MACflyer
Member
I recently moved to a large property at the base of a mountain. One major problem was the lack of drainage for the garage, water was coming in the back wall every time it rained. There was also an old corn crib directly behind the building that was built up well above the garage itself, contributing to negative slope towards the building. The gutter from the garage was also routed to the top of the crib and then just dumped into a quasi swale. Finally there was a conifer standing right in the way of any drainage solutions.
Received a quote for 10k to drop the tree, fix the grade, and install a drain. The contractor planned to run the drain around to the front where it would dump directly into the gravel driveway and cause all sorts of future problems. I was quickly reminded that when you want something done right, you do it yourself.
Fired up the Yanmar and got to work. My little machine was definitely not built for a job of this size, but she got it done. I decided to run the drain the opposite direction to avoid driveway issues. This necessitated going through rising terrain and an overall length of roughly 200'. I estimated 3-4 days to complete. It took me that long just to dig the trench, it ended up being nearly 6' deep in the middle in order to maintain proper slope through that rising terrain. Overall the project was 8 days working morning to night.
I think this crib was Amish built. Spent half a day trying to tear it apart by hand with sledgehammer and crow bar and got nowhere. Finally used a floor jack to break the roof loose, joint by joint. Then dragged the whole thing over with chains and was able to drag away each wall, ceiling, and floor.
My surveyor checking slope.
My pipes needed to daylight into a swampy little drainage pond. However, the slope put them about 6" under water. If I had stopped to think it through, I would have drained the pond beforehand. Instead, I dug the trench and drained the pond second. Was definitely the wrong order of operations. Ended up having to dig blindly through the backflow for about 60' until the water leveled out.
Plenty of supervision, very little help.
Ended up using nearly 24 ton of stone.
I still need to finish cutting down the grade a bit, but it's just too wet to work with now. Had to head back to work before I had time to cover the drain, but at least there's no more water entering the building!
Received a quote for 10k to drop the tree, fix the grade, and install a drain. The contractor planned to run the drain around to the front where it would dump directly into the gravel driveway and cause all sorts of future problems. I was quickly reminded that when you want something done right, you do it yourself.
Fired up the Yanmar and got to work. My little machine was definitely not built for a job of this size, but she got it done. I decided to run the drain the opposite direction to avoid driveway issues. This necessitated going through rising terrain and an overall length of roughly 200'. I estimated 3-4 days to complete. It took me that long just to dig the trench, it ended up being nearly 6' deep in the middle in order to maintain proper slope through that rising terrain. Overall the project was 8 days working morning to night.
I think this crib was Amish built. Spent half a day trying to tear it apart by hand with sledgehammer and crow bar and got nowhere. Finally used a floor jack to break the roof loose, joint by joint. Then dragged the whole thing over with chains and was able to drag away each wall, ceiling, and floor.
My surveyor checking slope.
My pipes needed to daylight into a swampy little drainage pond. However, the slope put them about 6" under water. If I had stopped to think it through, I would have drained the pond beforehand. Instead, I dug the trench and drained the pond second. Was definitely the wrong order of operations. Ended up having to dig blindly through the backflow for about 60' until the water leveled out.
Plenty of supervision, very little help.
Ended up using nearly 24 ton of stone.
I still need to finish cutting down the grade a bit, but it's just too wet to work with now. Had to head back to work before I had time to cover the drain, but at least there's no more water entering the building!
