Could you benefit from a landscape drainage system on your Beltsville MD property? The short answer is: In many cases, yes. When it rains, do you find yourself dealing with pools of standing water that collect in various places in your yard, sometimes lingering for days at a time? If you do, it’s a sure sign that you’ve got drainage issues on your property.

In some cases, it’s not that big of a deal, especially if the water is pooling at a safe distance from your home and any outbuildings you might have. Sure, it’s a nuisance. Sure, it’s a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests and is an eyesore that detracts from the aesthetic of your property and reduces your usable space, but if you can live with those things, it’s not awful.

On the other hand, if the water is pooling up against your house, it’s a very big problem indeed. Few things are more destructive to hearth and home than water, and if left unchecked, that standing water can cause thousands of dollars in damage to your foundation.

Before you pull out your checkbook or credit card and have a landscape drainage system installed on your Beltsville MD property, it’s important to ask if you have any other landscaping plans in mind? If you’re like many people, you’ve got a fairly long list of improvements you’d like to make one day. If you do, then before you start, it pays to take the time to create a master landscape design document.

Don’t let its fancy name fool you. At the root, it’s just a document that captures all of your landscaping ambitions in one place. When you do that, you get a lot more than just a wish list of your goals and ideas, however. Among other things, you’ll be able to:

• Spot big, budget busting projects and break them into smaller sub-projects that are easier on your budget.
• Identify projects that have dependencies, and order them accordingly.
• Create an ordered list, whether projects have dependencies or not.
• Examine all your planned projects to make sure that all the pieces hang together to create an aesthetically pleasing whole, and tweak or change any project that doesn’t really fit with the overall picture you’re trying to create.
• And identify holes in your current landscaping ambitions.

In addition to that, you’ll also see where it make the most sense to insert the landscape drainage system for your Beltsville MD property, building it when and where it makes the most sense to do so, so that it doesn’t interfere or get in the way of the other plans you’ve got.

Do you have steep slopes on your property? If so, then you’re probably at least somewhat lacking in usable space and steep slopes make drainage issues more likely. If you do, have you considered building one or more retaining walls as part of your plans?

Retaining walls are fantastic because they turn steeply sloped areas into terraced areas, which gives you more space for planting or outdoor entertaining. In addition to that though, they’re fantastic at diverting, holding back and redirecting water because all well-constructed retaining walls come with robust drainage systems built in. As such, a well-placed retaining wall could be a critical component of the landscape drainage system on your Beltsville MD property.

One thing you may not realize is that there’s not a single, generic type of retaining wall. They actually take a variety of different forms, including:

• Sheet Pile Walls – These are an ideal choice if you need a retaining wall built in a very confined space and are looking for a way to provide support for loose soils that shed water very quickly. They’re generally made from wood plank or steel, and about two thirds of their height are buried beneath the surface, with only the top-most third of the wall visible to the naked eye.
• Wooden Walls – These are ubiquitous. You see them just about everywhere you look, and for good reason. They tend to be shorter and are relatively inexpensive to build compared with some of the other types of retaining walls. They feature support beams that are spaced about a foot apart and are anchored into the soil itself for an additional layer of support.
• Gravity Walls – These tend to be the largest of the retaining walls and are usually built with the heaviest, most robust materials. They rely on their sheer size and mass to hold back water and earth and are substantially thicker at the bottom than they are at the top.
• Cantilevered Walls – Very similar to gravity walls, the cantilevered wall is somewhat lighter and less resource intensive because part of the support of a cantilevered wall comes from its base which extends deep into the soil. These walls are also angled back slightly, against the earth they are providing support for.

Gaining an understanding of which type of retaining wall is most appropriate for your property and your particular needs is one of the first tasks we’ll focus on if you decide you want to work with us. We’re happy to sit down with you to help you construct your master design document, survey and assess your property to see if a retaining wall could help you achieve your goals, and provide you with a free, no obligation estimate so you’ll have a firm understanding of what it will take to turn your landscaping dreams into a reality. Give our office a call today!