wall where most water seems to be going. The rest of the existing pipe between my downspout, the EZ drain, and exiting the property will be perforated pipe. All of which will be covered back over will gravel and a final layer of soil.
Is this a feasible idea? Would I be doing more harm than good? Can the drainage pipe work both as runoff from my downspout and act as a french drain for the wall? I even tossed around the idea of adding in a catch basin or two to catch as much ground water from above as possible.
Please share any thoughts or ways I can do this better. This came about unexpectedly and I’m hoping to tackle most of this job this weekend.
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I am redoing an existing drainage pipe that runs along my retaining wall and have questions. My goal is to divert as much ground water away from the wall to the back of the property. After the exceptional amount of rain that has recently come through, the wall became bowed out slightly and is seeping into my neighbors yard. I’m afraid its holding too much pressure. The existing pipe comes off the downspout, is corrugated (non perforated) and sits just below the soil surface. There is also lots of gravel behind the wall as backfill.
My initial idea was to dig everything out to about the second level of ties where the anchors or deadman timbers are, digging lower than that by hand becomes more than I can do, and install at least two sections of EZ drain that has the sock filled with a rock-like material. Those will go into the middle section of the wall where most water seems to be going. The rest of the existing pipe between my downspout, the EZ drain, and exiting the property will be perforated pipe. All of which will be covered back over will gravel and a final layer of soil.
EZ drain in question: [EZ Drain](https://www.lowes.com/pd/NDS-4-in-x-10-ft-5-PSI-Corrugated-French-Drain-Pipe/3136611)
Is this a feasible idea? Would I be doing more harm than good? Can the drainage pipe work both as runoff from my downspout and act as a french drain for the wall? I even tossed around the idea of adding in a catch basin or two to catch as much ground water from above as possible.
Please share any thoughts or ways I can do this better. This came about unexpectedly and I’m hoping to tackle most of this job this weekend.