The corner that never dried out

What was wrong

Roof water from two-thirds of the house was dumping at the back corner, the lot fell toward it, and the clay underneath held every drop. By April the grass there was gone and the fence posts were rotting from the bottom up.

What we did about it

1. Came back on a wet day and traced it. The culprit was the rear downspout, not the neighbor’s grade everyone had been blaming.

2. Cut the grade back by fourteen inches across a twenty-foot run. Water leaves the house now.

3. Carried both rear downspouts underground to a pop-up emitter at the low side of the lot.

4. Dug a four-foot dry well under what is now the rain garden, wrapped in filter fabric so the clay cannot silt it up.

5. Planted the low spot with things that want wet feet, so the wettest square of the yard became the part they look at.

Town

Ridgewood, New Jersey

Year

2023

Lot

0.34 acre

House

1928 center-hall colonial

On site

9 working days

Work

Drainage and grading, Planting, Weekly maintenance