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There are an electric meter, a Dish TV stand, and other stuff at one side of my house.

The two downspouts are on that side. Both end with a splash pad to the ground surface. Over time, the lawn around the splash pads became rather soggy. I used some corrugated tubes to extend the downspouts to a farther exit from the house. But it is on the surface and the tubes are easy to be kicked away by passing people, like me.

What is a better design to add drainage to this area? Should I just dig trenches and lay tubes carefully, like with gloved hands instead of a shovel, to protect the utility lines? Or just keep this part of land untouchable, and get creative in downspouts redirection?

Blaise
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Blaise the lawn should not be around that gutter dump. Easier to just install gravel. We have a 'fad' in the states installing gravel/rock around the periphery of the home just to stop splashing of mud on the siding.

You need to know about your drainage anyway such as; was the foundation asphalt coated before backfilling? Is there a perimeter foundation drain pipe system that sits just below the footing? Is it covered in fabric? Has it been compromised by tree roots or animals? Does the soil slope away from the foundation all the way round your home? What type of rock was used to backfill your foundation.

There is also a free service in most of the states of our country that is called 'Locator Service'...or 'Utility Service Locator'...that when you call them, they are out within 24 hours. You do not want to dig with a shovel or backhoe without this service. They come out and paint the 'lines' of electrical wiring that has been installed, again for free. It is nuts to go and dig around one's home until you KNOW where these lines are. Lots of deaths.

You are looking at where all of your utilities go into your home. Lots of electricity. I would look in your mortgage paperwork. You should have an 'As Built', sometimes nothing more than a hand drawn sketch of all utilities, septic, drain field, under the ground. As well as your property lines, all buildings as purchased and hopefully a few elevations recorded. If I had 2 or 3 of those elevations I could draw the contours of elevation on your site and know where each drop of water that lands on your property wants to go.

More information please and pictures?

stormy
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  • If you use the locator service, ask how close they actually get to the lines. In my state, they get within three feet of the line ON EITHER SIDE OF IT. So there is actually a six-foot window where the line can lay (which explains why a building blew up in a nearby city a couple of months ago during renovation work - gas mains are as poorly marked as electric). Fortunately, you know where the lines enter the house, so they should be close - unless the lines make a turn to the left or right. – Jurp Sep 13 '18 at 21:34
  • @Jurp I've not found this to be true but I am sure this happens. That is why we give those lines wide berth. The point for the city is to not get sued when someone uses digging equipment and gets fried. The meter they use is fairly exacting, it is like a metal detector where we can find a penny in the ground. Some lazy locator helper might fudge. I am grins, able to 'witch' for water lines. That is very exact except for depth. I could be detecting a water line 3 feet below or an aquifer 300 feet below. Every single project had to have location and my big equipment operators felt safe. – stormy Sep 13 '18 at 21:43
  • I got the sense talking with a crew that they're more concerned with older lines than newer; hence the fudge factor (the building that blew up had old gas mains under it, along with water, sewer etc - it was in a downtown build in the late 1890s-early 1900s). And they never locate private lines here, too, which would be an issue in my own yard since a previous homeowner buried 220 lines from the house to the garage. – Jurp Sep 13 '18 at 22:47
  • How could they know what are old lines, home owner installed lines from the newer installed lines? Their job is to detect ALL lines, old, new, jury rigged. The city or country does this so there are no accidents with which to go sue crazy. I am gasping...220 lines between the house and garage? Is this a home owned by Tesla? – stormy Sep 13 '18 at 22:52
  • The 220 lines were because she used the two-car garage as a commercial woodworking shop. I still have something like 12 4' fluorescents in there. There's also a small box next to the main power just for the garage. As you can guess, I don't dig in the small garden next to the garage except to transplant small plants (nothing deeper than 6" or so). – Jurp Sep 13 '18 at 23:00
  • Do you mean 220 separate electrical lines or do you mean a 220 voltage service? Must be the latter, right? – stormy Sep 14 '18 at 00:34
  • the last, yes - I misused a plural there. – Jurp Sep 14 '18 at 10:56