[pushkins]

You don't need to use any plastic in the trench and there is really no need to use a tamper.
what you are creating is simply an easier spot for the water to go to, water would much rather be in a void (pipe, loose gravel etc...etc...) than entrapped in soil. This is sorta the same effect that digging a pond is to drying out a block of land, if the water has an easier place to be that is where it will go, once in the pipe with 1/4" / foot slope away it goes on it's merry way to the road.

Secret to working with water is just that work "WITH" it , make it's job easy and it will generally leave you alone.

If you decide to do some landscaping at the same time, you could always build a small wall/garden edge 6" out from the house make this edge higher than the uphill section and fill with soil thus making the slope an outward fall from the house, just make sure that the area between the garden edge and the house (6") doesn't fill with debris. If you do it this way I'd still install the drain system but your digging will be reduced by the height of the new garden edge.

Ideally you would want to cut back the ground between you and your neighbors and reform it into a shallow V and then the water would drain from your house into the V and from your neighbors run off into the V and then out to the road. For the cost of a small bobcat for a few hours, some seed or grass sod this might be an easier route ? No need to dig in a drain, no gravel, no corrugated pipe and water problems solved forever.


Code ssays for landscaping drainage : landscape drainage is required a minimum of .233 % slope. This is about a 1/4" in 100 feet of drainage pipe.