Gutters and french drains

[4570Man]

My gutter lines are about a foot deep and they survived being driven over by a 14,000 pound man lift. Any tractor has a lot lower ground contact pressure. The lack of slope is a bigger issue which is why a ran 2 of my gutters to a buried barrel. The rest of my gutters run to daylight on the other end.

 

[4570Man]

Gutters and french drains are a maintenance nightmare. Consider using your tractor to form a swale for drainage that will handle water far superior to 10 french drains. Gutters: I have gutters and I wouldn't put gutters on another house if I built a new house every year and lived to be 500. My money would go towards concrete properly sloped from the structure where leaves, pine needles and leaflet stems can be taken care of with a blower.

That would look awful and the gutter fund would be pocket change compared to that.

 

[aarolar]

My gutter lines are about a foot deep and they survived being driven over by a 14,000 pound man lift. Any tractor has a lot lower ground contact pressure. The lack of slope is a bigger issue which is why a ran 2 of my gutters to a buried barrel. The rest of my gutters run to daylight on the other end.

Yes I'm not worried about driving over buried lines I'm talking about having it run to daylight out there in the yard somewhere. Plan to do the underground barrel plan for now.

 

[4570Man]

I honestly didn't have very high hopes for my buried barrel, but it's the only one of my gutter drains that hasn't given my trouble since their installation in 2010. I have no doubt a better system would be trouble free. I would have been time and money ahead if I did all of my gutters like that.

 

[handirifle]

I am fortunate enough to have a seasonal creek running diagonally across my land. When we were building our home (2009-2010) we got hammered with rain, 33" and 40", and we get all our rain in about 3 months, so it's feast or famine out here. We were living in our 5th wheel on the property during the build, and we almost needed a boat to get from the car to the trailer.

When the rains stopped for the year, we had gutters on all lower edges of our roof of both the house and my workshop (separate building). ALL rain gutters feed into corrugated drain pipe, connecting just above the surface of the ground. All our drains dump into the seasonal creek. While gophers try to cover the opening, and frogs find their way up the drain, from time to time, I have yet to see any of them back up, or even a hint of an issue with flow. Put in what you want, but it's much easier to lay corrugated when there are curves or corners, than PVC.

In addition, you can tie other drains with perforated drain, into a non perf pipe.

I just bought a lot more drain pipe due to a root issue (another thread in Projects) in my septic, but ground water is a huge issue here, during the rainy season.

No way would a septic type system handle my rain water, when the storms hit. I must explain, I live in a bottom of a bowl, and 33ft below the surface is a massive section of solid blue granite, so it takes a while for water to leave here.

 

[4570Man]

The schedule 20 PVC isn't hard at all to lay unless the bends are drastic in which case you'd use an angled coupling. The tightest radius ditch I dug during the house construction was the ditch for the power and I laid schedule 80 conduct in it. This ditch was forced to be routed around a tree and I didn't use any angled couplings except the 90 at the house. I'm not sure how coupling pipes together plays a role in this argument. There's no denying that smooth pipe of the same diameter will move more water and will have a better chance of self clearing that gophers den. I originally used the black corrugated pipe and it was all crushed and I had to re do it. I ran every gutter using its own piece of PVC this time. I could have tied them together, but I wasn't feeling like doing this a 3rd time.

 

[SandburRanch]

That would look awful and the gutter fund would be pocket change compared to that.

Buy it for looks and a nightmare or buy it for life. Your choice but you can't have it both ways.

 

[CADplans]

I run some of my gutters through 4" pipe to a place in my yard lower than the house.

Then, I terminated the pipe with these, flush with the yard,,,

4 in. Polyethylene Pop-Up Drainage Emitters with Elbow-422G - The Home Depot

When it rains, they let the water out,,,
when it is not raining, the top is flush,,,

I run them over with the mower,,, all the time.

I have had several for about a decade.

 

[aarolar]

I run some of my gutters through 4" pipe to a place in my yard lower than the house.

Then, I terminated the pipe with these, flush with the yard,,,

4 in. Polyethylene Pop-Up Drainage Emitters with Elbow-422G - The Home Depot

When it rains, they let the water out,,,
when it is not raining, the top is flush,,,

I run them over with the mower,,, all the time.

I have had several for about a decade.

I'll look into those may be the way to go with the front yard I do have a pretty good grade there. Would it hold up to a 4000lb tractor running it over? If I put one in the back yard it's guaranteed to happen eventually.

 

[CADplans]

I'll look into those may be the way to go with the front yard I do have a pretty good grade there. Would it hold up to a 4000lb tractor running it over? If I put one in the back yard it's guaranteed to happen eventually.

I have accidentally run it over with this,,, a "tad" over 4,000,,, :laughing:

You kinda forget they are there,,, I would not do it the first year,, or regularly,,,

Occasionally, you have to lift the green cap out of the elbow, and clear the leaves.

I am always amazed, the little pop-up always goes back down, and never hangs up,,,

Right at the bottom of the elbow, drill a 1/2" hole.
that way, water will not remain in the pipe.