Are you saying that the concrete will run the entire 250' of the line? Could you pour concrete in the area where you keep your trash cans and then have the rest of it covered in something like river rock? Why does your DH think the whole run needs concrete?

Was it a french drain system that you installed? IE, a perforated 3 or 4 inch diameter perforated pvc pipe within a trench with drain rock? If you installed this with filter fabric/landscape fabric to line the trench and closed it off at the top with overlapping material to keep the dirt fines out, it does not need any concrete over it for purposes of the french drain functioning. I like to add a filter fabric sock directly over the pvc pipe as additional insurance that the pipe will not get clogged with fines from soil over time. The area of your sump pump should be protected with a covered grate over the sump box to keep litter out, and landscape fabric can be glued or otherwise secured to the grate to keep litter from getting into the sump pump area.

I like to surround a sump pump area with more gravel at a lower level than the rim of the screen to ensure that surface run-off can pool and filter out debris before it reaches the level of the grate. Did you install this yourself after researching the hows and whys, or have it done professionally. There are lots of things that seem to get omitted in installing french drains, especially if best installation procedures are not known or followed, or a contractor has not used best methods, often in order to give a cheaper price...

Hello, this is the DH to help explain the situation.
Because the property slopes down from the front, the rear yard doesn't drain, plus we get run-off from adjoining yards and half the gutter downspouts drain in the backyard. In the past during bad rain storms, the entire backyard floods to within a couple inches of water entering the house (the door sills are low as we have a slab foundation, not a raised wood foundation).

To cure the problem, in 1988, I put in a french drain line with three collection catch basins in the rear yard and a exit catch basin at the sidewalk. This 4" line slowly filled with silt after a few years from soil in the run-off, not from soil invading the pipe perforations. The frnch drain worked so poorly that I had to dig a ditch through the dirt sideyard to help drain the backyard during storms as the french drain wasn't adequate. It is hard to use my small sideyard to put the waste containers and other things when there is a dirt ditch in it.

Then I installed a sump pump to augment the french drain and it helped significantly to remove rain runoff. With the re-landscaping we are doing now, I added a second sump pump to pick up water at the lowest spot in the yard. The back yard needed major revamping as we added a pergola, a location for a fountain, etc. so I had a chance to dig up the french drain. It was at least 80% clogged. Clearing it with a garden hose was hopeless so I just dug it up and threw it away. The 210' my wife referred to is the side lot fence line. The section I plan to change from dirt to hardscape is 55' long by 7' wide. I have installed a water line for two hose bibbs in this area, plus new electrical for outlets, both sump lines run through this section and I am added new surface drain catch basins with 3" diameter drain pipe running to the sidewalk. Also buried very deep is the natural gas line to the swimming pool heater. I'm not very worried about there being a problem with all the utilities that will be buried under the new hardscape, but we have had problems such as the original french drain clogging and needing replacement.

Installing concrete in this sideyard of 55' by 7' will give me a dry, mud-free area for 3 large waste containers (garbage, recycle, and green waste). The sideyard is 11' wide overall, but the existing concrete walk isn't adequate especially where it jogs around the air conditioning compressor. I plan to use my Weber gas BBQ on the new hardscape, that's why I added water and electrical. This walk way is how people enter our rear yard without going through the house.

So the trade-off of installed concrete, which is about $1200, or putting in pavers and 2x or 3x the cost depending on the price of the paver bricks. If there is a problem with the buried utilities, or I want to add something else underground, removing pavers is DIY. But removing and fixing concrete is Not DIY at my age and condition. I like the idea of pavers also because they are more attractive to me than concrete, even with an exposed aggregate finish. The chance that I would have to ever get back underground is very remote, but in the 25 years we have owned this house, we have had to dig through this area four times (pool utilities, french drain, and twice for sump lines). This is the fifth time we are digging up this area to install drains and such mentioned above.

For those of you who wonder what I will do if it is a bad rain storm and the power goes out, rendering my two sump pumps useless, I have the sump pumps on the same GFI breaker and I could add a cut-over switch and small generator to address this possibility.

So my DW thought we should ask on the forum for advice on concrete vs. pavers, in case we have overlooked any factors to make a decision. Knowing cost is a factor always, just let me know what you think as if concrete and pavers cost the SAME. Hope this lengthy explanation helps. Thanks.

If this were my project, I would spring for the pavers. Aesthetically they are better than concrete; they are easier to remove and replace if you need to (since you have done it five times already I would say that would be a big concern). One of the best things about pavers is they are pervious, so when it rains the water will flow through the crushed rock and sand under the pavers and, hopefully, will be absorbed into the ground. With concrete if the slope is not pitched perfectly toward the front, wouldn't the rainwater flow backward into the yard or sideways into the neighbor's yard?

Speaking of pitch, how have you dealt with the pitch of the pvc pipe considering the front of the yard is higher than the back?

If cost is a factor, have you consider crushed gravel with some minus mixed in? With edging and packing, it makes a nice walkway.