A yard drain, also called an area drain or landscape drain, is a common hardscape feature in yards with significant contours, extensive landscaping, or a swimming pool. It can also be used to channel water from a roof gutter and downspout system out into a yard and away from the foundation. This type of drain works much the same way as a floor drain in a garage or basement floor, collecting standing water and channeling it to the street, a storm drain, or other drainage area. You can identify a yard drain by its telltale grate installed at ground level, usually in a low-lying area of the yard. Like any home drain, a yard drain can back up and cause flooding. Proper maintenance of the yard drain will prevent pooling of water in your yard.
How a Yard Drain Works
The structure of a yard drain is very simple: A small underground catch basin covered by a metal or plastic grate catches runoff water, and one or more branch drain pipes carry this collected water from the basin to some termination point—often near a street or into a municipal storm drain. Yard drains can also deliver water to a dry well, retaining area, or surface-drainage field. Piping for yard drains may be corrugated plastic tubing with perforations along the bottom that allow some of the water to drain into the soil along the length of the pipe, or it may be rigid plastic pipe without perforations that carries all of the water to the termination point.
When to Perform Repairs on a Yard Drain
Fall is the key time for servicing a yard drain, as this is when falling leaves are most likely to clog the pipes. If your roof gutters connect to your yard drain, then you must be sure to clean your gutters before clearing the yard drain system.
Source: The Spruce
