So, here are some indicators... This lid was ON the the garbage can last night at least at 8pm. These pics taken Friday morning (today)

The front corner of the old house shows the main reason why I waited so long to start my addition. I HATE my house being lower than the street!

Drains for the front are still on the "to do" list.

More along the front, closer to the other front corner. (oops)

My superior draining soil makes for great accent ponds.... NOT! dang clay!

Heres the hole where my B x J was, now up at Matts.

And lastly along the back side of the addition.

This area will get drains also.

The good news, with my all glass door covered, I could not find any leaks.

Are there gonna be any palm shots in this thread?

Don't worry Bill, even good draining soil is still holding water right now. Give it 24 hours, with no rain, and then give us an update.

You should consider raising the soil level in your backyard and then trench about 5 or more feet away from the house. This will force all the water to the front. You don't want water to be soaking into your house foundation. You can also install the pipes under the trench which should drain out to the street. BTW, you will need to hire some guy to drill the drain holes through the curb. Lucky for you, you don't have a sidewalk.

Are there gonna be any palm shots in this thread?

OK- Here you go... you can see the little unintended pond in the foreground.

Don't worry Bill, even good draining soil is still holding water right now. Give it 24 hours, with no rain, and then give us an update.

I'm very curious about this myself. I noticed the moat on Weds night.

I will say Dypsis "big@$$" doesn't seem to mind....

Are there gonna be any palm shots in this thread?

OK- Here you go...

Don't worry Bill, even good draining soil is still holding water right now. Give it 24 hours, with no rain, and then give us an update.

I'm very curious about this myself. I noticed the moat on Weds night.

Haha.. I see your palm soil level is higher than the foundation of your house. They're nice and dry. You got your priority straight.

You should consider raising the soil level in your backyard and then trench about 5 or more feet away from the house. This will force all the water to the front. You don't want water to be soaking into your house foundation. You can also install the pipes under the trench which should drain out to the street. BTW, you will need to hire some guy to drill the drain holes through the curb. Lucky for you, you don't have a sidewalk.

Actually the drains will go the other way...towards my property line in back. Slowly. (per my project requirements. The water can't leave my property any faster than it did before the project) My lot is 150' long/deep with about a 6' drop from the street.

Are there any drainage tunnel in the back of your yard?

Bill, I'd see about talking to your neighbors behind you and see what sort of drainage system they have going. You might be able to connect yours to theirs and out to the next street, or maybe they have a swale you can dump into that won't hurt their property. I was that lower property at my LG house. I put in a swale and solved the drainage problem the neighbor above me had by helping him chip out some old CMU so his back yard could drain into my swale and out to my front street.

Are there any drainage tunnel in the back of your yard?

Not yet, its about 30' from the back of my garage/deck to the P.L. It will slope gently back and I'm probably going to do a dry creek rock basin drain as such from the front yard, then "palm mounds" around it.

Have you considered moving to sunny south Florida? There's a beautiful, high and dry 2 1/2 acre lot right behind me, just waiting for some nice palms.

Have you considered moving to sunny south Florida? There's a beautiful, high and dry 2 1/2 acre lot right behind me, just waiting for some nice palms.

What are they asking?

Don't they raise the house foundations up onto a high sand pad when building on clay over there. You'd never see that here. Sometimes they have to scrape a lot of the clay away before the sand even goes on. It's interesting seeing how they do things in the US. We can't drain to the street through the kerb, and you definitely can't hook up drainage to your neighbours place. Not legally anyway. I guess it doesn't rain much in So Cal, so you can get away with it a bit more over there.

Best regards

Tyrone

Don't they raise the house foundations up onto a high sand pad when building on clay over there. You'd never see that here. Sometimes they have to scrape a lot of the clay away before the sand even goes on. It's interesting seeing how they do things in the US. We can't drain to the street through the kerb, and you definitely can't hook up drainage to your neighbours place. Not legally anyway. I guess it doesn't rain much in So Cal, so you can get away with it a bit more over there.

Best regards

Tyrone

Tyrone- The original house was built in 1946. A lot of codes didn't exist then. Like you said, I think they weren't worried about rain as much. As a matter of fact, my street was a dirt road until the 60's and my driveway was just rock when I bought it in 1994.

Have you considered moving to sunny south Florida? There's a beautiful, high and dry 2 1/2 acre lot right behind me, just waiting for some nice palms.

hmmm. Can I use your pool?

Have you considered moving to sunny south Florida? There's a beautiful, high and dry 2 1/2 acre lot right behind me, just waiting for some nice palms.

hmmm. Can I use your pool?

He has a pond and a pool. The pond might be good for you.

Have you considered moving to sunny south Florida? There's a beautiful, high and dry 2 1/2 acre lot right behind me, just waiting for some nice palms.

hmmm. Can I use your pool?

He has a pond and a pool. The pond might be good for you.

Wherever I go, rents go down and noses go up.

So, here are some indicators... This lid was ON the the garbage can last night at least at 8pm. These pics taken Friday morning (today)

The front corner of the old house shows the main reason why I waited so long to start my addition. I HATE my house being lower than the street!

Drains for the front are still on the "to do" list.

Confucius say "man who builds house in low spot should use stilts not slab. "

Man I feel for you. Dec of 08 I had 3 feet of standing water in my lower garden for about a week as it slowly drained away. Man did that flood leave a mess of "stuffs" down there. As a mater of fact I still have not cleand it all up.

OK- I'll give kudos to Matty. What a difference 24 hours of less rain makes.

"Freakypalmguys hole"

Where I dug that palm, your soil looked pretty rich and loamy, reward for all the mulching you've been doing. Any leaks in the addition?

Where I dug that palm, your soil looked pretty rich and loamy, reward for all the mulching you've been doing. Any leaks in the addition?

Since I covered the glass door with plastic, it stayed dry inside till the plastic ripped, then it got wet. All else appears OK.

I will agree, the mulching has helped tremendously. And its really not had a full "2nd helping" yet. Soon I suspect.

Where I dug that palm, your soil looked pretty rich and loamy, reward for all the mulching you've been doing. Any leaks in the addition?

Since I covered the glass door with plastic, it stayed dry inside till the plastic ripped, then it got wet. All else appears OK.

I will agree, the mulching has helped tremendously. And its really not had a full "2nd helping" yet. Soon I suspect.

Here is a video clip I posted in Dec of 08 after my flood. I have most of it cleaned up, but not all.

Dear Bill

Initially even our house garden did look like your garden during rains.But after digging huge pits here & there in our garden.Now when the heavy rains stop,the water remains in the soil layer only for 2 to 4 hours.And the washy filifera & brahea Armeda is doing fine after our rainy season.

For us here its just 8 to 9 feet of clay.below this its fine coarse grade sandy soil.

Have you dug deep in your garden to see how is your soil strata below...if so what do you have ?

Hope all your plams are doing okay..

thanks & love,

kris

Kris, I am not the man you or your workers are! The deepest I have dug is about 3'. In reality as I dig around the yard, I have a variety of "original" soil. In general, the upper 6" is pretty good and would almost be loamy. but past that I have pockets of sand (very little), sandy clay, medium clay, and heavy clay. Its just where ever I choose to dig, I see whats there. But in the last 6 months or so, any time I dig anywhere I have mulched, It seems the top 1 to 1 1/2 feet is pretty good to grow stuff in.

I would say in reality, that water was gone within 20 hours of the rain ceasing. And it is the "bottom" of where it currently drains too.

Glad to hear your "dry" palms are doing well.

Dear Bill

Yes, those desert palms have nicely pulled through our wet winters,and iam very happy !

And if by chance any of your neighbour is building a multistory complex in your close vecinity.Kindly make it a point to go and see the soil layer.Iam just curious as what layers you have there in beautiful california.

Thanks & Love,

kris

When I dig down deep, or try anyway close to the house I hit very HARD almost rock like dirt/rock in about a foot. This is in the high areas. Down in the stream valley there it is lots of silt, and rocks of all sizes for a few feet.

Yep, When I dig deeper than a foot or 18", its rare not to hit a rock or more. The rocks are anywhere from 3-14" in diameter.

When I dig down deep, or try anyway close to the house I hit very HARD almost rock like dirt/rock in about a foot. This is in the high areas. Down in the stream valley there it is lots of silt, and rocks of all sizes for a few feet.

Yep, When I dig deeper than a foot or 18", its rare not to hit a rock or more. The rocks are anywhere from 3-14" in diameter.

Dear Friends

Exactly this is what i wanted to know..Since the state where i live is basically a plain region.And most of the area is covered with clay and black alluvial soil.So naturally rice,sugarcane are grown as cash crops.And very few mountain ranges are there as pockets.

And here before the advent of pile foundation,they used to manually did using bolldozers and remove the clay soil.since the most of our multi story buildings have basement floors.So they dig below about 18 to 25 feet minimum from the road level.

Thanks for the info's

love,

kris