Sadly, we live in a time in which the squeaky wheel may get their needs met, but no-one else will. What if there is an empty lot above your home where the county’s poor engineering has the storm runoff funneled right in the middle? No problem today.

Later the lot is built out. The other neighbor above sees that the runoff is going to be funneled their way. They go and complain to the county and get the water re-routed above your house. You find out one night, in the midst of a big rainstorm, coming home to your newly graveled driveway washing down to the road.

White Mountain Partners Landscaping, a quality landscaping contractor, has some solutions for land owners facing stormwater runoff.

Be the Squeaky Wheel –

There is so much going on in our busy lives but be that squeaky wheel and pro-actively avoid the situation in the first place. If it is too late, complain and raise a ruckus until the county forces the offending landowner to pay to improve what is now coming your way.

Hire a Quality Landscaping Service –

There are some very important issues to address with a stormwater runoff problem. The design needs to withstand the worst rainfall possible because you don’t want your home or driveway ruined over and over. Also, you need to get a top-notch landscaping contractor that can best engineer the solution to work year after year with little maintenance on your part. Years later, you don’t want to be out in heavy rain in your slickers with a shovel, trying to save your driveway all over again.

Elements of Good Storm Runoff Design –

Soil Berm –

According to Bankrate, a soil berm is one solution for some yards that will channel the rainwater away from your property. A top-notch landscaper will plant the berm with easy-care plants that are visually appealing, so the berm does not wash away.

The Rain Channels Must Last –

Another solution is a French drain that catches and channels the rain water. Where the rain is channeled down your driveway, you don’t want a big trench. If you live in snow country, either your car or the snow blower will get sucked into that trench eventually. You want a small depression of a channel that has a French drain in the bottom.

A French drain utilizes a buried pipe that has holes to accept the runoff and landscape cloth over the pipe to keep debris from clogging it. Some of the runoff will go down the slight depression and some of the runoff will go into the French drain and out to the street, where the county can deal with it. French drains are designed to last. Trenches just get deeper.

The Hillside –

If you own some or a portion of the hillside, you will have other considerations. Popular Mechanics suggests another solution to stormwater runoff is a dry well. A dry well is an excellent solution for locations where the water reaches a strong head at the top of the hillside. It is basically a well that is surrounded by rocks and channels as much of the water as possible down into the soil itself.

For the rest of the runoff on the hillside, you want a lot of heavy rocks that also look ornamental. The rocks on the hillside will move the storm water down to where you choose, not your neighbor. Heavy rocks will prevent the hillside from wearing away.

The one bit of maintenance you will want to do in the fall with your rocky stream is to clear the leaves from between the rocks on the hillside. You don’t want the water to find another path.

Call us at White Mountain Partners Landscaping for all of your stormwater runoff issues. We will design a stormwater solution that will last and will be either low maintenance or maintenance free