How to Use Perforated Drain Pipes in Lawns

Yards with low and high areas tend to develop drainage issues that result in erosion or standing water. Perforated drain pipes are designed to allow water in from above so that it can be transferred to another area. You can install these drains in your lawn to help alleviate drainage problems that keep your grass from growing properly or to dry out soggy soil that is continually moist and never drains properly.

• 1

  Locate the low areas in your yard.

• 2

  Dig a trench the width of the perforated drain pipes from the low area to a location where you would like the water to go. You can direct it to a vegetable garden or flower bed, or have it drain directly to the street. The depth of the trench should be shallow at the low area of the yard. Three inches below is a good starting depth. The reason for this is that you need deepen the trench as you work away from the low area so that the water will flow away. Drop the pipe 1/2 inch for every 4 feet. Use a level to make sure that it is dropping. However, if the trench reaches a slope in the yard that is going down in the direction you want it to flow, then you can keep the pipe depth consistent.

• 3

  Spread a thin layer of crushed gravel in the trench.

• 4

  Place the drainage pipe in the trench so that the perforated holes are facing down. This will allow the excess water to seep into the holes and run away from the low area through the pipes.

• 5

  Fill in around the sides of the trench with coarse sand.

• 6

  Fill over the top of the pipes with an inch of gravel and then with topsoil. The gravel will keep the soil from clogging the pipe holes.

• 7

  Sow grass seed on top of the trench to regrow the lawn.