Grate for Drainage Pipe Inlet?

[mroberts5]

My property and a neighbors has a series of swales/ditches that lead to a pooling area before entering 100ft or so 15" clay pipe. This has been clogged up since I moved in 5 years ago and I finally dug it out today. I found a section of cinder block had made its way in and allowed it to clog up (much of the drainage area runs through woods so there is a heavy load of leaf and stick debris passing with the water).

I'm thinking about how to prevent this from happening again and am batting around a few options - I wanted to see if anyone here has any ideas:

1. Leave it open, minimizing the chance of nuisance clogs at the inlet, but need to inspect regularly for anything large.
2. Add a inlet beehive style grate - I'm thinking this will clog up with leaves right away.
3. Add a very course grate, maybe just two lengths of rebar hammered in, just to block anything large enough that will clog.

At this point I'm leaning towards option 3. Any other ideas/suggestions?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Industrial Toys]

A picture or so would have been highly useful.

 

[mroberts5]

Tomorrow.

 

[4570Man]

Maybe option 3 but option 2 sucks. I see a lot of pipes with a way too fine grate that plugs up and ends up washing the pipe out. Unless the pipe is too small chances are it won’t plug up anyway.

 

[oosik]

In a situation, such as yours, I would pound in the rebar( option #3) and check frequently. You will soon find the necessary frequency of checking required to keep it open and running. Any "mesh type" grating will plug and cause problems.

The neighbor and I made a removable rebar grating for his driveway culvert. Two three foot chunks of treated 4"x4" post. Drilled holes in each post every 6". Heavy 1" rebar - cut and pounded into the posts. Ended up with a grate 3' x 3' with 1" vertical rebar every 6". This home made "grate" is all tied together with 1" x 4" x 3' treated boards that form up the ends of the grate. He lifts it out with a chain & his FEL on his tractor. Cleans it in the spring & fall.

Wish I had a picture but........ The grate top and bottom are the 4"x4"x3' chunks of post. The sides are the 1"x4"x3' treated boards. The rebar is pounded into the drilled holes in the top/bottom post material. It ends up being a fairly heavy unit. He can either tip it forward and do any cleaning or completely lift it out with the tractor, chain & FEL for major cleaning.

 

[jmc]

I have a culvert thru a wooded area, 30 inch concrete, it plugs, and my gravel driveway washes out. There's a lot of ideas on Google Images under "culvert grates".


This month it started to rain hard as I was crossing it and I checked for the usual debris and it looked OK. Back home an hour later and it was plugged-gravel drive was washed out. Digging it out later, a heavy stick had washed down sideways and was spanning the opening. Smaller sticks and leaves are then blocked by the stick. It's happened like that 3 or 4 times. So in my case, periodic preventative cleaning won't solve the gully washers.

I like this concept of slat arrangement (although their cement housing is overkill for mine) Those sticks that are just the right size to block things either get captured or turned. The angle slats might force sideways sticks upward and there's more area for flow. I think a smooth slat would be better for this angled design than rebar.

 

[mroberts5]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Here are some photos. I said clogged before, but actually it was buried. My plan is to dig it out further then build a stone headwall, similar to what jmc attached, but...stone. Also, you can see from the outlet that its been eroding back real bad. I'm not sure yet if I'll try to reset the last few peices or just accept it how it is, but I'm going to build an endwall with a stone apron and gravel/boulder bed to help dissipate the energy. Or at least thats the plan....

Inlet: It was really hard to capture this in photo, but its a 15" inlet that was buried in mud


Outlet:

 

[Billrog]

Put your grate 3 or 4' before the culvert so it it plugs when your not around the water can get around it but the pipe won't get plugged up.

 

[woody]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Here are some photos. I said clogged before, but actually it was buried. My plan is to dig it out further then build a stone headwall, similar to what jmc attached, but...stone. Also, you can see from the outlet that its been eroding back real bad. I'm not sure yet if I'll try to reset the last few peices or just accept it how it is, but I'm going to build an endwall with a stone apron and gravel/boulder bed to help dissipate the energy. Or at least thats the plan....

Inlet: It was really hard to capture this in photo, but its a 15" inlet that was buried in mud
View attachment 596516

Outlet:
View attachment 596517

that first picture looks like big foots hand print on that tree I like JMC idea or something similar

 

[mikester]

After seeing your photos Id just clean up all around the opening and leave it open. Expose the ends of the pipe and don稚 allow overhangs of soil, plants, roots etc. It looks like it gets seasonal use only so I wouldnt bother with a grate as you will end up having to clean that too after it gets overgrown with grass etc.

If its open you can easily get at it with a backhoe. Grates have to be cleaned by hand.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I would try to set the grate up so that it is to an extent self cleaning. To do that the local irrigation district here would build about a 3' x 5' set of bars. The bars would be made of at least 2+" heavy wall pipes welded about 3" apart. They would be welded to a cross pipe top and bottom only. Then the grate would be set up at a fairly steep angle against the culvert. As the trash builds up against the grate it gets pushed towards the top of the grate by the flowing water.

You need to pass by once in a while and pull the trash off but that's not hard to do if you only have cross members top and bottom. It's essential to have a large enough grate that if part of it does get plugged it doesn't slow the water down a whole lot. It's also important to only have a cross member top and bottom so that the trash has nowhere to hang up and for easier cleaning. Just remember when building the grate that you don't need to screen out anything that is small enough to go through the culvert.

 

[coffeeman]

My property and a neighbors has a series of swales/ditches that lead to a pooling area before entering 100ft or so 15" clay pipe. This has been clogged up since I moved in 5 years ago and I finally dug it out today. I found a section of cinder block had made its way in and allowed it to clog up (much of the drainage area runs through woods so there is a heavy load of leaf and stick debris passing with the water).

I'm thinking about how to prevent this from happening again and am batting around a few options - I wanted to see if anyone here has any ideas:

1. Leave it open, minimizing the chance of nuisance clogs at the inlet, but need to inspect regularly for anything large.
2. Add a inlet beehive style grate - I'm thinking this will clog up with leaves right away.
3. Add a very course grate, maybe just two lengths of rebar hammered in, just to block anything large enough that will clog.

At this point I'm leaning towards option 3. Any other ideas/suggestions?

Thanks,
Matt

I am thinking of putting block walls up stream. Laying blocks on side with hollow centers allowing water to flow through. Heavy rain will clog the blocks fast. Thinking leaves branches will get caught up stream two places, maybe 3 or 4 blocks high. Will try and place walls at spot easy to clean out. Once clogged they can flow around or over. Thinking a fence near entrance of culvert. Already have iron fence near culvert. The big problem this year was massive amounts of gravel rocks mud silt etc. What a year we had here for rain! Worst in my area ever. 2 other records for rain till 4th highest since 1895, I think. Ain't gonna look it up again. We had a lot.

Have a nice evening.......Coffeeman

 

[jmc]

I am thinking of putting block walls up stream. Laying blocks on side with hollow centers allowing water to flow through. Heavy rain will clog the blocks fast. Thinking leaves branches will get caught up stream two places, maybe 3 or 4 blocks high. Will try and place walls at spot easy to clean out. Once clogged they can flow around or over. Thinking a fence near entrance of culvert. Already have iron fence near culvert. The big problem this year was massive amounts of gravel rocks mud silt etc. What a year we had here for rain! Worst in my area ever. 2 other records for rain till 4th highest since 1895, I think. Ain't gonna look it up again. We had a lot.

Have a nice evening.......Coffeeman

Great idea! Cheap too.