Back Yard Drain
 

We have been trying to locate our back yard drain. Have contacted all the relevant parties, Construction & Warranties, Tri-county Landscaping, but we still have no drain plan.
We have dug up the rear corner of our yard and discovered a black porous pipe. We poured water onto this pipe and it drained away immediately.
Question: is this the drain or should we be looking for a more conventional drain, ie square piece of plastic with a grill/cover on top? Thanks

You should have an area drain that is a 12-inch x 12-inch square plastic grill. It will most likely be located on the rear of the property with a straight line to the street, where the connecting pipe can drain water into the storm drainage collection structures.

We have a 12”square drain grate that sits on top of a round, vertical black plastic ribbed pipe. In the new Richmond builds I have seen a raised “1/4 sphere” cap on yard drains. Ours goes about 5’ down before it joins a buried pipe running downhill towards the Hogeye. Not all homes in my neighborhood have them - not sure why. If you drive Central Parkway and see lots being developed, it appears nearly every one has a vertical 8” black plastic pipe pre-installed. I have the original lot drawings from the old YouTrakit site. My drains are noted there. A few of my neighbors, who have found no drains in their yards also have those documents, with no drains depicted.

Are backyard drains something you find with Villas or maybe something in the newer areas? I don't have anything like that and had no idea there was such a thing.

I can only comment on court yard villas (CYV). I don’t not have porous drain pipe. My CYV has drain tube in back with oval drain cover sticking up the yard slopped to drain. Depending on style and location in villas it could be on left or right side? Depending on what previous owners may have done it may be hard to find? Also overgrown grass will some time cover it up. My house 20 plus years old, newer models maybe different?

Courtyard villas (not just in the new areas) have these, but I don't know about other houses. I think they have a pipe that connects to the storm drainage structures in the middle of the street.

Drainage issues
 

Fascinating. There's a low area behind our house, basically where three lots join, where water tends to stand after heavy rains. It has mostly killed the zoysia in that area. Makes me wonder if there might exist a simple solution. Looks like a great spot for such a drain. Were I less lazy I might look into it. . .

Why do you need to locate a drain pipe?

If your area drain is clogged, it needs to be cleaned out so it will start draining again.

Found a large drain pipe and box about 2 1/2 feet down buried under rock and mulch. Wasn't draining 100 percent. just had to clean out.

If you really need to know if you have a drain, and where it is located if there is one, you can contact District Property Management. They have the original engineering drawings that show everything.

We have three round covers about eight inches in diameter, black plastic they are in a straight line to the street in our backyard

Same question with me, our roof gutters have down spouts that just go down into the ground and I have never been able to locate where it ends up. We also have a drain on our back patio that runs our into the yard but can't find the square grate in the yard. May have to hire a plumber with video line camera to locate the lines

Is that by county or city? Or the Villages?

Ack yard drain
 

[We found ours. It's rectangular , green and buried under the sod. QUOTE=CURLYSANDY;2386993]We have been trying to locate our back yard drain. Have contacted all the relevant parties, Construction & Warranties, Tri-county Landscaping, but we still have no drain plan.
We have dug up the rear corner of our yard and discovered a black porous pipe. We poured water onto this pipe and it drained away immediately.
Question: is this the drain or should we be looking for a more conventional drain, ie square piece of plastic with a grill/cover on top? Thanks[/QUOTE]

Not all yards have drains. We live in a Veranda and all the homes along our side of the street have graded yards that drain to the pond behind our house, and the front yard drains by grade to the street. The contractor said it was very important for any new landscaping not to alter the grade

For your downspouts, the pop ups are typically in a straight line out into the yard two to maybe six feet out - as a second owner I had to find mine. Take a long screwdriver, start at the bed edge and work your way out pushing it down into the grass a few inches along that line and left/right of it a bit. You will eventually feel and hear and feel the screwdriver hit the plastic top or grate of the pop up drain. Remove the grass and probably open the drain too to clean it - I found long root shoots in mine. With our grass I have to trim them about every 2 weeks during growing season. My home has a metal bed edge and about an 18” rock bed all around. I found one drain in the bed covered over with landscape fabric from the bed install. :ohdear:

Use divining or dosing rods or sticks… I use 2 metal coat hangers bent at 90 deg. Point them both in the same direction and when you walk and cross a pipe wiht some water in it, they rotate and cross each other over the pipe. I used this method at our daughter’s home to find where the garage drain emptied out into their yard. I walked around the garage, found the line, drew a line from the drain to that point and then kept following that line until we found the end that became buried about 50 yards on a hill side.

How to Use Dowsing or Divining Rods: A Beginner's Guide

I assume you have a courtyard villa. They have drains somewhere in the back yard in the grass area and should be easy yo find. If you or a previous owner took the sod out and replaced it with mat and stone it may be covered over. What you found should be the drain.

I have a 12x12 black plastic drain box that sits on top of a hole in the sand about two feet deep. There is no outlet connected to the drain box. It seems to work fairly well. My neighbor has plastic pipe connected to downspouts. These do not work for him in a heavy rain. The pipe is porous and it looks like a poorly executed attempt at a french drain. No one at the district or the developer knows anything, or they were unwilling to actually look at the original project drawings. ‘Cest la vie.

We have a "common" drain
 

Our yard drain sits when 4 property lines meet. It is a 12" square drain. I seem to be the one that checks it regularly to be sure it is not overgrown although the gardeners do trim around it. I am down by Sawgrass Grove.

My Brother lives at Linden Isle. He had to take the drain cover off of his drain during the Hurricane. If not the Birdcage would have flooded. He also has a Fence behind the house. No where for the water to go. We live at Linden and have a retention pond behind our Home. Don’t need a drain.

I live in a courtyard villa and have 2 drain covers in opposite ends of my back yard. The yard is sloped from the back wall towards the drains in the middle of the yard.

Use water hose
 

I took a water hose and put down in the downspout about a foot with water on high. Walked straight out into the yard from the downspout until I found the area that got wet. It took less than 15 minutes of running the water. Pulled up the turf and there was the pop up. Mine was close to the street but not always. You can also buy a dye and do the same thing - watch where the dye comes out.

I hope you got permission from the District to do that?

You just can't go around modifying the existing drainage system. That drain is not yours to modify and is likely part of a larger system, subject to federal, state and local regulations and the TV drainage permit for that District.

The digging was to find the drain itself. Previous owner put tons of mulch and rocks down. Nothing was changed.

I guess this picture shows how good my drain is working in Mallory Square