Water is a major concern for almost any project, but mason Mark McCullough knows that most water-related calls are simple solutions. When a homeowner called the team at Ask This Old House to help with her wet patio, Mark jumped at the chance to help. He immediately noticed there was a gutter downspout dumping water into the patio area, so he decided to divert it out through a stone wall. Here’s how it went.
How to Install Patio Drainage
- Start by removing any stones or debris from the area using an iron rake. Make sure to pull the material back far enough away from the trench location.
- Dig the trench for the corrugated pipe. The trench should be deep enough for the pipe to sit below a few inches of stone.
- Drill a hole through the stone wall. Use a rotary hammer if you have one, but a standard hammer drill also does the trick.
- Place the landscape fabric in the trench before placing the pipe on top. Wrap the pipe with the fabric and prevent it from coming loose by wrapping it in wire ties.
- Install a gutter collar in the end of the perforated pipe. Then, connect the downspout to the pipe using the gutter extension. Attach these fittings together using screws and the drill.
- Lay gravel over top of the perforated pipe. Fill the trench to just over the height of the pipe.
- Apply decorative stone on top of the pipe to blend it in with the landscape.
Resources
Start by using an iron rake to remove the top layer of decorative stone. Use shovels to dig a trough-like trench 4 inches down.
Drill a weep hole in the stone wall using a coring drill (bit roughly 18 inches). This will create a pathway for the runoff water to exit.
Test that the weep hole is draining properly using a water hose. If the water pools on one side, go back with the coring drill to expand the weep hole.
Lay landscape filter paper in the trench. Lay the perforated flex pipe on top of the landscape filter paper at the length of the trench and secure the filter paper around the perforated flex pipe using zip ties. Place a collar connection to the perforated flex pipe to connect to the downspout connection. Cover the perforated flex pipe with gravel and rake it out evenly before topping it with decorative stone.
