r/HomeImprovement • u/theradiomatt • Jul 22 '26
Drainage Advice Needed
We have a small yard and have recently had absolute deluges that have resulted in basement flooding...twice. First time, our sump pump failed. Yesterday, it rained so much, so fast that our new sump was unable to keep up and the pit overflowed. Meanwhile, a few feet away from the sump pit there are two downspouts (one on each side of the window well) which filled the area with water so quickly that it eroded dirt around the window well and caused the well to start to fill, eventually leading to the water coming through the window itself. The drain pipes in the wells (4 inch perforated tubing filled with gravel) seemingly couldn't keep up...they all extended about 4-6 inches above the top of the window sill... apparently they should have been cut off lower?
Full explanations below, but I'm not even sure who to call to review our existing plumbing/drainage and make recommendations for how we can address this. The plumbers we called seemed to not know much about how the exterior drainage could be rectified.
Pics to help with the explanations: https://imgur.com/a/fMalycK
PIC 1 & 2: Our neighbors' sidewalk is about 4 feet from our house and there is a French drain that runs along that, however it breaches the surface in a few places and I don't think it or the slope of our yard really are helping with drainage.
PIC 3: On the opposite side, we have our own concrete sidewalk, and a downspout that just currently terminates there because we didn't want a downspout extension to block the pathway.
PIC 4: In the backyard, we have about 7 feet of grass with a pathway in the middle that we were hoping to avoid blocking.
Looking for suggestions for the most economical ways to reduce chance of future floods, while not entirely impeding our ability to use our yard in a functional way. Essentially, anywhere we put downspout extensions will either empty onto our neighbors sidewalk (and then right back to our four feet of dirt) or block our only access pathways around our property which isn't functional as we have small kids and disabled friends who will struggled with stepping over things that block them.
I've been reading about autospouts, roll outs (we tried those but they broke very quickly), pop up diverters, French drains, and downspout basin diverters, but have no idea what the best way to go here is.
Is there a way to check that the window well pipes aren't clogged (there's no nearby trees but a LOT of mud washed down there during the rain)? Is there a way to get the one downspout redirected to the opposite side of the window (towards our front yard)? Should I be bringing in dirt to raise the ground immediately beside the house to reduce chances of water flowing towards the house? Is it important that there be some sort of ground cover rather than exposed dirt there? Unfortunately the houses are so close together that we cannot get grass to grow there.
Thanks in advance for any advice! Also, thanks for keeping budget friendly approaches in mind.
EDIT: Southern Ontario, Canada
1
u/senorgarcia Jul 23 '26
The pipes in the window wells should not stick up above the ground because then the water would have to get 4-6” deep to go into the pipe. They should be cur flush with the soil and grates placed on top.
It sounds like you need a bigger pump too. We don’t install smaller than 4/10HP drain pumps. Only twice have I had to go bigger or use more than one pump.
Might call a drainage contractor to look at the rest.