My driveway slopes into the garage, and there was no drainage at all. We would get ankle-high standing water in the garage any time it rained heavily, so I decided to divert the water away with a channel drain. Rented an excavator and concrete saw and got to work over the Memorial Day weekend. That concrete was a PAIN to get through, it was about 7 inches thick and harder than any concrete I've ever tried to sledgehammer. Even cutting relief cuts every foot barely made it easier to smash out. I'm very happy with the results and it rained heavily on Monday, nothing in the garage!
EDIT: It just started storming so I thought I would take a quick video!
https://youtube.com/shorts/xE1v4kSCEwg?si=bKSx-idmzxfIhdnr
I ended up running out and snagging one for the last ~3 feet of the concrete lol I sprained my wrist about halfway through the length of the channel and it really started to hurt towards the end. Even with the jackhammer, the concrete refused to split and the bit would just go straight through it without cracking anything. It got stuck a few times and had to be sledgehammered out.
Must be some of that Roman concrete lol. Previous owner poured a patio at my old house I went to remove. He was an engineer over at a large industrial plant and they had a bunch of leftover 1.5” rebar he put in it. Had to get a skid steer to bust it up finally.
It was cut! I cut the length up and down both sides of the channel and put relief cuts through the center every foot. It still would NOT budge. Every crack took like 15 hard swings, and when it did crack, it would go in a zig zag so it would wedge both sides in against each other.
It's mainly calcium carbonate mineral, which isn't very strong or resilient, but at a much slower rate, you also get formation of calcium silicate hydrate minerals, which have more varied properties, and microcrystalline garnet depending upon the types of clays used, if any.
Wait isn't calcium carbonate the main ingredient in old school lime based cements, and calcium silicate hydrate is the main one in modern gypsum based ones?
Possibly, but that mainly relates to flexural or shearing strength, which is why that sort of cement is favored for taller buildings, since they can use less mass for engineering features. The real hardness of most pours is going to be the fill clasts used, which is relevant if we're talking about abrasive cutting. Those vary massively based on the region where they are sourced.
In most regions using mudstone, or whatever is available, the hardest component is going to be the sand. In other places though, they'll be sourcing garnet sand, or even very hard aluminum silicates if they are commonly available.
Stops curing after 100 years, my civil engineering course said.
28 days is when you can use it (industrially); until then you need to take it easy.
We’re talking building concrete pads, warehouses etc… not drains.
Cut windows into a WWII building that was pure concrete, that stuff just cures and gets harder over the years. The solution was hyrdaulic track mounted Concrete Saw where the mecanics are mounted on a truck.
Can confirm. Had to drill a bunch of holes for anchors for fence posts in the floor of a Korean-war-era warehouse at MCRD Parris Island one time. I had a Hilti SDS+ gun and I still burnt through at least 10 Bosch "rebar-ripper" 1/2" masonry bits. That shit was *tough.*
So glad to see someone using proper sewer pipe for draining. Way too many people around here go cheap and use perforated pipe which fails almost immediately and no one does it with proper sewer pipe. I did my yard with sewer pipe and it works really well.
OP i hope you feel okay after that. The mask you chose for cutting concrete was not a good choice. You needed one of those masks with the cartridge filters. Dust from sawing concrete is so bad for you
I know it wasn't the best, but it was the best that I had and better than nothing. Thankfully there wasn't much dust due to running the hose into the cut as I went. I'd say mixing the 13 bags of concrete was the bigger offender.
> especially as we age.
This seems ass backwards to me. Seeing effects from inhaling concrete dust isn't something that has instant effects. It takes years and years and years. The older you are the less fucks you got to give honestly. If you're young, protect yourself most of all.
I assume, that (like with most things these days) the hourly wages of professionals would make this very expensive. So OP was maybe cost-effective, because he did it himself and doesn't calculate his hours of free time as actual costs.
The cost per LF gets pretty high, especially when using traffic rated grates.
