Concrete Patio pour and French drain advice (Dallas: houses, contractor)

[iris74]

We are looking into having about 600sq ft of a concrete patio poured in your back yard to replace the current flagstone patio and concrete walkway. Also have had a lot of erosion this past few years and were planning on two french drains
I thought I was done taking bids and had settled on a company until they sent me the estimate and line item description - they intend to pour the pad directly onto the ground after tamping it without any gravel or crushed granite base. We are in carrollton and the ground in known to expand and contract so this does not sound right to me.
Also, the french drains will be terminating inside our Fence line. This seems odd as well. Should it not extend beyond the property to avoid having a big puddle and mess wherever the drains end?
Any advice and contractor recommendations would be appreciated.

[Katana49]

For what it's worth, we just extended our patio and they poured the concrete directly onto the ground as well. They used rebar of course, and cut stress lines into the pad for movement/expansion. The rebar grid extends into the ground about 18" at the footers they dug, so I doubt it will be an issue.


As far as the drains go... how do you expect them to terminate a drain beyond your property line? If you don't own that land, they can't put a drain there, end of story. Even if they are having the drain terminate at the fence line by your property line, if that results in your neighbor's yard being flooded due to the runoff, they can call the city and force you to cover the drain or fill it in.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

French drains aren't efficient. You need a subsurface drainage system - catch basins and pipes connecting them, graded to the end of the line. Mine go down one side of my property to the sidewalk where there is a popup valve. Can't connect to the sewer or drain into the street. I've never seen the popup valve go up.

[EcoDeb]

What exactly is causing the erosion? Do you have gutters? Are the gutters draining far away from the house? How deep will concrete be poured? You cannot cause erosion problems for your neighbor in Texas. You may have to pond your runoff, depending on numerous factors. Yes, if you cause problems and erode the neighbors property, you will most likely have to mitigate. I suggest you do it right from the start. How small is the lot?

[grilledcheeseftw]

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

French drains aren't efficient. You need a subsurface drainage system - catch basins and pipes connecting them, graded to the end of the line. Mine go down one side of my property to the sidewalk where there is a popup valve. Can't connect to the sewer or drain into the street. I've never seen the popup valve go up.

Question on this: Two pretty well-recommended companies both included in their surface design quotes the option to go under the sidewalk and into street. I haven't noticed it much around here, although a few houses do. What would happen if they did this? Code enforcement issue?

ETA: City of Dallas

[AlterEgo42]

Originally Posted by grilledcheeseftw

Question on this: Two pretty well-recommended companies both included in their surface design quotes the option to go under the sidewalk and into street. I haven't noticed it much around here, although a few houses do. What would happen if they did this? Code enforcement issue?

ETA: City of Dallas

Likely, the street is the edge of your property line, and that is the most efficient place to have the drainage exit to avoid damaging neighboring properties. I don't think that's against code with Dallas.

[iris74]

Thanks for your responses.
We've finalized on having a tamped gravel base added to the patio. The french drains are moving the water from two downspouts since the erosion is being caused by them. With the heavy rains we have had in recent years the entire slope near these downspouts has changed.

As to property lines and fence lines, etc. we've asked the contractor to have the drains vent onto the driveway so that the rain water washes down into the alley. Having the drains culminate before the fence line made no sense to us since it just moves the water from foundation and dumps it next to the fence. We have a large sliding gate and having all that water pool near where it slides is just asking for trouble.