How to Fix a Wet Yard

Call 811 or a local utilities company and have them come out and mark the locations of your gas line and electrical, telephone and television cables. This will show you which areas to stay away from when digging your trench.

Locate a spot in the yard lower than the house, in the front or back, where the excess water can drain. If the yard seems fairly level, place two stakes at least 20 feet from each other in the yard and attach a line level to each stake. Tie the string of the level to the stakes and move the stakes around until you find a low spot. Dig a hole 3 feet deep and 3 feet around. This will be big enough to fit the dry well.

Dig a 3-foot deep trench joining the hole. Run the trench from the hole to the nearest downspout on the house. Dig the trench parallel to the house and wide enough to walk through.

Hammer out all of the drainage ports in the sides of the dry well. Slide the three side pieces in place and snap them together to make a large circle. Screw the top over the sides with 2-inch stainless steel screws.

Wrap the sides with a landscape fabric, which comes in long rolls and is similar in appearance to pantyhose. The fabric prevents the tube from clogging by filtering out small particles of soil. Wrap it around the dry well and tuck it under the top cover. Lower the dry well into the ground where the hole faces the trench. Pour gravel 3 inches deep into the trench, covering its entire length.

Cover all of the tubing with the landscape fabric just as the dry well was covered. Slide the fabric over the tubes like a sock and cut off the ends with scissors when necessary. Slide the 10-foot long tubing into the hole in the side of the dry well. It will snap into place as if you were installing gutters.

Run the tubing along the trench. Connect each piece of tubing together by hand, pushing down slightly to fit one into the next until you reach the end of the trench. Use a 4-foot level to verify there is a 1/8-inch downward slope for every foot of tubing.

Attach a downspout fitting to the bottom of the downspout and attach the fitting to the tube. Cover all of the tubing with a layer of gravel and add dirt back on top of the gravel. Cover the gravel with enough soil to level out the ground.