What is a Pit Patio?

Here we are looking at a system that we put in last year. The owner asked us to put a french drain in the backyard. This was the first phase of their water problems. They have what we call a pit patio, it’s a forced walkout. As you can see the lot does not lend itself to a walkout basement, we call this a pit patio. You need to keep on top of water management when you have one of these.

There used to be a channel drain in front of this door when the water rose, it would leak into the basement. The homeowner was frustrated trying to find someone who can permanently solve this problem for 15 years. They went through six or seven contractors before we crossed paths.

We built the system 48 inches deep so the frost won’t be able to lift the catch basin. We pulled the bricks up and angled the system to the stern drain. There’s the pipe and the drain pump, we lifted it to where we have enough slope. The pipe is set on an angle and discharges here where we have a good slope out to the front yard.

We are going to put something decorative here, whether it’s a dry crick bed or an ornamental splash block. This situation is pretty normal, we see these all the time and put in a lot of systems like this. What an amazing system, we are moving more water than I ever imagined.