Drainage HDPE/ Corrugated Pipe

s219 · Apr 13, 2014

So with a little basin, solid 4" corrugated pipe will be just fine. No need for gravel, filter cloth, etc.

Judson50 · Apr 13, 2014

Thanks for all the help!

Fossil Farm · Apr 14, 2014

I have helped install miles of drainage tile on many farms in several counties in central Iowa. Only once did we use a sock, and that was going through a sandy beach to dump into a private pond. We used about 100 feet around a 6 inch tile. We never needed rock to make the tile work better - anywhere.

Corrugated plastic tubing (Hancor, ADS, Big Red, etc) used in farm field drainage, as explained by bigtiller above, does not need a sock. The holes (perforations) are engineered to allow the soil to bridge over the holes and it will not plug the pipe. If in sands, then the tubing needs a sock since sand does not bridge as easily as silts and clays. Water enters the tubing from the bottom, as the water table rises the water enters the tubing and is carried away. In most soils around here, drainage tubing is placed about 32 to 36 inches deep (if possible) to get good drainage fairly fast of the root zone. Too deep is actually a detriment to crop production.

Most "hard" pipe has 1/2 inch holes which are too big to bridge the soil, therefore limestone or a sock filter is used to prevent the soil from entering and plugging the pipe. Some limestone has too many fines in it or if sand is used, the sock filter helps keep the pipe clean also. If you are putting in a surface catch basin, just be sure you are not putting in too much water to pressurize the pipe and cause it to blow out. In farm drainage, if a surface inlet is installed, an orifice is put in to regulate the amount of water going into the tubing so as not to pressurize it and cause a blowout of the tubing.

If you have a surface inlet, you may want to consider a short section of solid pipe to maintain the surface water in the pipe and then use some perforated pipe to draw more subsurface water out of the area if the entire area stays wet most of the spring. Good luck.

MacLawn · Apr 14, 2014

Jud, can you post a pic of the spot ye're talking about? I think this is a very important topic that a heap of us could use help figuring out how to do. Uh, that'd be me.

Fossil Farm · Apr 14, 2014

Also, corrugated plastic tubing (except for culvert material) is designed to be buried, so it usually does not have UV protection. If you do use the corrugated, at your outlet, it would be suggested to put a section of smooth wall hard plastic (no holes) into the ditch since it has better UV protection. Just use an internal corrugated connector, cut off the top 2 tabs and you can use two or three stainless screws to attach the connector inside the smooth wall pipe section for such a small area. Yes, 4 inch should be big enough in most cases and if it is just wet, not pouring water, you should not have any problems with the pipe being pressurized.

Cord · Apr 14, 2014

Judson50 said:
This is exactly what I was going to do. A simple 9x9 catch basin with the pipe that starts there and goes all the way to the ditch about 125ft away.

If you do this, then rock and the sock are not necessary. In fact, you don't even want the perforated pipe. 3" pipe will suffice, but 4" will last longer because these pipe like to catch dirt. Keep an eye on the catch basin because you want to clean it before the dirt gets into the pipe. Don't forget to make sure the pipe has positive pitch to daylight. It doesn't have to be much, just make it's pointed down hill.