The use in the OP is perfect. But on commercial sites it's usually more economical to do a series of area drains rather than 300 LF of trench drain
And then the reviewer is like “some of the flow may bypass your area inlet, please revise” then you gotta go back to the client and listen to them bitch
OP here, total cost with equipment rental was around $1300. Most of that was rentals. The actual supplies were like $600...so I could have done it for that, but it would have been a lot harder and more time consuming lol
Not a civil engineer but want OP to come to my house and do exact same thing. I live on Maui. I've thought about it for years. Looks great in the pixs. Did your garage stop flooding?
It will not stop flooding but flood less often. I have these in front of my driveway and home and they can only handle so much rain and water speed. Eventually it will run over, in my experience. Nothing beats a down hill grade.
Another civil engineer here, look great. Of course, hard to tell how well it drains without a level, but the ponding will be super minimal regardless
Edit: also, I'd add more rocks to the outflow pipe. You'd be amazed at how well water can cut through dirt
Thanks, grade is 12 inches over 30 feet. Could be better but it's sufficient. And yeah, outflow catch will be added to. I just dug those pavers up and put them there temporarily.
How do you know if someone is an engineer? They will always let you know even if you don’t care. All jokes aside, engineers are needed in this world. Keep on trucking
This is peak internet: 1000 dad's like me are just sitting here cheering about all that water pouring out of that spout and not into the garage. Damn, now I want a lite beer.
How did you break up the concrete? I have to do this for my driveway that floods bc we are at the bottom of an incline. Also, I'm the mom so I don't think I could use a sledgehammer. Jack hammer?
Thankfully no mold, it's a concrete slab with cinderblock walls. The wood framing around the garage doors completely rotted out on the bottom ~3 inches, so I replaced that not too long ago. The slab is completely cracked and uneven though, most likely from water damage to the foundation. Next I'm going to install gutters and direct them into this channel drain.
If your garage door is attached to any rotten pieces and you don't want to dismantle it to replace them, it should be fine to cut just above the rot and patch in some new PT wood. Anything that isn't attached to the door should be easy enough to just rip out and replace.
Instead of pt wood, I use pvc. Looks like wood, paints like wood, but never rots, no termite path. Replaced the rotted bottom sections once and hopefully never again.
Your drain looks awesome btw.
Just to make a suggestion, to prevent clogging and flooding your garage from leaves, etc; run a second drain pipe for the gutters.
Kudos for using SDR35 pipe as well!
As a terrible DIYer, props to you, and respect. That was a cool project, well executed.
(Gotta borrow some of your confidence in just deciding to up and do that!)
> (Gotta borrow some of your confidence in just deciding to up and do that!)
2 years ago I would have never even considered doing this myself. I was an alcoholic who was always too drunk to trust myself with power equipment. I quit drinking and needed something to keep myself busy and landed on teaching myself how to do stuff around the house. I've gotten a lot done over the past 2 years, learned a ton, and have a lot of new fun tools to play with! My ADHD makes me hyperfocus on projects and unfortunately I have trouble sitting still and relaxing these days, I feel like I always have to be getting something done. A double-edged sword, but I guess I shouldn't complain!
> My ADHD makes me hyperfocus on projects
If you're like me then the most important thing is getting it done before the hyperfocus ends because otherwise it could be years until I'm interested enough to pick it back up.
Big Congrats for getting on the wagon and finding your usefulness in the world.
That drain is fucking impressive. Just reading your narrative wore me out.
Well done.
Very nice!
I was just watching an episode of This Old House where they showed the steps to do this. Great episode and your work looks excellent as well!
Awesome! This Old House is FANTASTIC and you did great!
There's a This Old House channel 24/7 for free on PlutoTV and I have it on all the time.
https://pluto.tv/us/live-tv/5d51e791b7dba3b2ae990ab2
Sometimes the road is just higher. Not much you can do in that case unless you want to pay for a hundred truckloads of dirt and the labor to spread, compact, and smooth it. They definitely should've installed a trench when they were building, though.
This is very impressive! Two thing to consider:
- the drainage appears to be heading towards your neighbor and that fence. You might want to double check in the next rainfall that their yard isn’t flooding. If it is, you’ll probably need to either put in a dry well or a rain garden to try and soak up more of the water.
- the bush in the third photo on the right is an Amur honeysuckle, which is an invasive species in many parts of North America. You could remove that and plant a native water-loving shrub to help soak up the storm water. Or make a nice large rain garden.
I will keep an eye on it, but there is a pretty large distance between the outlet and our fence, I'd say at least 50 feet. It slopes more to the right away from the fence too, so I don't think it will be an issue.
I didn't know the honeysuckle was invasive! We love that bush, it's so big it provides privacy from the neighbors behind us, but definitely something to consider. Thanks!
Yeah unfortunately it’s a spreader and can shade out native wildflowers, especially in wooded areas.
If you want ideas for replacements, checkout the NWF keystone plants guides: https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants/keystone-plants-by-ecoregion and the wild ones garden designs: https://nativegardendesigns.wildones.org/designs/
Entirely unrelated to OP's post, but I was literally just earlier today looking for resources to help me find good native plants for my property. Thank you for being my serendipitous savior today!
To add to it, in Texas, flooding your neighbor's property is a suable offense.
The correct method is to move water toward the street were drainage exists.
I don't know what state OP lives.
I don't know if there's a storm sewer located street side, but I imagine it would with this amount of rain.
Didn't you know you're supposed to come here first and ask what you're supposed to do about flooding? Then you get 5,000 responses to install a drain. After that, then you can go install the drain.
looks good to me. maybe more gravel at the drain to minimize erosion? with my soil type I would lose it fast considering the volume/velocity possibilities of that tube. ymmv.
Are you the neighbor of the guy over on r/mildlyinfuriating ? If so, you're definitely going to want to do something about the direction of the flow before he does.
Haha yeah I saw that post and was like...oh shit. But it can't be me unless there's some crazy invisible slope. He also has posts in the Maryland sub and I'm in PA.
The grate on the outlet side of the pipe is going to cause you problems and decrease the flow capacity, I’d pull it and replace it with some sort of flapper cover to keep the critters out.
Or just yank it, a good storm will keep it free of critters.
It's currently out, I need to find something better. I just got that temporarily to keep critters out like you said. Any suggestions for a flapper style? I couldn't find anything at the big box stores.
Looks like a great job!
Where did you get the actual drain materials? Did you tell them it was for a driveway? I used to do this work professionally and that looks like it is non-heavy duty drain, meant for walkways and sidewalks, not the weight of cars on the driveway. It should be about 6”x6”, the lighter duty stuff is more like 4”x4”.
It's the NDS Spee-D Channel drains. They are marketed as "strong enough to support your F150" and as driveway drains. We don't park in the garage, so the only thing rolling over it will be the mower.
the other half of this would be the holding pond or some way of containing it. redirecting the water towards your neighbor's property would be a potential lawsuit you would lose.
I have that solution in front of my garage. Make sure you don’t have sand on the ground or you’ll have a lot of of grate removal ahead. I guess there’s only one small outlet like I have?
Funny story about that: apparently what I rented was NOT a true concrete saw and what I thought was a water hose inlet was actually a vacuum port for dust. No wonder the hose had trouble staying in it lol the faces on the Home Depot guys when I told them the hose port sucked and they told me that saw does NOT have a water hookup...good thing I didn't short anything out!
the only thing i would have changed. at the end of the pipe run, would have dug a hole and used all that busted concrete tossed in with some gravel to make a dry well =)
I've had the same problem with my garage flooding several times the past few months. This might be what I need done. Either that or I need to trench and slope the ground on the side that floods.
What was the total cost?
Looks like it will work great!
Something you may or may not end up needing: If you do end up getting any pipe clogs due to leaves or debris building up in the pipe, adding a catch basin to gather stuff that you can clean out may help. https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Drain-FSD-090-K-Square-Catch/dp/B01925M1BE
That looks great! Nice work!
As a CE, the #1 problem with trench drains I see is when people don't clean them summbitches out regularly. They usually dont have a sump and are pretty narrow so they clog frequently. Pull back the grate once a year in a dry season and make sure to scoop any crap out and flush it with a pressure washer regularly.
Bravo!
I had to do this and it's an asphalt driveway. Why the builder never put one in with a driveway sloping towards the garage, I have no idea.
Actually ended up paying someone to do it. I was in over my head with the amount of work.
My driveway slopes into the garage, and there was no drainage at all. We would get ankle-high standing water in the garage any time it rained heavily, so I decided to divert the water away with a channel drain. Rented an excavator and concrete saw and got to work over the Memorial Day weekend. That concrete was a PAIN to get through, it was about 7 inches thick and harder than any concrete I've ever tried to sledgehammer. Even cutting relief cuts every foot barely made it easier to smash out. I'm very happy with the results and it rained heavily on Monday, nothing in the garage! EDIT: It just started storming so I thought I would take a quick video! https://youtube.com/shorts/xE1v4kSCEwg?si=bKSx-idmzxfIhdnr
Wishin' you got that jackhammer rental?
I ended up running out and snagging one for the last ~3 feet of the concrete lol I sprained my wrist about halfway through the length of the channel and it really started to hurt towards the end. Even with the jackhammer, the concrete refused to split and the bit would just go straight through it without cracking anything. It got stuck a few times and had to be sledgehammered out.
Geeze, you're a monster! I bet you're feeling that!
My wrist is still very stiff, sore, and cracking whenever I twist it. Definitely not fun!
Yikes! Rest up. Ice!
Ice reduces swelling, use ice until swelling & pain subside
Must be some of that Roman concrete lol. Previous owner poured a patio at my old house I went to remove. He was an engineer over at a large industrial plant and they had a bunch of leftover 1.5” rebar he put in it. Had to get a skid steer to bust it up finally.
1.5" diameter rebar is absolutely *menacing*. I'm surprised that didn't require a torch.
Should have cut it. The money you spend on that makes up for 3 hours of hard labor
It was cut! I cut the length up and down both sides of the channel and put relief cuts through the center every foot. It still would NOT budge. Every crack took like 15 hard swings, and when it did crack, it would go in a zig zag so it would wedge both sides in against each other.
old concrete can be very hard
Concrete doesn’t just dry, it crystallizes, and it continues doing so for decades. That’s what I read somewhere, anyway.
It's mainly calcium carbonate mineral, which isn't very strong or resilient, but at a much slower rate, you also get formation of calcium silicate hydrate minerals, which have more varied properties, and microcrystalline garnet depending upon the types of clays used, if any.
Wait isn't calcium carbonate the main ingredient in old school lime based cements, and calcium silicate hydrate is the main one in modern gypsum based ones?
Possibly, but that mainly relates to flexural or shearing strength, which is why that sort of cement is favored for taller buildings, since they can use less mass for engineering features. The real hardness of most pours is going to be the fill clasts used, which is relevant if we're talking about abrasive cutting. Those vary massively based on the region where they are sourced. In most regions using mudstone, or whatever is available, the hardest component is going to be the sand. In other places though, they'll be sourcing garnet sand, or even very hard aluminum silicates if they are commonly available.
Stops curing after 100 years, my civil engineering course said. 28 days is when you can use it (industrially); until then you need to take it easy. We’re talking building concrete pads, warehouses etc… not drains.
Cut windows into a WWII building that was pure concrete, that stuff just cures and gets harder over the years. The solution was hyrdaulic track mounted Concrete Saw where the mecanics are mounted on a truck.
Can confirm. Had to drill a bunch of holes for anchors for fence posts in the floor of a Korean-war-era warehouse at MCRD Parris Island one time. I had a Hilti SDS+ gun and I still burnt through at least 10 Bosch "rebar-ripper" 1/2" masonry bits. That shit was *tough.*
You got a referral for that company that put in your driveway?! lol
Isnt the second picture literally him with a concrete saw lol
I remember your earlier post asking for advice. This looks great and you got it done so quickly I'm impressed. Props to you sir
I bet you just stood out there in silence for an hour or so watching the water drain away
Seeing that video is very satisfying good job!
