Drainage Assessment and Rehabilitation

Sinkholes, standing water or erosion on your property?

Concentrated stormwater flow can be a major nuisance, washing away topsoil around permanent engineered structures like curbs, driveways, sidewalks, and building foundations. Small sinkholes can form near the tops of slopes or around leaking infrastructure. In contrast, an excess of water with nowhere to go can appear as wet spots or shallow pools on the surface, especially adjacent to building foundations or leaking into basements.

Estes Design has experience assessing and correcting the sources that cause drainage and erosion problems.  We have worked with HOA groups and homeowners in both North and South Carolina.

Both standing water, poor compaction and erosion due to poor site grading was a real problem for many homes within this HOA.  

Erosion

Roof drains sent concentrated flow over poorly compacted soils and this unstable slope, causing sinkholes and erosion in many residents' backyards.

Trees were planted on the top of the slope to anchor soil in place. 

Water from the roof drains were directed into pipes (circled in red) that were buried down the slope (path in yellow dashed line) to remove the source of the erosion.  

Standing Water

The area just off this homeowner's patio frequently had standing water after small rain events. 

A trench was dug and a perforated subdrain was installed to carry water away from the patio. 

The completed system was covered back over and the area infiltrates much more quickly after small rain events.