Drainage on trail

[top gnome]

Beautiful tractor shed - love it.

FWIW I am on a ridge and have gotten many tough lessons from mother nature on water flowing downhill - H Sandy & H Isaias in particular.

I had an existing detached garage and added a 12x38 tractor shed close by perpendicular to the fall-line slope (fwiw designed for & dimensions ideal for my OLD property i.e. I brought it with me).

The above advice is right on from @Mountainhill in that you need to grade above & build-up / add gravel on the access lane.

I am able to get by w/o a culvert and ditch but added one under the middle of the shed due to long narrow size and grading essentially created a basin (I was not able to build the base up as much and slope is higher than yours)

thank you I will follow the advise. The ground is mostly rock but it holds water like crazy. the curtain ditch is holding water so I think I need to extend it to the low areas

 

[xrocketengineer]

I had a similar situation. I dug a trench between driveway and high side where the water was coming from. Two foot deep trench, lined the bottom with 2b gravel. I installed 4" perforated black pipe and used a sock that went over the 100 feet of pipe to keep dirt out. Covered the rest with gravel about two inches from the top. Layed down some weed block on top and covered the rest with 2b to the top. Works great and you wouldnt even know it was there.

I did something similar with a shallow (not more than 18 inches) "French drain". I followed some of the advice of the "French Drain Man" with his burrito wrap technique using geotextile non-woven fabric 4 ft. wide from Amazon. It has 50 ft. of 4 in. corrugated perforated pipe with a total of over 100ft. I used about a 30 pound bag of rock for every foot of perforated pipe. Now the area dries in days not in months due to the lack of slope.

 

[top gnome]

I did something similar with a shallow (not more than 18 inches) "French drain". I followed some of the advice of the "French Drain Man" with his burrito wrap technique using geotextile non-woven fabric 4 ft. wide from Amazon. It has 50 ft. of 4 in. corrugated perforated pipe with a total of over 100ft. I used about a 30 pound bag of rock for every foot of perforated pipe. Now the area dries in days not in months due to the lack of slope.

thank you the area especially in the meadow is wet from almost year round and it is on a side hill. I really want to get the trail done so we can walk the loop.

 

[leveraddict]

thank you that seems like the best alternative.

It looks like you could use more gravel on the driveway also! I had a small truck load delivered. Stone is cheap, the delivery was not. I did get a break though because I was less than 5 miles from the place I bought it.

 

[fried1765]

I did something similar with a shallow (not more than 18 inches) "French drain". I followed some of the advice of the "French Drain Man" with his burrito wrap technique using geotextile non-woven fabric 4 ft. wide from Amazon. It has 50 ft. of 4 in. corrugated perforated pipe with a total of over 100ft. I used about a 30 pound bag of rock for every foot of perforated pipe. Now the area dries in days not in months due to the lack of slope.

A French drain is often a best solution.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I agree, spend the necessary time and make an accurate map with elevations BEFORE you start digging here, adding there, spending $$$ money !!
Depending on where you stand, the 'lay of the land' WILL look different.
Maybe start with a google sat view, zoom to just your land, add a gridd(say 10by10 or 8by8 feet),using the building as a fixed reference. At every x, get the height.mark on the map.
Yes, it'll take you and a helper all day, but time well spent.
Once you have the numbers, see if there's an ap that can generate a 3d model of your land.Probably is but I cut code 3 dacades ago to do it....
Once you have a 3d drawing you can SEE how to 'dig here,fill there' to divert the water.
Make any ditches or culvert large enough for spring 'runoff' !!

I put in a 30' French drain on a property 4 years ago (1st BX23S job...) worked GREAT. Sold the land and when house was built, contractor removed mine, installed his 150' French drain..... which doesn't work !!

 

[bbxlr8]

thank you I will follow the advise. The ground is mostly rock but it holds water like crazy. the curtain ditch is holding water so I think I need to extend it to the low areas

I have the same as far as rocks go - maybe more... I joke, but it's actual fact that I have rocks between softball and suburban+ sizes (glacial deposits). I pick my battles and mentally grade by the % of rock when I dig. You never quite know when you hit the tip of am iceberg here!

That is a really nice shed - Can you share more? Size, layout construction etc, Interior pic?

 

[top gnome]

I have the same as far as rocks go - maybe more... I joke, but it's actual fact that I have rocks between softball and suburban+ sizes (glacial deposits). I pick my battles and mentally grade by the % of rock when I dig. You never quite know when you hit the tip of am iceberg here!

That is a really nice shed - Can you share more? Size, layout construction etc, Interior pic?

Hi thank you the shed is documented here https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/threads/tractor-shed-lemons-to-lemonaid.57993/

The cliff notes would be it is 24x20 with 10 ft walls it is built on bigfoots and is all local rough sawn lumber some it from storm blow downs in my yard. (except the trusses) It is built on big foot footings and a treated 2x8 triple beam.