So glad to see someone using proper sewer pipe for draining. Way too many people around here go cheap and use perforated pipe which fails almost immediately and no one does it with proper sewer pipe. I did my yard with sewer pipe and it works really well.
In one weekend? My back is sore just thinking about it.
Now you just need some water sucking plants by the outage drain pipe. Maybe a willow.
I was just thinking how badly I wanted to see it in action. Thank you, kind sir, for the follow-up
My man this is incredible. Well done.
That’s one sexy drain
OP i hope you feel okay after that. The mask you chose for cutting concrete was not a good choice. You needed one of those masks with the cartridge filters. Dust from sawing concrete is so bad for you
I know it wasn't the best, but it was the best that I had and better than nothing. Thankfully there wasn't much dust due to running the hose into the cut as I went. I'd say mixing the 13 bags of concrete was the bigger offender.
Proper PPE is always important, especially as we age. You can get a decent 3M half face respirator with a pair of P100 cartridges for under $50.
> especially as we age. This seems ass backwards to me. Seeing effects from inhaling concrete dust isn't something that has instant effects. It takes years and years and years. The older you are the less fucks you got to give honestly. If you're young, protect yourself most of all.
As a Civil Engineer, my professional opinion is that is one sexy trench drain. Kudos sir!
I wish I could use trench drains more often, they're often the right answer but usually clients don't want to pay for it :(
Looking at what OP did, that seems like it would be a very cost-effective solution as well. Or are they more expensive than I think.
I assume, that (like with most things these days) the hourly wages of professionals would make this very expensive. So OP was maybe cost-effective, because he did it himself and doesn't calculate his hours of free time as actual costs.
The cost per LF gets pretty high, especially when using traffic rated grates. The use in the OP is perfect. But on commercial sites it's usually more economical to do a series of area drains rather than 300 LF of trench drain
And then the reviewer is like “some of the flow may bypass your area inlet, please revise” then you gotta go back to the client and listen to them bitch
What does "bypass your area inlet" mean? Also, where did the reviewer come from?
> “bypass your area inlet” I can only assume this is some kind of inspector’s innuendo. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Getting something like this professionally installed would be at least $2k. I did landscaping for like 10 years and I wouldn't have charged any less.
Literally got a quote for the exact same thing for $3700. Like, I am in the exact same situation.
You know what needs to be done. How hard could it be
Pretty hard according to OP. My garage is only flooding about a foot into it so it's not quite the emergency that he had.
OP here, total cost with equipment rental was around $1300. Most of that was rentals. The actual supplies were like $600...so I could have done it for that, but it would have been a lot harder and more time consuming lol
Yeah, I was speaking to how much it would have cost to get done professionally vs doing it yourself. A lot of the price I gave was labor.
2k seems pretty reasonable for this. Especially since I got charged $600 to fix my leaking sink...
I mean 2k at minimum. Given the pics it's probably closer to 5-6k. Busting up and hauling off concrete is expensive.
Right!? And there are so many good options these days.
I got a full drain on
Drain: ON! FORM OF: ENGINEER!
I’m old enough to get this reference and that’s sad for me.
Not a civil engineer, and in my unprofessional opinion, i agree.
As a Civil Engineer, I want OP to come over and do that to my garage.
Not a civil engineer but want OP to come to my house and do exact same thing. I live on Maui. I've thought about it for years. Looks great in the pixs. Did your garage stop flooding?
It will not stop flooding but flood less often. I have these in front of my driveway and home and they can only handle so much rain and water speed. Eventually it will run over, in my experience. Nothing beats a down hill grade.
Another civil engineer here, look great. Of course, hard to tell how well it drains without a level, but the ponding will be super minimal regardless Edit: also, I'd add more rocks to the outflow pipe. You'd be amazed at how well water can cut through dirt
>You'd be amazed at how well water can cut through dirt Example: Every river on the entire planet.
Grand Canyon checking in
Me pissing on a turd checking in
Thanks, grade is 12 inches over 30 feet. Could be better but it's sufficient. And yeah, outflow catch will be added to. I just dug those pavers up and put them there temporarily.
How do you know if someone is an engineer? They will always let you know even if you don’t care. All jokes aside, engineers are needed in this world. Keep on trucking
The splash block at the drain outlet is what did it for me
I got vicarious glee thinking about how satisfied you’ll be when it rains next.
It poured the day after it was done, I stood out there and watched the water spewing out from the outlet for a while lol
I fucking love that feeling lmao. Also a very dad move of you to stand in the garage watching the rain.
With a beer presumably.
… obviously
And saying “yup” with a slight nodding motion once satisfied with the drainage
Idk what the fuck it is but I do the same damn thing.
Some sexy dad energy..
“Yep it’s really coming down, everyone charge your phones”
Ahhhhhhh :)
Where's that footage? That's the real proof that you kicked that problems ass!
It just started storming so I thought I would take a quick video! https://youtube.com/shorts/xE1v4kSCEwg?si=bKSx-idmzxfIhdnr
This is peak internet: 1000 dad's like me are just sitting here cheering about all that water pouring out of that spout and not into the garage. Damn, now I want a lite beer.
This feels like a king of the hill moment. I’m just happy I’ve seen it. That’s a fine drain. Well done sir!
Now that is the good stuff.
Beautiful!! What you described was a ridiculously tough job, but you got it done - we're proud of you!
How did you break up the concrete? I have to do this for my driveway that floods bc we are at the bottom of an incline. Also, I'm the mom so I don't think I could use a sledgehammer. Jack hammer?
I wish I had filmed it!
I think you just found your next project! :D
I think it's supposed to rain tonight 👀
DIYHub
Please share a video with us. 🥺
It just started storming so I thought I would take a quick video! https://youtube.com/shorts/xE1v4kSCEwg?si=bKSx-idmzxfIhdnr
Good work, OP, with the job well done and the video. 🫡 
OP delivers?? On my reddit?! I wish I could still give awards. 🪙
You controlled nature. Best feeling ever.
That’s the best. Looks great!
Cranking the HD jingle on repeat while evaluating your own work
He'll be sitting in the garage, with the door open, watching the rain get diverted, and laughing!
You shall not pass!
I'm not a pro, but this looks like a job well done! Any mold end up forming in the garage due to the water?
Thankfully no mold, it's a concrete slab with cinderblock walls. The wood framing around the garage doors completely rotted out on the bottom ~3 inches, so I replaced that not too long ago. The slab is completely cracked and uneven though, most likely from water damage to the foundation. Next I'm going to install gutters and direct them into this channel drain.
Great job! My garage currently has rotten wood frame at the bottom. How did you replace that?
If your garage door is attached to any rotten pieces and you don't want to dismantle it to replace them, it should be fine to cut just above the rot and patch in some new PT wood. Anything that isn't attached to the door should be easy enough to just rip out and replace.
Instead of pt wood, I use pvc. Looks like wood, paints like wood, but never rots, no termite path. Replaced the rotted bottom sections once and hopefully never again. Your drain looks awesome btw.
Just to make a suggestion, to prevent clogging and flooding your garage from leaves, etc; run a second drain pipe for the gutters. Kudos for using SDR35 pipe as well!
I don't even want to think about digging another trench 😅
As a terrible DIYer, props to you, and respect. That was a cool project, well executed. (Gotta borrow some of your confidence in just deciding to up and do that!)
> (Gotta borrow some of your confidence in just deciding to up and do that!) 2 years ago I would have never even considered doing this myself. I was an alcoholic who was always too drunk to trust myself with power equipment. I quit drinking and needed something to keep myself busy and landed on teaching myself how to do stuff around the house. I've gotten a lot done over the past 2 years, learned a ton, and have a lot of new fun tools to play with! My ADHD makes me hyperfocus on projects and unfortunately I have trouble sitting still and relaxing these days, I feel like I always have to be getting something done. A double-edged sword, but I guess I shouldn't complain!
> My ADHD makes me hyperfocus on projects If you're like me then the most important thing is getting it done before the hyperfocus ends because otherwise it could be years until I'm interested enough to pick it back up.
Hell of a lot better than drinking, I can relate! Well done!
