How to divert water from entering garage?

Jeffersm963

Hello everyone,

Currently, when it rains, due to the contours of the land beneath the pebbles, the water follows the blue lines on the photograph and pours into the garage and out the other side. 

Blue arrows show flow of water into the garage during rain

As part of my car-port conversion, I will be framing a wall with 90x45 H3 Timber to close up this door-sized gap, with the appropriate Internal Lining, Insulation, Studs, Sheathing, Building Wrap, and Exterior Cladding.

As you can imagine, if I do not do anything, I will end up with a pond where I don't want one which will eventually cause issues with the foundations etc...

My idea is to dig a small trench from the wall with the window, behind the tree, to the driveway where the reclaimed sleepers can be seen. The trench would slope towards the driveway and I would put flashing in it and a grid over it, or just a run-off pipe buried, so the water does not seep into the soil there, but runs down the driveway.

Does this sound feasible, do you have any other ideas?

Thanks

Jeff

EricL

Hi @Jeffersm963 

Your idea of adding a channel at the back of the tree is a good one. Just to add to your idea, I propose removing all the rocks in that area and re-levelling the soil so that the fall will go away from garage and to your front yard instead. 

I believe that water through the years has washed away a bit of the soil and made it settle down and a natural channel has formed. In order to dress this, I recommend adding more soil and gravel and using a compacter to raise and level the low spots. 

This will then force the majority of the water to go in another direction. Any residual water that does get through will be caught by your diverting channel and re-directed to the front.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric