Driveway Drainage Problems Solved (we hope!)

So there were a few troublesome things going on beside the driveway, most of which involved water draining off the roof and driveway directly into the window well, through the basement window, and into the basement. I have chronicled several attempts to fix this problem so far. I think we finally got it done right: we asked the professionals to look at it. Here is the completed project:

This beautiful site is the result of several improvements. Part of the problem was with the gutter, which first had to be lowered. Even at its proper height and pitch, however, the gutter was way too long to be draining into only one downspout. It's a LONG run -- 36 feet or so -- and a lot of roof, so it was difficult for it to keep up with the water flow. The guys suggested adding a second downspout, which seemed like a great idea. So now there's one on either end. Here's the new one up front:

[They left us some extra lengths of downspout, since we're not sure where exactly we want the water to shoot out. Right now it's set up to run into the garden area beside the house. If this results in water in the basement through the front foundation area, we can re-route it onto the driveway.]

The next part of the problem was that the driveway drain frequently backed up, leaving a massive puddle that then ran into the window well due to that nasty little force called gravity. One part of the solution was to improve upon our drain cover. You can see our previous solution in this earlier post. Here's the new one:
With a drain that is flush with the concrete, there's less chance that stuff will build up in there, and when it does get covered with gunk, it will be easier to just clean off than it was before (when we had to dig down in there through the muck and water).

Of course, there is still a chance that the drain will get filled with gunk from the driveway ("tree poop" and such), and in the winter, that drain can freeze up. So there will still, occasionally, be water sitting in this area, and this water will want to seek out our window well. This is why we also had the window well itself fixed. Regular readers will recall seeing (and perhaps laughing at) some of my previous attempts here and also here to solve this problem; I am sure you will enjoy the professional job that was finally done here. I must tell you that there was a jackhammer involved, which is, of course, the reason why I couldn't do it myself. There is no way I should have jackhammer privileges. Once they had dug down though the inches of concrete, going about two inches below the window well and into the dirt, they put in the metal window well. That is sealed in there with concrete, so now water won't run into the well. I put the old piece of plexi on top of the whole thing for the rain that falls off the roof. [I think we'll cut the plexi down to a more reasonable size.] So check it out, our complete window well solution:



Finally, all that water puddling on and splashing off the driveway also did some damage to our wood siding in that area, so the guys also removed and replaced a section of shingles with these new ones. Once they were painted, we couldn't tell the difference. It looks great!



That's all for today, and in fact, that's probably all for the month of July. 83 Durant is about to go on yet another hiatus while we head south for family visits. We'll be back in August with exciting updates on whether all this drainage fixage actually worked, as well as new projects like drywalling and painting the spare bedroom!