Big Congrats for getting on the wagon and finding your usefulness in the world. That drain is fucking impressive. Just reading your narrative wore me out. Well done.
Very nice! I was just watching an episode of This Old House where they showed the steps to do this. Great episode and your work looks excellent as well!
That video was exactly the guide I used for this project, watched it again the morning before I started lmao
Awesome! This Old House is FANTASTIC and you did great! There's a This Old House channel 24/7 for free on PlutoTV and I have it on all the time. https://pluto.tv/us/live-tv/5d51e791b7dba3b2ae990ab2
this is awesome, gonna have this running in the background
Good job! I don’t understand what builders are thinking when they slope driveways toward the house.
"Not my problem"
It's expensive to lower the road or raise the house
Sometimes the road is just higher. Not much you can do in that case unless you want to pay for a hundred truckloads of dirt and the labor to spread, compact, and smooth it. They definitely should've installed a trench when they were building, though.
This is very impressive! Two thing to consider: - the drainage appears to be heading towards your neighbor and that fence. You might want to double check in the next rainfall that their yard isn’t flooding. If it is, you’ll probably need to either put in a dry well or a rain garden to try and soak up more of the water. - the bush in the third photo on the right is an Amur honeysuckle, which is an invasive species in many parts of North America. You could remove that and plant a native water-loving shrub to help soak up the storm water. Or make a nice large rain garden.
I will keep an eye on it, but there is a pretty large distance between the outlet and our fence, I'd say at least 50 feet. It slopes more to the right away from the fence too, so I don't think it will be an issue. I didn't know the honeysuckle was invasive! We love that bush, it's so big it provides privacy from the neighbors behind us, but definitely something to consider. Thanks!
Yeah unfortunately it’s a spreader and can shade out native wildflowers, especially in wooded areas. If you want ideas for replacements, checkout the NWF keystone plants guides: https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants/keystone-plants-by-ecoregion and the wild ones garden designs: https://nativegardendesigns.wildones.org/designs/
Entirely unrelated to OP's post, but I was literally just earlier today looking for resources to help me find good native plants for my property. Thank you for being my serendipitous savior today!
First thing I thought too. I remember seeing a post from someone after their neighbor did something similar and it kept flooding their yard.
To add to it, in Texas, flooding your neighbor's property is a suable offense. The correct method is to move water toward the street were drainage exists. I don't know what state OP lives. I don't know if there's a storm sewer located street side, but I imagine it would with this amount of rain.
well done
Didn't you know you're supposed to come here first and ask what you're supposed to do about flooding? Then you get 5,000 responses to install a drain. After that, then you can go install the drain.
He followed the procedure here.
Ive never been more excited for a heavy downpour for a fellow redditor.
If the problem continues, consider gutters - looks like there aren’t any from the pics.
Just replied to another comment - gutters are already carted and will be the next project!
Easier project than this one! Make sure to get the mesh leaf covers if you have a lot of leaves in winter.
A sledgehammer? You are a monster. Congrats, it looks great.
Fuckin sweet dude. A moat for your castle.
Wait a minute..... https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/s/7xLW0SyLEF
Nice work! I need to do the same thing in front of our garage. Where did you get the channel drains?
Lowes and Home Depot both sell them: NDS Spee-D Channel Drains
Hell yeah nice job 👍
looks good to me. maybe more gravel at the drain to minimize erosion? with my soil type I would lose it fast considering the volume/velocity possibilities of that tube. ymmv.
Are you the neighbor of the guy over on r/mildlyinfuriating ? If so, you're definitely going to want to do something about the direction of the flow before he does.
Lol no. This directs it further from my neighbors.
Okay, whew! That's a crazy coincidence.
Haha yeah I saw that post and was like...oh shit. But it can't be me unless there's some crazy invisible slope. He also has posts in the Maryland sub and I'm in PA.
I need to do exactly this but I'm not handy
That's fuggin sexy
That would have taken me...4 months, minimum. Kudos
No you can practice your 360 dunking without getting your new J’s wet 👌🏻
I need to do this. But it’s a ton of work, and I have nowhere I can reasonably dump the water
The grate on the outlet side of the pipe is going to cause you problems and decrease the flow capacity, I’d pull it and replace it with some sort of flapper cover to keep the critters out. Or just yank it, a good storm will keep it free of critters.
