There's *supposed* to be a 4"-6" clearance from dirt to weep screed in general. The walkway sits almost level to the weep screed - when they repaired the weep screed they actually raised it by 2-3" to account for any grading. But even then, this spot is still problematic because of the height of the walkway. If we wanted to really do it right, we'd demo the walkway and rebuild it at a lower grade, but that seems like an expensive proposition. The problem I see is that if we excavate according to code, 4" will be too deep in relationship to the walkway -the level of dirt will be below the level of the walkway, so even if I graded, water would just pool up to the lip of the walkway then overflow from there. I think this is what the problem has always been. Obviously the drain is supposed to alleviate that except for the fact that it's limited on how deep it can go due to the chimney footing. Right now this is the most problematic area of the yard. The contractor who did our weep screed said that technically we can get closer to the weep screed because he waterproofed the siding under it and also added metal flashing as an additional layer of protection so even if water does pool up there it's not getting in the house easily. As long as it's somewhat graded to the point that water or dirt isn't going to cover the weep screed again (which was the original problem - previous owner covered the weep screed completely) it won't be a problem. Now, whether this would be to code or not I'm not sure. Since we're not planning on selling anytime soon (afaik haha) maybe we should take him at his word and ignore the code in this case.
Anyway, if we poured concrete here, we would still grade and slope it the similarly to how we would grade dirt. It's just that the cement would fill all the way to the same level as the existing walkway, which does have *some* grade to it. The thought is that, as long as the slab is sloped/graded away from the house and at the same level as the other walkway, the water will actually flow downhill and we can catch it with a drain/french drain/dry river bed/swale or whatever else on the *other* side of the walkway. But yes, I'd still be concerned with losing the flexibility of being able to run irrigation lines through this area in the future (not that I'd want to plant anything that needs irrigation here but more to provision for the backyard or whatever and being able to repair/replace anything that breaks)
Thanks for the more detailed explanation. I think that makes a lot more sense to me now and I understand your dilemma. I really don't like having dirt, gravel or anything up next to house siding and try to have at least six inches of space. It sounds like you have the grade available if it weren't for the sidewalk that is poured too high. To do the French drain between the sidewalk and the house, you would still have to at least tear up a section or two of your sidewalk, or bore underneath, for your French drain to gravity drain to daylight and to do both sections, on either side of the chimney. I also don't like concrete up next to a house. Even if sloped, it can splash water from a hard rain up quite a ways onto your stucco siding. Also depending on slopes, a hard rain can still backwash into the joint between the concrete and the house before adequate draining toward the sidewalk, especially if you would have to put in a really shallow slope to keep maximum distance from the weep screed.
As long as the sidewalk is below the top of your house slab level and below the weep screed level, this is what I would do. Dig the dirt in the area between the sidewalk and the house down about six inches below the proper clearance of the weep screed (10 to 12 inches in your case), put in water permeable landscape fabric and six inches of landscaping rocks so you still have your 4 to 6" clearance. Don't bother with the French drain at all. Any water collected there by rainfall, will essentially be contained in a reservoir between the surface of the dirt and top surface of the gravel until it can be absorbed by the soil below. (I'm assuming your soil can absorb water fairly well.) The gravel keeps it from ponding or allowing mosquitoes and such from laying eggs. It shouldn't affect your foundation since you have a slab and I'm assuming you have rain gutters above that direct water into downspouts on the far side of the sidewalk. This allows you access to it in the future if needed and it probably the most reasonable option money wise as well. This is essentially a slow version of a French drain since you are counting on absorption instead of a pipe to remove the water and would be able to still work above and around your chimney footing. With your fairly dry climate, it should be more than adequate.
The other more expensive option would be to just have someone come in and take out the sidewalk so the entire areas can be graded properly with the proper clearances and put in some combination of concrete and pavers sloped the proper way and end up with a step where your sidewalk goes through the gate.
The downspouts are roughly where I've dropped the arrows pointing down:
Your suggestion of using landscaping fabric + rocks is more or less a "pipeless" french drain I think. Except, I don't think you were suggesting to trench it but rather just naturally grade it. I wonder if it would make sense to still grade away from the home AND dig a trench next to the sidewalk to still have a french drain (but pipeless) directing run-off towards the catch basin. I think I saw a couple Youtube videos of people even using poly sheeting to help redirect water away but in this case, I think we want a combination of both absorption and allowing water to run-off.
So you're suggesting to lay landscaping fabric on the entire area practically from the wall of the house extended over to the walkway? Is this more so to prevent erosion as well as weeds? I heard that if you have enough rocks (a 3" or more layer) you won't have issues with weeds.
Oh, regarding the downspouts too, I think we may end up leveraging at least one or two rain barrels/cisterns to capture any water from the roof when it rains. Otherwise, I might want to create a rain garden of sorts in the front area around the catch basin. Perhaps a smaller scale rain garden (with plants that can absorb moisture but are still drought tolerant) would be OK against the house - maybe lavender, sage, fescue, etc?
You need to hire a true professional, Odell Complete Concrete. He's the friggin rockstar of concrete.
Thanks for the referral. We will definitely need to address the concrete alley on the other side of our property that pools water in various places. We'll need a contractor to break all that up, regrade, and install proper drainage there. We may tackle that closer to when we're ready to replace the HVAC/furnace systems.