My Rockville Md Backyard Floods, Will A Retaining Wall Help The Yard Drainage?

When it rains, do you find yourself dealing with pools of standing water that take days to dry out completely? If so, you’re certainly not alone. A disturbing percentage of properties in the area have those types of issues, and when we’re out at client sites, one of the more common questions we get is some variation of: ‘My Rockville MD backyard floods, will a retaining wall help the yard drainage?’

Drainage issues are no joke, and if you’ve got water pooling up near your house or one of your outbuildings, it can cause serious damage in short order as it seeps into your foundation. Even if the water is pooling at a safe distance from hearth and home though, it’s still a problem. In addition to being a general eyesore that reduces the amount of space you’ve got to work with in terms of planting and outdoor entertaining, it’s also a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests.

If you’ve found yourself asking a similar question, then you’re in luck, and this article was written with you in mind. Let’s take a closer look at the issue and everything surrounding it.

My Rockville MD Backyard Floods – Will A Retaining Wall Help The Yard Drainage?

In the vast majority of cases, the simple answer to the question is a resounding yes! That though, doesn’t go far enough, because we have to look at the larger context, which brings up another important question: Besides fixing your drainage issue, what other landscaping would you like to do, if any?

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If you do have other landscaping ambitions, then before we address your drainage problem, it’s worth taking the time to develop a Master Landscape Design document, and we’d be happy to assist you with that.

On it’s face, it’s simply a document that captures all your landscaping goals and ambitions under a single umbrella, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Here are just a few of the benefits to building a robust document before we begin any work:

  • It allows you to prioritize all the projects you want to undertake, putting them in the order that makes the most sense.
  • Having a comprehensive list also allows you to spot any projects that have dependencies.
  • If there are any big, budget busting projects on your list, those can be identified and broken into smaller components that are more budget friendly.
  • It also allows you to look at all the elements you want to include so you can make sure that they combine to form a cohesive whole that’s aesthetically pleasing, which will save you money. It’s much better to see those kinds of things on paper than to spend money to build something only to discover that it clashes with other work you have planned and have to rip it back out. That’s a costly mistake.
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In addition to all that, if we know going in what your other projects are and where that work will be done, we can take those things into account when we’re deciding on the placement of your retaining wall and building the drainage system that accompanies it. That way, those elements won’t be in the way of the other projects you want to eventually undertake.

It’s also worth mentioning that the question as asked, ‘My Rockville MD backyard floods, will a retaining wall help the yard drainage?’ doesn’t take into account the fact that there are actually several different types of retaining walls. Depending on your needs, the particulars of your property and your budget, one might wind up being a more appropriate choice than some other. Here’s a quick overview:

Sheet Pile Walls – An ideal choice for a retaining wall that needs to be built in a confined area and provide support for loose soils that shed water fairly quickly. These are usually made of steel or wood plank, and about two thirds of their height are buried, with only the top third visible.

Wooden Walls – Tend to be shorter and usually have about 40% of their height beneath the surface. They feature support beams spaced a minimum of one foot apart and are anchored into the soil itself for additional support.

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Gravity Walls – Rely on their mass to hold back the soil and water. These tend to be resource intensive and constructed of heavier materials, being much thicker at the base and gradually thinning out near the top of the wall.

Cantilevered Walls – Structurally similar to gravity walls, but they require less material to construct because they feature a concrete base which extends deep into the soil.

As you can see then, there are lots of options. Whatever specific form your retaining wall takes, it will include a robust drainage system in its design and construction. This will allow us to redirect the water anywhere you’d like to put it. Again, there are lots of different possibilities where that’s concerned. Among other things, we could direct the water to:

  • A dry well or swale.
  • A decorative pond if you’d like to add one.
  • A stream, if you have one on, or adjacent to your property.
  • Or a drainage ditch on the edge of your property.

You let us know what your preference are and we’ll help you design, build and implement the perfect solution for you. Just give us a call when you’re ready to get started.