A lawn drainage system is important if you want to create and maintain a beautiful lawn. Without it, water can easily take up the spaces near the roots of the plants and prevent them from getting enough oxygen, eventually causing them to rot. With a good lawn drainage system, you can improve the function of plants including photosynthesis, metabolism, and resistance to pest and diseases, resulting to a lawn that’s lush and beautiful.


The two main keys in installing a drainage system for your lawn are creating a soakaway and setting up drainage pipes. Both are considered as the best method to keep water from pooling in your lawn. It’s practically easy to install a lawn drainage system on your own. Here are the steps:

Step 1. The first step in installing a lawn drainage system is creating a soakaway that will serve as collector of water that comes from the drainage pipes. The soakaway should be set up at the lowest point of the lawn and should have an area of 1 square meter and a depth of 5-6 feet. Fill ¾ of the soakaway with large stones and the remaining ¼ with small stones and coarse gravel. After that, cover the soakaway with soil.

Step 2. The next part is installing the drainage pipes. The pipe system basically consists of the main pipe and slit side pipes. In the past, heavy and cumbersome pipes were used as drainage pipes, making the installation a very daunting task. Fortunately, there are lightweight pipes available today that should make your job a lot less difficult.

Step 3. Install the main pipe first by digging up a trench. The trench should be 15 inches deep and should be slightly sloping downward to the soakaway. When creating the slope, make sure that there is at least 1-centimeter downward slope for every 1 meter of pipe you are going to install. Test the trench by pouring water into it. Make sure the water flows freely from the top end to the soakaway without any interruption. If the water flow is good, you can then cover 1 inch of the trench with small stones. Next, lay the drainage pipe on the trench and continue adding small stones until it covers 8 inches of the trench with the pipe in it. Finally, cover the trench with soil you dug out from it earlier.

Step 4. When you’re done placing the main pipe, it’s time to set up the slit pipes next. Drainage channels for the slit pipes are narrower (usually around 4 inches deep) compared to that of the main pipe with one end it stopping above the main drainage pipe. This way, the water can flow out of the side channels into the main drainage pipe and into the soakaway. Lay the slit pipes next and cover the surface with turf and soil.

Step 5. When the installation of the drainage system is complete, you can topdress the lawn regularly to build up the soil quality.