It was 11am in December 2009. We had received 27 inches of snow in a little more than 24 hours.
We hadn’t seen that much snow in Maryland in forever!
The Caterpillar loaders finally arrived in this local single-family development because it was too deep for regular plows to get through.
I watched the exhausted driver work as quickly as he could to lift snow out of the way while carefully navigating hard-to-see buried vehicles.
Storm drain inlets were completely invisible. Mountains of snow were stacked along any open curbside area.
Rick’s home at the end of the cul-de-sac sat in a low-grade position. All drainage normally ran to the end of the pavement before dropping into the storm drain.
A week later the sun came out, and the snow began to melt.
It was inevitable.
Snowmelt water collected along the curb at the end of the driveway, having nowhere to go since the drainage inlet was blocked. It finally crested the curbline and rushed down Rick’s driveway toward the garage.
With the rest of the snow compacted along his driveway, that water poured into his garage and leaked down his basement wall.
After dealing with thousands of dollars of annoying drywall damage, mold and mildew all winter, he came to me in the Spring looking for solutions.
“I never want that to happen again,” Rick said.
We evaluated his property and found several places to install channel drains and yard drains.
Now, Rick doesn’t have to worry about drainage issues around his house, even in large snowfall or storm situations.
If you have any signs in your yard that could result in rain or snowmelt damaging your home, give us a call today!
