Solving Yard Water Damage: Installing Drainage System to Redirect Rainwater

The water battle between me and the rain water is still going on, the yard slopes to the guest house which had much water damage below the flooring, Karen and I both worked in the crawlspace sealing the walls and installing new water vapor, along with new floor joists and new 3/4″ sub flooring.

The problem is the rain water drains into the porch crawl area only to seep into the “new” area and lays on top of the new plastic which is taped at the seams and has nowhere to drain other than the sump pump I installed years ago.

Now I’m mad and have gone with ‘plan C’. The porch ground both at the steps and the side leans to the rear of the property, I’ve been digging a ditch below the porch area that will allow the water to exit out the side, after digging down below the ground I have knocked out some bricks water was already coming out with the 1st brick removed, next I installed a 8″ X 10 foot drainage pipe turning it towards the lower ground at the ravine area that runs water drainage from the farm land behind me.

Now we wait to test it after some heavy rain.

Update, Looks like this is working, rain water has been collecting below the porch away from the crawl space walls and going out the side.

Update 7/28/2023 Well even after heavy rains the rain water is flowing below the porch and not getting into the crawl, all my other attempts had failed, the key point is if your yard slopes to the house instead of away from it you must divert the water away. I chose the trench method as the cost of getting heavy machinery out here to grade the yard would had been very expensive.