The rock is insane here there is just enough dirt to keep the rocks from knocking together when the wind blows. The canadian shield peaks thru in many locations as well. I almost had to move the shed because one of the bigfoot locations I thought I had hit the shield but after working on it for 20 minutes I saw it move so I knew it was a big rock and not the shield.

 

[top gnome]

I agree, spend the necessary time and make an accurate map with elevations BEFORE you start digging here, adding there, spending $$$ money !!
Depending on where you stand, the 'lay of the land' WILL look different.
Maybe start with a google sat view, zoom to just your land, add a gridd(say 10by10 or 8by8 feet),using the building as a fixed reference. At every x, get the height.mark on the map.
Yes, it'll take you and a helper all day, but time well spent.
Once you have the numbers, see if there's an ap that can generate a 3d model of your land.Probably is but I cut code 3 dacades ago to do it....
Once you have a 3d drawing you can SEE how to 'dig here,fill there' to divert the water.
Make any ditches or culvert large enough for spring 'runoff' !!

I put in a 30' French drain on a property 4 years ago (1st BX23S job...) worked GREAT. Sold the land and when house was built, contractor removed mine, installed his 150' French drain..... which doesn't work !!

I spent some time today trying to find a topo map I did find this one. There is a total of about 200 meters of drop over the 3/4 miles to the top of the mountain behind me.

 

[Mark_BX25D]

thank you I will follow the advise. The ground is mostly rock but it holds water like crazy. the curtain ditch is holding water so I think I need to extend it to the low areas

If it's holding water it isn't drained properly. You need a pipe (or trench) to daylight downhill of the lowest point.

 

[bbxlr8]

Hi thank you the shed is documented here https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/threads/tractor-shed-lemons-to-lemonaid.57993/

The cliff notes would be it is 24x20 with 10 ft walls it is built on bigfoots and is all local rough sawn lumber some it from storm blow downs in my yard. (except the trusses) It is built on big foot footings and a treated 2x8 triple beam.

The rock is insane here there is just enough dirt to keep the rocks from knocking together when the wind blows. The canadian shield peaks thru in many locations as well. I almost had to move the shed because one of the bigfoot locations I thought I had hit the shield but after working on it for 20 minutes I saw it move so I knew it was a big rock and not the shield.

Nice write-up & great work - missed that section completely...

I really could use a small sawmill and am active over on Arboristsite.com learning about them (mostly the firewood section though)

 

[Code]

Ive been looking at these guys for a year or so. how big a driveway did you do. Wondering about how well it holds up

I have had excellent success using a geo grid. Below the geo grid install high quality geo textile on level grade and then expand 4" thick geo grid on top. Fill geogrid cells with granulars.
Geo grid
Lots of youtube videos on the engineering and do it yourself installation.
youtube
Water moves downhill below grid cells in the geo textile and everything stays stable and solid.
Dave

 

[top gnome]

Just to kind of finish this out. We have had a record amount of rain and the ground has not frozen yet. I had water washing out the road in front of the tractor shed and it looked like a river running down the hill. While it was running I used the back hoe to make a ditch about 150 ft long to move the water around the tractor shed. # 1 it worked #2 really really really glad I had a backhoe handy.

 

[bbxlr8]

Glad you solved it! I have found that no amount of thinking or planning can substitute for actually watching during a real-world torrential event. It WILL flow downhill no matter what... We are a muddy mess down here in PA this winter.

PS: Love my backhoe as well - I have made a number of "water-bar" diverters on my trails that have worked wonders in not letting a larger volume get to anywhere I care about (my tractor shed and detached garage)

 

[Dave_eng]

Ive been looking at these guys for a year or so. how big a driveway did you do. Wondering about how well it holds up

I bought 12 geogrid sheets as a trial. Each covers 9' x 17' Canadian cost $2,400. Laid where 9' is width
I bought their anchors but found I did not need them. A few 12" galvanized spikes to temporarily hold grid open as it is filled with granular.
It does an amazing job carrying vehicle loads including fuel delivery tanker.
Water passes under grid in geotextile but does no damage where I used to fight potholes.
I was worried my 92" snowblower would throw it into the field in pieces but once frozen no problems.
This has done about 1/2 of my lane. depending upon health I may do the rest in the spring.
Dave

 

[fried1765]

Just to kind of finish this out. We have had a record amount of rain and the ground has not frozen yet. I had water washing out the road in front of the tractor shed and it looked like a river running down the hill. While it was running I used the back hoe to make a ditch about 150 ft long to move the water around the tractor shed. # 1 it worked #2 really really really glad I had a backhoe handy.

A backhoe is a wonderful tool!
One never knows when it will be absolutely necessary,..... until that time arrives!