It always amazes me when newbies, having never attempted a given task before, insist upon 'reinventing the wheel' -- as if experienced professionals have not learned to use proven methods. Why in the world would you choose an inappropriate material such as solid PVC pipe sections that require gluing? ...and 6-inch pipe, no less! YIKES! What are you draining? A lake? I would really encourage you to consider ways of retaining the water on your property long enough to allow it to infiltrate. There are many ways to do this; a number of which were mentioned by Laag: "or leaching it out in drywells, leach pits, or leaching trenches". There are other methods as well; perhaps a rain garden or taking other steps to improve permeability. As responsible citizens, we need to begin to assume responsibility for the storm water that we generate from our own impenetrable surfaces (roofs, driveways, patios, etc.). Out of sight - Out of mind is simply not a responsible ploy. Rapidly dumping your water off site simply forces someone else (or a governmental body) to deal with it. This common practice has to stop. As the old saying goes: If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Think about it: With all of the dire water shortages Georgia has been dealing with the last few years, here you are getting rid of this precious resource as fast as you can. Am I missing something here? IronBelly

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.

besides that, the DRAIN PIPES are supposed to be hand tight, not sealed. next time you get a clog you will have to cut it all out and redo it, thus costing you 2x what it would if done the correct way.

Will try again with pictures. I dug down so that a brick could be put under the pipe and the pipe would be below the level of the sod. Outward to that I lay two bricks side by side against the fist brick to expand the floor. At the end of those two bricks I laid a couple of more bricks so the floor is about 3 bricks long. Starting at the pipe I laid a brick on each side of the pipe, creating a walls around the first brick, I laid two more bricks to create walls for the two floor bricks, so that the spill way expands as it gets further from the pipe. I just left the last bricks to lengthen the floor without walls. This is a work in progress and it has been so hot I have not mowed the yard in a week, but I think you can see what the intent is. As you can see in the second picture it is nearly invisible. and completely disappears from the house. (No comments on the quality of the grass. It is green and I have worked hard to get this to grow in the Carolina clay. ;-)