My driveway pool

[newcountry]

OK, it's only a puddle, but it seems way too big. The land at the problem spot slopes from west to east (driveway runs north-south). When the excavator put in my asphalt millings he didn't cut into the ground to make the driveway level so it sits several inches higher than the surrounding land- thus the source of my own little lake, dammed off by my driveway. Plus it drains downhill from the house to this spot (where it levels off), so this is where it collects. The water want to go across the driveway but just can't quite make it.

Here's the two thoughts I've come up with - 1) dig out a narrow trench, probably only 1-2 inches wide, maybe 2-3 inches deep. This would allow drainage without major work, but frequent re-dos. 2) drop a drainage pipe. My problem with this is that it would only be maybe 3-5 inches below the driving surface and I'm concerned with vehicle weight breaking or bending whatever I put down there. Mostly I don't like either of these ideas so wanted to hear what you might have for me. I know I should have a picture, and it rained several inches on friday, too. I'll try to get out there tomorrow and post a couple pix to see if that helps paint the picture better.

 

[DKinWA]

It sounds like you've got at least two more solutions. The first being to build up the low area with 3 or 4" of topsoil so the water doesn't puddle and runs across the road. The other option is to put in a small plastic catch basin and run the drain pipe across the road and daylight it on the low side.

I'm fixing a similar problem and it's not that expensive. I just bought two small plastic catch basins with grates from home depot and it was around $30. I've already got the 4" solid drainfield pipe, but I doubt I'll have more than $60 in materials when I'm done.

 

[Glenn9643]

I had to build up a part of my drive going to the shop and used crushed granite. Realized when it rained that I had the same problem you describe. I used a sharpshooter shovel to dig a trench across the drive and placed a piece of sch40 PVC in the trench. When I covered it back with the granite, there's about an inch of granite over the top of the pipe after packing it in. I've run over it with my pickup, tractor, etc. with no problems. A cement truck might crush it though.

 

[newcountry]

DK, I don't think filling in would work because the slope of the land is east-west- since my driveway cuts off the natural drainage I think I'd just move my pooling problem. Next time at Lowe's I'll check out the drainage basins- my thought with that was you'd have to go couple feet down at least and I wanted to avoid that. Am I wrong in thinking that?

Glenn, crushing was my biggest concern of laying down a pipe so close to the surface. It's working for you, that's good to know. I'm thinking of a smaller diameter pipe, maybe 2-3in ID- it would hold the crushing pressure better. What did you cap the receiving end of the pipe with to prevent blockage (or did you)?

Thanks for the replies!!

 

[DKinWA]

Sorry, I didn't realize this was a natural swale. The catch basins I bought can be set pretty high and would only have about 3" of material over the 4" drain pipe. I doubt running pipe this close to the surface would work in a driveway unless you were to go with steel. You might try finding some 4" SCH 40 (scrap yard maybe?) to run under the driveway and adapt it to one of the precast plastic catch basins. The catch basin would make for a nice clean installation, but you could also use some clean drain rock to cover the inlet.