need drainage ideas... New carport

[bartjoebob]

Just had this carport installed see picture. This spot used to be a single parking spot framed with railroad ties and filled with hardpack. We had fill brought in and added to the existing pad that was there before so the total level area is about 4x the original size. If you look at the picture, I am in need of drainage before topping off with crushed stone. Water is flowing down the slight embankment in front of the carport, puddling under it, and draining out the back. Its always muddy there now. It was not like this before...

I've never done a drainage project and was hoping for some ideas how to address this. Water is not leeching up from the ground, for the most part its runoff. Thanks in advance

 

[/pine]

Draining a large level area after the fact can be a challenge...
The options are minimal other than building up the working area and allowing the runoff to flow towards the natural slope...
Cutting mellow swales will work but have their drawbacks...another option is a storm sewer i.e., setting one or more catch basins and piping the water off below grade to a naturally lower point...

BTW can't tell for sure from the pic but it looks like quite a bunch of poison ivy in front of the tree??

 

[bartjoebob]

Draining a large level area after the fact can be a challenge...
The options are minimal other than building up the working area and allowing the runoff to flow towards the natural slope...
Cutting mellow swales will work but have their drawbacks...another option is a storm sewer i.e., setting one or more catch basins and piping the water off below grade to a naturally lower point...

BTW can't tell for sure from the pic but it looks like quite a bunch of poison ivy in front of the tree??

Yeah the funny thing is water started pooling and flowing like this after the carport was put in. We have several weeks of just the pad you see and it didn't do this. Before when it was a single space it never did this either. I might have to do a swale off to the side

 

[EddieWalker]

Water likes to go downhill. Giving it a path to follow always have the best results. Wide shallow ditches work better then anything else. I would remove dirt until I got the results I was wanting.

 

[GLyford]

Is most of the water coming down from the viewing position? If you didn't want a ditch/swale between there and the carport, there are other ways to divert water running down the slope to the side. Look into "water bars", they can be a log half buried and set at an angle, a piece of conveyor belt sandwiched between a coupe of 2x's buried with a flap sticking up the bends when you drive over it but sticks up enough to divert water, or a shallow channel (someone else on TBN mentioned one made from several pieces of PT 2x nailed together to make a U shape) again set at an angle across the slope.

Another possible issue is run-off from the roof of the carport. You may need a shallow ditch on either side to keep the roof run-off from collecting there on the flat. Don't know how practical adding gutter would be...

 

[AVIVIII]

I made some water bars out of some PT 2x6 and an old fire hose and it works great. You don't even know you are driving over it.

Honestly though, it looks like you need some more material. I would add a perimeter drain to the front and bring up the pad with stone dust.



If you dig a trench at the red line, install a perforated drain pipe and 3/4 crushed stone all pitched toward the black trailer, that will stop the water coming down the hill from accumulating there. If there is a lot of top soil under the carport, I would dig it out and then fill with stone dust in the blue area, to bring the grade up and crown it to drain away, which will keep out anything that runs back off the roof.

If you don't want to dig, I would, at very bare minimum, regrade the floor. You either need to let the water run through, or keep it out, obviously keeping it out is preferred.

 

[Dadnatron]

You will either need to drain it away, which is preferable. Or build up your 'pad'. If you don't have any 'downhill' close by that you can trench/drain to, you might be best off to lay some geofabric and put on a couple loads of #2 gravel. One way or another, you will want to be 'higher' than the water.

 

[nyone]

My vote is for a swale also. If you want to test the theory just dig a shovels wide trench that angles down to the right. If it works feather it in.

I would even lower the ground all across the front of that car port too.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Avivii you got pictures of your water bars?

 

[MossRoad]

...
BTW can't tell for sure from the pic but it looks like quite a bunch of poison ivy in front of the tree??

Looks like thorns on raspberry bushes to me. :confused3: