Drainage project is functionally complete.

Nov 9, 2020, 12:10 PM

Not nearly as awesome or substantial as ryanadidas®'s, but hopefully it will help us out.

Over the past two weekends we've been working on a drainage project. Actually two separate ones, first is burying the downspouts into a solid pipe and piping it out to the stormwater creek. The second, was an open French drain down the high side of the house and along the fence.

Last weekend was the trencher work and digging. Got the French drain piping in, but needed to backfill with gravel. Started the downspout piping, finished the area where the piping is in the French drain trench.

This weekend was a lot of work, finished the downspout piping so we could bury it and get a wheelbarrow filled with gravel to the French drain trench. Bribed 4 friends over yesterday afternoon with beer and pizza, and knocked out moving 5 cubic yards of gravel into the trench.

It's functionally complete now, just in time for all the rain this week. We still have a lot of grading and moving all the excess dirt around, then grass seeding. Also going to have 5 cubic yards of 5"-7" river rock delivered, and that will be covering the French drain trench, and also extending to the fence whenever it's along the fence line. Then some large rip rap at the outfall.

All in all, we've spent around $1,500 on this project, probably another $1,000 for the river rock and final materials. I would've gladly paid someone for the labor of this, but no contractor wants smaller jobs right now!

Gearing up to use the trencher - which was a lot of fun to use, highly recommend.

Trencher boner, giggity.

This was the wrap up from last weekend. The combined part where the downspout piping is above the French drain piping in the same trench, you can see the French drain turns at the bottom of the picture. Managed to hit about every coax, fiber, and telephone line as they were a solid 2' from the 811 markings. Fortunately didn't hit the active AT&T fiber into the house, did dig it up though and rebury.

Wrapping up from the last weekend, the PVC pipe is the neighbor's downspout that ties into the piping chase. French drain turns and goes under the fence following the low part contour of the existing grade. Note the Macgyver'd chicken wire fence extension that prevents Shuri from jumping the fence.

This is wrapping up last weekend. Had a friend over to help with some of the digging, seen near the outfall.

After this weekend, need to move the dirt below the picture somewhere.

After this weekend, need to move the dirt to spread it flatter on the right. The French drain and between the fence will be covered with the river rock.