Help - My Sump Pump has washed away my yard

[dwatja]

I can post pictures if it is of any use, but:

We have had a very wet fall, winter, and spring here in Chicago and my sump pump has been running overtime. In the process it has now eroded the side of my yard. The sump exit is on my side yard which is a hill to the back. It has now eroded about a 2' wide by 1' deap trench. I could just fill it in and re-plant grass, but there isn't anything to stop it from happening again, so I don't like that idea.

The pump exits from the side of the house then goes through a (not sure exactly but about 2-3" diameter) pipe that goes underground until it hits the center of my side yard. It then just emerges to the surface, with a plastic grate. That's it.

Any suggestions about how to make a permanant fix?

[jeffo]

Try this - it's cheap. Go get a pre-cast concrete downspout pad - the kind that you put under the downspouts. Turn it around so that the discharge hose sits in the part without the 'curb' (the side that would be away from the house if used for downspouts). When the pump comes on, this will cause the water to diffuse over the end of the pad, reducing/preventing the erosion.

[joed]

You already have a nice trench. Extend the sump pump drain pipe lower down the hill with a pipe in the trench and then fill it in.

[suemarkp]

And fill the trench with drain rock not dirt. Rock is harder to wash away than dirt. If you can reduce the velocity of the water, it will move less dirt as it flows. To reduce the water velocity, you need to spread the flow out over a wider area. A trech full of drainrock does this, the concrete downspout pad will do this, and a long perforated pipe buried in drain rock will do this.

I think your ideal solution is to remove that drain box w/grate and put in at least 10 and preferably 20 to 30 feet of perforated 4" drain pipe in this buried trench (assuming that trench is at least 10 to 20 feet away from the house and gravity will pull the water away from the house). Ideally, put in a 90 degree fitting to angle the output of the sump pump down into the trench so when it stops you don't have 30' of full pipe to backflow into the sump pump). Put a "sock filter" on the drain pipe to keep dirt from clogging it, and put your drain box w/grate at the end of this pipe (use box extensions to get it up to the level of your yard or alternatively bend or turn the pipe upwards to get to this box. This box is now just an overflow and cleanout access point. Water should never be coming out of it (if it does, then you need more buried pipe). Now backfill the trench with drain rock until about 4" from the surface, put some landscape fabric over the drain rock, and cover with dirt and grass. Ideally, your rock bed would be at least a foot thick, and the wider it is the better it will flow.

[dwatja]

Thanks for the suggestions. I had thought something along the way of suemarkp, but it's good to hear some confirmation that this will should work before I start. I guess I'm up for some hard labor tomorrow.

[scuba_dave]

I ran 24' of pipe away from my house along the back of the new garage, then 20' of perforated pipe. The last 15' went thru a "dry riverbed" I built out of rocks from my yard. I had plenty of rock after the garage foundation was poured
This takes all of the water from the the sump pump and the run-off from the 24' sloped area