Editorials

Drainage is 1st priority

By Tom Hatlen

Doesn’t matter how nice your wall, driveway or landscape looks if you don’t have the drainage right. Tim Langletz owner of PA Landscape Group, Inc. says, “I can't tell you how many jobs that we've gotten over the years because we talk to the customer about what we're going to do with their water. It’s important and nobody else talks about it.

“One of our components, right in our contract, is drainage. We explain what we're going to do, where we're going to do it. And they say, ‘Man, I met with some other contractors and nobody had that in there. We didn't talk about the water. That's a really good point. I wonder where the other contractor had it going?’"

In the project on page 10, the other contractor had the water knocking over a retaining wall and washing the landscaping down the hill and into the street. PA Landscape was hired to rework the property. Tim says they’ve redone 4 of that contractor’s projects in that same development.

“Because it's a mountain situation, you run into a lot of springs. It's so rocky up there that water seeps into the ground until it is channeled out somewhere below. Then it'll just bubble out of the ground. We kept finding those. And, if you don't take care of those right, wherever you lay pavers, you're going to have soft spots.

“We had to find the source, and then we piped all of them into the stone swales. We cut swales diagonally across the property and filled them with rock. Smaller swales flow into the bigger swales. All the water off the driveway and off the house, and all the springs are all piped underground into those swales to be taken down to the road.”

Tim recommends taking advantage of contractor education opportunities to learn about drainage. “Around here there are free contractor shows put on by our manufacturers every winter. They cover all aspects of drainage. They encourage as many contractors and dealers to come so they have a grasp on some of these issues that get everybody in trouble when you're doing hardscapes. But a lot of these guys don't go. They're missing out on this great education that's free.”

Tim’s people have been educated to evaluate the drainage situation first thing when they visit a new property. Then they make a plan for how they’re going to manage it. He says, “If you don't do that, you are just hosed.”