Water from tiling in yard constantly on sidewalk

Question

We just purchased our house. The back yard has a large hill in it. The construction company that built our house installed tiling (french drain) in the hill that comes out right by the sidewalk in front of the house. There is almost always water stagnant on the sidewalk. Here's a photo:

Like I said, there is almost always water. The construction company said they thought there was water coming out of the hill, so it sounds like there will always be water seeping out and getting into the tiling. Is there anything we can do to keep the water from just sitting there?

** Update ** Here's a picture of the preliminary plat map with the elevation lines (We are on property 150). As you can see, the back yard (upper right corner) is decently steep). I added in the approx location of the french drain that was put in (red lines) As you can see from the first picture, the water comes out at the sidewalk, then follows the sidewalk down to the street corner (lower left hand corner)

Answer 1

You most certainly have a problem and your construction company is most certainly responsible for this. Not at all something to 'overlook'.

I taught this stuff, drainage and grading. Such a humongous deal! To see your walkway collecting water tells me that you are smart to ask questions. Are you the one who maintains the landscape? The irrigation? Do you have automatic irrigation? This head is part of some french drain thingy?

A pop up head on a french drain? Grins. Please give us more information with which to help you get this company to do a correct job. Send a simple hand sketched diagram of your site and what they supposedly installed. More pictures. I am not a fan of scammers in this landscape world of which there are many.

Again, who is maintaining this lawn? Truly needs a trimmer of some sort between the SIDEWALK and the lawn keeping the separation very very narrow, less than 1/2". I would design additional pavers to enlarge your walkway. Or make a more useful walkway to the car instead of the street? Show us what that company has done for you.

I'd like to see what is happening with your basement or crawl space if this is what that company called drainage mitigation!

And the law is on your side. Seriously.

Answer 2

I once solved a similar problem by putting down a layer of sand and then crazy paving surplus from another project on top. The few inches made a dry walk from the house to street. The advantage of such a solution is that it is easily reversible.

However that only worked because of the particular drainage patterns in the landscape. The surplus water had somewhere to go and just needed a bit of extra guidance. In your case it looks like there was insufficient planning to deal with water and the path was laid in the low spot. Time for a serious rethink.