Dry Well Installation in Roseville, CA

A dry well gives water from a downspout, a French drain or a low spot in the yard somewhere to go when you have no street or slope to send it to. Clay and hardpan are common in Roseville, so whether a dry well will work depends on your soil, and we test it before we dig. If a dry well is the wrong fit for your yard, we will tell you and explain what will work better.

What a dry well does, and what it cannot do

A dry well is an underground pit or chamber that takes water from one place and lets it soak slowly into the soil around it. Most of the ones we install collect water from a downspout, a French drain or a low spot in the yard. A solid pipe carries that water to a perforated basin buried well away from the house. The basin is wrapped in filter fabric and surrounded by washed gravel so the soil around it does not wash in and clog it.

A dry well works when water needs somewhere to go and there is no curb, street gutter or slope to send it to. It will not fix every wet yard. A dry well holds a set amount of water and empties only as fast as your soil allows. If the ground around it is tight clay or hardpan, it fills during a long storm and then stays full. That is why we look at the soil before we recommend one.

Sometimes the answer is simpler. A longer downspout extension or a regraded planting bed may move the water far enough by itself. We will tell you when that is the case, because a dry well means more digging and more cost than a problem like that needs.

Signs a dry well may help

Homeowners usually call us after they notice one of these:

• A downspout that empties onto a patio or against the foundation and leaves a puddle for days
• A soggy strip of lawn or a muddy side yard that never dries out between winter storms
• Water running toward the house from a neighbor's yard or a slope behind you
• A French drain or yard drain that has nowhere to empty
• Damp crawlspace walls, or a white powdery deposit on a stem wall near a downspout

Why soil matters so much in Roseville

Much of Roseville and the nearby Placer County foothills sits on clay soil, and many neighborhoods have a layer of hardpan a few feet down. Clay holds water and lets it go slowly. Hardpan barely lets it through at all. A dry well dug into either one can be built perfectly and still stay full from December to March.

So before we size anything, we dig a test hole where the well would go, fill it with water and time how fast the level drops. That tells us whether a dry well will work there, how big it needs to be, and whether we have to dig past a hard layer to reach soil that drains better. In some yards the honest answer is that a dry well is the wrong tool, and a pipe to the street or a sump pump will do a better job.

The weather matters too. Roseville summers are hot and dry, so most dry wells sit unused for months. Then winter storms arrive close together, and the soil around the well is already soaked when the next one hits. We size the well for that run of wet weeks, not for a single afternoon shower.

Why an existing dry well stops draining

If you already have a dry well that has stopped draining, you may not need a new one. Look at what caused the problem first. These are the usual causes:

• Silt and fine soil that washed in because the well had no filter fabric, or the fabric tore
• Leaves and roof grit carried down the downspout with no screen or catch basin to stop them
• Tree roots that found the moisture and grew into the gravel or the inlet pipe
• A crushed or disconnected inlet pipe, so water never reaches the well at all

Repair, clean out or replace

A blocked or broken inlet pipe is usually a repair. We find the damaged section, replace it and add a cleanout so the line can be flushed later. A well that is full of silt can sometimes be pumped out and flushed.

If the gravel itself is packed with fine soil, or roots have filled it, cleaning rarely lasts. In that case it is usually better to dig a new well where the soil drains better, with a filter or catch basin in front of it so the same thing does not happen again. We will show you what we found so you can see why we are recommending a repair or a replacement.

What a visit and installation involve

The first visit is mostly looking and measuring. If we can, we walk the property during or after rain. We follow the water from the roof and the yard, note where it collects and check the slope with a level. We ask where your irrigation lines, gas line and sewer lateral run, and we have buried utilities marked through 811 before anyone digs.

If a dry well makes sense, a typical installation goes like this:

• Choose a spot well away from the foundation, downhill of the house where the yard allows, and clear of septic systems and property lines
• Dig the pit to the depth the percolation test called for
• Line it with filter fabric, set the basin or chamber, and fill around it with washed gravel
• Dig a trench and lay solid pipe from the downspout or drain to the well, sloped so the water keeps moving
• Add an overflow or pop-up emitter, so a full well spills somewhere harmless instead of backing up
• Cover the top with fabric and soil, then put back the sod, mulch or rock

After the installation, and keeping it working

Most home installations take a day or two. It depends on how long the trench is and how hard the ground is to dig. We rake the yard when we finish and show you where the cleanout and overflow are, so you can check them yourself.

A dry well needs little looking after, but it does need some. Clean your gutters in the fall before the first real storm, because roof debris is the main thing that clogs a well. Check the downspout screen or catch basin a couple of times each winter. After a heavy rain, look at the overflow. If it runs for a day after every storm, the well is too small or the soil around it has started to clog, and it is worth having it checked before water starts backing up toward the house.

Keep heavy vehicles off the area, and do not plant trees with aggressive roots right beside it. If you later add a room, a covered patio or more roof, the well may need to be enlarged to handle the extra water.