Hi,
I am new here hopefully I am at the righ place. We have a huge runoff problem. We live in Georgia. Built a house in 2004. We have a concrete parking pad that leads to our 3 car garage. The property is situated on a slope. The area for the parking pad had to be built up with dirt or down here sand and Georgia Clay.
The very fist hard rain we had it wash away part of the "hill" that suports the drive way. Had it refilled. Cracks mended. French drain put in on the curb at the lowest end. 2006 had a five foot retain wall(fancy cinder-block type bricks) put at the base of the "hill". Planted shrubs.... well guess what ...Just two weeks ago we had a not too uncommon rain storm. All the water from the neighbor hood (it seemedI came down our drive way and brought with it debrie, causing the water to go up and over where the french drain curb is a wash out about a ten ft long 4 ft deep gully into the hill. Plus went under this very expensive retain wall causing part(very small part brick size) not to be supported. HELP.....we need to know how to deture this runoff problem in our yard....before the whole parking pad lands at the base of our property.

Hows that for a short story?

Laura

PS Can any of you tell me why they would ever mix sand with dirt. Don't people know about the "sandcastle effect" with water!!!!!

Whenever a driveway will be downhill from a road, it is customary to build a small berm at the edge of the road (perhaps 3 inches high), to keep the water from the road from running down the driveway. In other words, the driveway should go uphill slightly before it goes downhill.