Dry Well
When the NFH moved in about four years ago, they were able to really bring down our quality of life. Noise levels, unsupervised children and pets, property destruction, and, lately, gangs of thugs partying at all hours.
From what I can gather, the parents of the NFH won a big lottery and bought the house with the proceeds. So it was only a matter of time until the NFH needed to sell the house. Unemployed and unskilled folks can’t live in expensive homes for very long without a source of income. I am surprised that they lasted the four years. Unfortunately, the house has been on the market for about six months now. No buyers as yet.
One of the many things they did to destroy our property was to install an above ground pool alongside our cedar wall. They backwashed not to the street, but to our backyard. We had to replace 40 linear feet of cedars. They changed the drainage patterns in such a way that we now have significant water issues.
We installed a french drain. It is not having enough of an impact. This spring, once the winter runoff has dispersed and the soil dries out, I will put in a dry well. There is significant damage to the property and the driveway because of what the NFH did. I won’t be sad to see them go. I’m almost tempted to buy the house myself. Below is a diagram of a dry well. Hope it works.
You know, if you buy the house and ready it for sale it will probablly sell faster, you could even turn a profit, and you’d be able to pick who lives beside you. Not such a bad idea 😉
Is there no possiblity for recourse? Ultimately a lien on the property? Just not fair – they need to be held accountable.
We have been very patient. And I am somewhat optimistic that the situation will change for the better. It cannot get any worse 😉
Did you install the plastic trash can drywell? I have a similar problem and wanted to know if this type of install would work. Thanks.
Hi Travis,
We had a very short and light winter and very little rain last year and so we did not have enough of an incentive to install the drywell. This year will be an issue given the record snowfall as well as the potential for a very late spring.
The task is now in our job jar for May/June after the ground has dried up. I will post an update on the blog after that.
Aside from the labour, this looks like a pretty low-cost approach and well worth a try.
Thanks for sharing, found your diagram to be quite useful as I’m looking to do something similar.
Hi Richard. I don’t know if you are still monitoring responses to this site, but in looking at your diagram, it seems to me that you need some kind of reinforced lid for that plastic trashcan, otherwise the weight of the dirt on top would crush it, unless you use the large rock inside to support it and then still, it may deform.
Hi Joe.
Yes, all comments are moderated and I do monitor responses. The diagram is not mine. It was sourced from the Associated Press.
In response to your comment, a lid would not be recommended for this application. The trash can would function simply as a container for the large rocks. The earth surrounding the can and the large rocks inside the can should provide more than enough support to prevent any form of compression.
Richard,
The diagram leaves out some issues that really need to be considered. The first thing you need to look at is the soil where the dry well will be located porous? If there’s heavy clay there you’ll need to install several. Also, three things I’d change: 1. Change the large rocks to smaller 1″ – 2″ gravel and skip the can and line the hole with landscape netting and 3. line the bottom of the pit with pea gravel. The idea here is to reduce erosion, which both the landscape netting and smaller gravel & pea gravel will accomplish.
Good luck!
Good idea, works well, I accidentally broke a water pipe I didn’t know was there while digging. Whoopsie daisy!