The Governor declared a state of emergency on September 21 to get California ready for El Niño. The County followed with its own proclamation on September 30. Nobody can tell you exactly how much rain Poway will get. What you can control is how ready your lot is when it comes.
Poway properties are different from a flat city lot. You’ve got pads cut into hillsides, brow ditches along the tops of slopes, long driveways, decomposed granite that moves when it’s wet, and, in parts of town, Friars clay that swells. Water finds every weak spot. So start now, while it’s dry.
Drainage on your land is your job
Start with the rule most people don’t know. The City of Poway says private property owners are responsible for maintaining the drainage courses, storm drains and creeks on their property or easement, so water gets carried away from homes. City crews take care of drainage on public property. The County’s private drainage flyer says the same thing in its own words and suggests checking drains before the rainy season and after storms.
If a ditch on your lot plugs and floods your neighbor, that’s on the owner. Know what’s on your property before the first storm.
Start up top: where the roof sends water
Water that comes off the roof is the biggest single load on the ground around your house. Do this:
- Clean every gutter and downspout. Run a hose down each one to prove it flows.
- Check that each downspout empties onto a splash block or into a pipe that carries water well away from the foundation.
- Reattach any loose downspout sections. A disconnected elbow dumps the whole roof at one corner.
- Look at roof valleys and flat sections for debris piles.
The state residential code wants the ground to slope away from foundation walls, falling at least six inches in the first ten feet. Walk the perimeter. If soil, mulch or a planter has built up against the house, pull it back.
Clean out every channel that carries runoff
Brow ditches are the concrete channels along the top or face of a slope. They’re there to catch water before it runs down the slope or onto your pad. The City asks owners to clear private drainage channels and brow ditches of landscape material and debris, because that material gets carried into storm drains and plugs them.
So:
- Walk every ditch end to end. Pull out leaves, DG, mulch and rocks.
- Look for cracks or broken sections where water can get under the channel. Note them.
- Find the outlet. Make sure the water has somewhere to go and the outlet isn’t buried.
- Open each yard drain grate. Clear it. Pour a bucket in and watch it drain.
If a drain backs up, find out where the pipe goes before the storm, not during it.
Bare dirt and fresh grading
Disturbed soil washes. If you’ve had work done this year, cleared brush for fire safety, or have a new planting area, that soil is loose. The City’s suggestion is simple: put plastic sheeting over sections of disturbed soil and hold it down with sandbags.
On slopes, cover from the top down and overlap the sheets like roof shingles so water runs over the seams, not under them.
Slopes, walls and DG pads
Now look at the bigger pieces.
- Retaining walls. Find the weep holes or drain outlets along the bottom. If they’re clogged, the wall holds water. Clear them. Note any lean, bulge or fresh crack. Our retaining wall repair page explains what those signs can mean.
- Slopes. Walk the top and toe. Look for cracks in the ground, bare areas, or places where water has already cut a channel. Fix sprinklers that soak the slope face.
- DG pads. Decomposed granite drains well until it doesn’t. Look for low spots where water ponds near the house and fix them now.
- Long driveways. Check where driveway runoff goes. A lot of Poway driveways send water straight toward the garage.
Hillside homes get more of our attention for a reason. See our hillside foundation repair page for why.
Know where the sandbags are
Poway stocks empty sandbags and loose sand at three spots for residents before rain events with higher flood risk. Bring your own shovel. The locations are:
- the west side of Midland Road, south of Old Poway Park, in the Farmer’s Market lot,
- the south side of Garden Road, east of Floral Avenue, across from Garden Road School,
- the Old Coach Road trailhead, north of Butterfield Trail.
Fill a few now if you’ve got a spot where water already gets close to a door. Sandbags redirect water. They don’t stop it. Use them to steer flow toward a drain or away from a wall.
Download the Poway CityApp so you get road-closure news during storms.
Shoot your “before” photos
This one takes twenty minutes and pays off all winter. Walk the house and lot and take dated photos of:
- every crack you can find in the slab, stucco, walls and flatwork,
- retaining walls, front and back, with something for scale,
- slope faces and ditch runs,
- inside: any crack near a door or window, and any door that sticks.
After a storm, take the same photos from the same spots. Now you can tell what changed. Without the “before” set, every crack looks new.
Short list: do this, skip that
Do:
- Clean gutters, ditches and drains now.
- Cover bare soil.
- Pull soil and mulch away from the foundation.
- Turn sprinklers down or off once the rain starts.
- Take before photos.
Skip:
- Don’t wash debris from a ditch into the street drain.
- Don’t regrade a slope yourself right before rain.
- Don’t stack sandbags against a retaining wall to “help” it. That’s added weight.
- Don’t ignore a wall that’s already leaning.
What sizes pre-season work
Most prep is owner work and costs little. When a pro is involved, the job size depends on how much slope and wall you’ve got, whether ditches or drains need repair or rerouting, how easy it is to get equipment onto the lot, and whether anything found needs a permit or engineering. When it does, we coordinate with licensed engineers as needed.
Our foundation drainage page goes deeper on how water and foundations interact here. We cover all of Poway. If you’d like someone to walk the property with you before the storms, ask for a Free Quote.