Was this not discussed with you? The typical solution is to run it to the curb or design a ‘rain garden’ that captured the excess water and is surrounded by trees/ bushes that can take large amounts of water. The only other alternative is a pop up drain cover but it will get covered by the grass if you have runner grass so you will have to keep an eye on it. Can you share photos of your home?

Finally got the photos to load. Rural West Virginia internet is slow on the good days.

I have a popup drain, which was discovered under a layer of grass when the old, clogged, poorly directed drain was dug up.

I want to keep this one from getting clogged at the outlet.

It's not the contractor's fault. My miserly husband assumes I can fix anything at piddling cost and told the contractor to stop work while he was filling in the trench alongside the basement wall. So now it's up to me to work with what's left.

I worked for a couple with the same husband. Lawyer, refused to spend any money on the (million dollar historic ) house. They are divorced now and her lawyer said that withholding the money was abuse. She’s so much happier now in her lovely now multi million dollar house that no longer has a leaking roof and missing windows. Barring divorce or calling in someone can you build a rain garden there- a few bushes in a horseshoe shape with a gravel swale between them?

That was one option we considered. It will require labor + soil amendment. We have clay/broken shale. Everytime I shovel up a section of grass there is a distinct color change below the grass (annoying fescue) roots. We (daughter and I) usually dig down about 6", plant shrub, mound bagged soil around it out a foot or 2 all around the peremeter to cover the roots. So far it's worked.

There is a low area down hill about 10' from the drain outlet that collects standing water during thunderstorms.

Hubby did get us a new roof this year. I told him I wasn't going to bother painting over the stain on the kitchen ceiling until we had a new roof.

A Mat - Hah, I'd love to. We're a little on the old side, he's younger at 78, but not as healthy. A half hour playing ball with our dog is about all he can manage without needing a NTG tab for his heart.

Is there a trick to keeping fescue from overrunning gravel in a swale?

We dug a channel from the end of our sump pump drain and filled it with gravel. That was 4yr ago and now it's completely camouflaged with grass.

Yes there is a trick, it is called maintenance. Herbicides and grass cutting.

Ugh, thought you might say that. We've avoided herbicides the 12 years we've been here. Much as I don't like using poisons, I may have to.

Just don't have gravel. Then you don't care if the swale is overrun with grass, so long as the slopes are mowable.

Where I am, gravel isn't something that is commonly used in landscaping because it is very high maintenance.

What you currently have looks like insane overkill to me. Get rid of the block, even out the swale edges, and mow. You may have to cut the outlet pipe on an angle, so the mower blades don't hit it, and clear out debris accumulations once or twice a year.

Still need a new walkway to the front porch (removed all the old brick and retaining stones myself). That will probably wait a year. In the meantime, hoping to put in some new shrubs where we took out a tree. Bare dirt is visible in 1st photo. Considering gravel next to house, not sure how far out; a foot? 2 feet?

Who does the mowing? If it is your husband, I would just leave it and let him figure out the mowing. I have never seen something like this.

@Kathleen Marineau are youin VA?? Lol i have TWO exactly like yours out in mid yard and one for the sump that comes from house/ basement area to a side flower bed. The two big ones both have a long length of rocks ( not gravel ) that tapers about 6 ft to just grass. We use a string trimmer around them and the flow of water plus the downhill slant keeps anything from building up inside the piping. The Fescue grass never builds up in between the rocks in the drainage channel as they are pretty thickly laid in there. I will take pics in a bit. These were here when we bought 7 yrs ago. . I’m 74 DH is 78 he mows and I do EVERYTHING else outside. Huge flowerbeds so much work. I made all the beds and so I guess it’s my fault 😂

Sump pipe

Two pipes come out here. need to redo rocks they eventually move downward

Single pipe rocks stay better here. hope this helps

Looks like larger rocks are what will help. A battery string trimmer is fun.

Yep bigger rocks no gravel. I have all battery Eco products. Interchangable batteries for the string trimmer, hedge trimmer ( i have lots of native grasses) and my CHAIN SAW! DH wasnt sure about me having one and he stands nearby when I use it to critique ( point out dangerous situations) I’m getting better at it LOL!

My daughter and I share the mowing. Lot is 2.8acres, we only mow about 2 acres. Every year we add to the shrubs, add more vege garden and mow a little less. We use a riding mower and I have an electric walk behind for small patches around garden and chicken pen. This week, granddaughter (going on 10yrs), used the lightweight electric mower successfully.

We have plenty of rocks, so maybe that will work so the water won't scour a deep channel.

Still trailing: I also have a chainsaw. current ongoing project is removing some invasive hedges. I'm in WV, about 10mi from the northwestern point of Virginia.

We are in Lexington VA . We are in town and don’t have that much land! I don’t grow anything but flowers. The deer are bad here. My neighbors behind me have large lots and the deer jump my fence and scid through my fromt sloped area tearing up things and browsing .

We are headed to Peterkin in WV going through Winchester next week. We will be there 5 days. WV is very beautiful.

Its wonderful your family helps with everything. Good luck with the drain I am sure this will work with rocks. c

A raingarden is the anser really but yes it is labor intensive . Not sure abut your budget issues buy they cn be done in stepps the fist being a good dig out to let the water move even further from the house . If you google rain gardens you will get a great choice of style . BTW IMO herbacides and never the answer that is why we have so many issues with many things is the use of herb and pest asides.