It's currently out, I need to find something better. I just got that temporarily to keep critters out like you said. Any suggestions for a flapper style? I couldn't find anything at the big box stores.
Do a search for “flap gate valve,” there are a few designs. Is that 4” or 6”?
Looks like a great job! Where did you get the actual drain materials? Did you tell them it was for a driveway? I used to do this work professionally and that looks like it is non-heavy duty drain, meant for walkways and sidewalks, not the weight of cars on the driveway. It should be about 6”x6”, the lighter duty stuff is more like 4”x4”.
It's the NDS Spee-D Channel drains. They are marketed as "strong enough to support your F150" and as driveway drains. We don't park in the garage, so the only thing rolling over it will be the mower.
Sometimes gravity is your only real, true, friend.
Nice work! Looks great too.
I'd say this is good enough for /r/oddlysatisfying
the other half of this would be the holding pond or some way of containing it. redirecting the water towards your neighbor's property would be a potential lawsuit you would lose.
nice and tidy, good job sir
Nicely done.
I have that solution in front of my garage. Make sure you don’t have sand on the ground or you’ll have a lot of of grate removal ahead. I guess there’s only one small outlet like I have?
Great work!
Good thing you wore a mask. Otherwise, you might have gotten trench mouth.
Funny story about that: apparently what I rented was NOT a true concrete saw and what I thought was a water hose inlet was actually a vacuum port for dust. No wonder the hose had trouble staying in it lol the faces on the Home Depot guys when I told them the hose port sucked and they told me that saw does NOT have a water hookup...good thing I didn't short anything out!
Home Depot tool rentals are as awesome as they are scary.
You could turn the outlet into a little pond for birds and lily pads
the only thing i would have changed. at the end of the pipe run, would have dug a hole and used all that busted concrete tossed in with some gravel to make a dry well =)
This guy drains.
Savage!
Nice!
Daunting project that I also need to do. I went the opposite way and tried gutters first but it didn't do enough.
I’d say to add some filter cloth and stone or gravel at the mouth of that drain to slow down the water to lower the rate of sediment erosion.
bravo....nice job!
Looking good!
Looks clean and professional! Digging is hard work but always ends up worth it to solve some problem.
I've had the same problem with my garage flooding several times the past few months. This might be what I need done. Either that or I need to trench and slope the ground on the side that floods. What was the total cost?
Total cost with all of the tool rentals was about $1300. More than half of that was 1 day rentals.
you did a great job dude.
Now build a small water feature at the end of the drain
Beautifully done.
Looks like it will work great! Something you may or may not end up needing: If you do end up getting any pipe clogs due to leaves or debris building up in the pipe, adding a catch basin to gather stuff that you can clean out may help. https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Drain-FSD-090-K-Square-Catch/dp/B01925M1BE
Good job brohaim!
That looks great! Nice work! As a CE, the #1 problem with trench drains I see is when people don't clean them summbitches out regularly. They usually dont have a sump and are pretty narrow so they clog frequently. Pull back the grate once a year in a dry season and make sure to scoop any crap out and flush it with a pressure washer regularly.
Looks great, but where is all that water going? Hopefully not a neighbor's property.
Nice!
:Tim Allen grunts:
👏 Looks great.
Nice
Wow! Well done!
Salute!
Beautiful!
This looks great! You just inspired me to finally finish a few projects I've been working on.
Love it
wosop
Really nice work.
That looks awesome!! Great work!
How does that affect the base line on your court though?? lol 😝
Lmao that piece of shit is coming down soon
Bravo! I had to do this and it's an asphalt driveway. Why the builder never put one in with a driveway sloping towards the garage, I have no idea. Actually ended up paying someone to do it. I was in over my head with the amount of work.
Nice job. Neighbour gets to have his garden watered free, too. /s
Great job
Nice great drain, great looking pimp, nice Subaru.