I have seen threads on here where drainage pipe is plowed in with tractors. What kind of pipe is used? The reason I am asking is that I have a wet area in my lawn that needs draining. All the pipe that I see such as Flex Drain recommends burying the pipe in gravel Which I do not want to do. I know that plowed-in drain pipe is not buried in gravel so I thought maybe I could get some for my lawn and dig a trench for the pipe and cover it with dirt. It would to be around 300 feet. What would work in this situation? Thanks, D6 Bo
the only way to get rid of a wet area in a lawn is to use a perforated pipe which allows water to enter the pipe allowing the water to move away.Gravel is used to stop soils entering the pipe which will block it.The gravel needs to cover the pipe by a couple of inches and soil used to backfill.
http://www.geo-synthetics.com/geocomposite_soil_strip.html I have used this strip drain in baseball fields to drain the infield clay. I used a trencher to dig a 2" wide by 6" deep slot and backed filled with sand.
Use the stuff with a cloth sock on it, works better with gravel, but it will work fine in dirt. For a relatively short distance like that, I'd consider either 4" perforated sewer pipe, or even 1 1/2" PVC (drill the holes yourself). Easier to put in, and easier to unplug down the road.
Thanks all. Peej, how expensive is the strip drain? Thanks
The gravel also creates a larger void in the ground to allow water to infiltrate and get into the pipe. D6 Bo what are you soil conditions? Sand, silt, clay? If you have clay soils then I would highly recommend gravel around your pipe as water doesn't move freely through a clay soil and the larger "ditch" you have to catch it, the better the drain will perform. If you have sandy soils then the water will migrate more easily to the pipe and you can go with a sock wrapped pipe.
Hi D6 Bo, In order to know what drain system to use, it is best to first know what causes the wet area in your lawn. Is it merely a low spot that fails to drain (either by runoff or by percolation) or is it groundwater that reaches the surface at your particular trouble spot? I looked at a yard Saturday that has an area about 40 feet wide and 80 feet long that is saturated and turned to mush because of groundwater. It even has good positive drainage but the water coming from beneath has rendered this spot useless. I suppose this wet spot is nothing new? If it is new, you need to check for a broken water line or failing septic system (if you're not on a certralized sewer system). Tell us more about your problem.
CM1995 and Dirtdobber1, it is an old wet spot. It dries out in the summer, but is very soft in the winter' The area is on the lower side of the lawn and goes to the highway. The wet area itself is about 50' X 50', but has to drain to a point around 200' from the wet spot The wet area is not clay or sand, so I guess it would be silt. It is dark in color. The area beyond the wet area where the pipe would run is clay and is not wet, so I could probably run PVC for the 200' to the ditch. I may have to end up using gravel, but I don't want to if I could get out of it. Thanks, D6 Bo
Ok D6, here's what I would do based on what you have described. 4 inch landscape drain is cheap but effective. A 100 foot roll is about 50 bucks. In the west area: I would trench through the wet spot (following the lowest contour) on grade about a shovel width. Depth needs to be the diameter of the pipe plus 2 or 3 inches. Lay a filter fabric in the trench so that fabric contours to the trench with the excess lying on top of the ground. Lay a 4 inch sock pipe (black plastic pipe with a cloth sock over it) the length of the trench, and then add washed rock into the trench and around the pipe so that it just covers the top of the pipe. Take the excess filter fabric and fold it into the trench so that the pipe and rock is completely covered by the fabric. The idea is the fabric filters the small dirt particles as water moves through the soil and keeps them out of the gravel. The filter fabric should completely envelop the pipe and gravel bed. Then, on top of the filter fabric, add sand to bring the trench back up to adjacent grade. As far as mowing the grass, you will never know the rock is there. The grass should grow in the sand and the sand will allow quicker percolation than your soil. The area beyond the wet spot: Just tie to the end of your sock pipe with the same 4 inch landscape drain type pipe and lay it on grade to your point of discharge. You can continue with the sock pipe without the gravel and all as just a direct bury pipe. I know you didn't want to use gravel but it is relatively inexpensive. I just laid about 45 feet of french drain as described above today. Filter cloth: $25. 1 cu yd washed rock $35 (and had lots left over). Sock pipe $50. Sand was on site and free. Good luck.
Utube has the info. You will be a pro after this project is done. and Lowes in our area, has a new french drain with foam rubber inside the sock if you dont want to use gravel.
Unless you have depth on the line, its not going to drain much distance from the line, I'd never waste my time on shallow installation, put it in the ground, the deeper the better so it draws further from the line, I also wouldn't worry about gravel, if you have black dirt to backfill with somewhere, use that and save the hassles of gravel, but before I'd do that I'd do some further investigation as to why its wet, escpecailly if the clay area's are not wet, unless this area is a lot lower than the clay areas, I'm thinking you have a different problem. To say its always been wet means nothing, I've investigated a lot of these situations and even if its been wet for 50 years doens't mean someone didn't forget about an old abandoned water line or some former tile that got cut somewhere along the line. I've even seen old abandoned cysterns that were overflowing underground that were not supposed to be there, but were forgotten about, same goes for old sewer lines, when a private sewer system was hooked up a new city sewer system and dozens of other causes I've found over the years. If its really wet start probiing the area to see what's under the ground to at least the six foot depth would be a place to start. Also rent a walk behind trencher or riding trencher, forget the shovel idea for the amount of footage your going to be putting in. Just something to ponder over.
Thanks for all the information. Looks like I will go with the 4" perforated pipe and sock and use gravel in the wet area. Randy88, There is a PVC water main that runs through the area, but I don't think there is a leak there as it is wet uphill from the area and it completely dries up in the summer. Also I think it was wet before the water main was installed. I am in the process of putting in a new lawn (Centipede) if it ever quits raining. I will probably wait until the lawn is in before I tackle the drain. Thanks again, D6 Bo
D6, If you are putting in a new lawn, can you do some grading to fill in the low spot or otherwise make it drain naturally along the surface? However, surface drainage won't fix the problem if the water source is from below.
D6, do as you wish, but I'd tackle the water and tile issue before doing any lawn work, make sure its solved before putting down lawn is the way we do it around here, clean up the area, backfill and landscape, make sure its dry and then do the lawn, if the water is coming from uphill, put the tile in there, the source of the water to catch it before it gets to the low spot so to speak, we try to tile 100 feet beyond any wet area's to try to catch and pickup the water source. Depending on how deep you go with the lines, I'd recommend running several into the hill above the wet area and the deeper the better, not sure how deep the water main is in, but I'd be less than a foot above it and if its in shallow, I'd go under it. If you can get it in 3 feet deep, I'd go 40 feet on centers, if a lot shallower, and only a foot deep, I'd be 10-15 foot on centers for a lawn, I'd never be less than a foot deep myself, but we put 2-300,000 feet of tile a year in wet spots, when everyone else pattern tile and leaves, we get called in to solve the last remaining problems in the fields that are hard to drain, usually springs and sidehill seep issues.
Thanks, Dirtdobber1 and Randy88. In prior years I filled in the low spot and have about run out of fill dirt. It is a lower side-hill wet spot and it does drain naturally. The 200' main line will begin in the lower side of the wet spot and run West along the highway. I plan to run two lines North through the wet spot which is 50' wide and connect on to the main line The reason I am going to put in the lawn first is that it needs to be sown by the middle of May. I don't think that I can put the line after it dries up and do the preparation for the lawn by that time. This part of the lawn is one acre. Thanks for all the information. D6 Bo
randy88 hit it on the head. I am a landscaper and we always do the drainage before the sod here in okla. Saves a lot of steps.