Gutter drains

[td25c]

We are coming to the finishing stages on a new home site.I started laying pipe monday for the gutter drain system.The ground is some of the toughist most compacted clay I have ever seen,and below 3' depth is solid sand stone.I am installing the pipe at 2' depth .I use my jd 8875 skid loader with 911 backhoe when working close to the home running the lines to one trench,then I use the excavator to dig the mian line.The job calls for 1,200' of drain pipe.I layed 550' today and it was dang hot and I am a tired pup.

[dirt digger]

why are you running so many pipes and not just tying into one 6" pipe?

[Red Bank]

Man, they get serious about gutter drains there, don't they? I piped mine with corrugated pipe, away from the house and let it run out on top of the ground. How much is this system costing?-glad you got the work, just suprised at the drains.

[td25c]

We thought about that dirt digger,but 3-4inch pipes will handle more volume than one 6 inch pipe.So we ran the 3 gutter drains in 3 separate 4 inch pipes.

[td25c]

Yes Red Bank, we get serious about gutter drians.On this job I ran all the drains at least 100 feet from the home to "day light".

[Hendrik]

.The job calls for 1,200' of drain pipe.I layed 550' today and it was dang hot and I am a tired pup.
Whinge whinge whinge, in the old days we didn't have any of these fancy machines and did it all by hand and we used big clay pipes.

[td25c]

Whinge whinge whinge, in the old days we didn't have any of these fancy machines and did it all by hand and we used big clay pipes.

I hear ya mate,My grandad and great uncle put in clay pipe sections digging it in by hand.We get alot more done in a day with the equipment.There is still quite a bit of hand work involved today,And I get tired after a long hot day.I hit the shower after I get home ,eat a bit of supper,and have a few barley soda's in the evening before hitting the sack.

[td25c]

In normal ground conditions ,backfilling goes pretty quick on a small ditch like this.But not on this job,Due to all sand stone & heavy clay chunks in the backfill I ended up moving part of backfill spoil out of the way so I could bring in some suitable dirt to cover the pipe at least 3 or 4 inches then I could continue backfilling with the original heavy clay and let the smaller pieces of sand stone fall in the ditch.Luckily I had some good dirt close by that I that I had separated from a burn pile last week on the site.

[td25c]

I filled the ditch to the top with the heavy clay & sand stone spoil then I bring in top soil with the skid loader and put about 6 inches of it on top of the ditch then I used the excavator at an angle crossing the ditch to partly compact it.This helps keep water from washing out and saturating the ditch.

[dayexco]

1-8" would have been less than 3-4's.....as far as backfill, should have hit some of the overdigs there with either some sand, or small rock to fill up that void. you may end up with a good possibility of having sags in those lines the way it looks in the pics.

[amunderdog]

:my2c
Another job done well :usa

[td25c]

dayexco,An 8" main line would be overkill for 3-4" lines.According to my pipe supplier,the 8" main is also more expensive than running 3 -4" lines.I did have some overdigs when I hit the sand stone but I filled them with dirt using a hand shovel before I backfilled.

[td25c]

I appreciate the kined words amunderdog.I apologize for not getting any pictures of myself running my hand shovel.I used it as much as the skid loader and excavator.I'll bet you have some sand stone in your neck of the woods.

[Cretebaby]

Some clean stone for bedding would have been a wise investment IMO

[dayexco]

$2.11 a ft. for 8" sdr 35.......79 cents for 4", times 3 =$2.37, 8" would have been cheaper, and easier than 3 lines, plus 1-8" pipe holds 2.61 gals per l.f....where as 1- 4 " pipe holds .65 gals per l.f....times 3, =1.95 gals per l.f.....8" would have been a better bang for the buck, and quicker

[dirt digger]

gutter drains are just a pain in general...you did nice work 25c, especially in that hard crap...

not to steal your thread, but we did a job like this in the summer...you wanna talk about a pain...love it when the engineers put the rain pit on the high side of the lot

[td25c]

dayexco,That is a good price on the 8" pipe,figure in for fittings & adapters from 4" to 8" and the cost goes up.Not to mention that I dont need an 8" main to handle 3 -4"lines.I am running on a shallow sand stone layer and the 4" pipe works good for this.

[CM1995]

love it when the engineers put the rain pit on the high side of the lot

Why would someone spend that much time and money building a leach pit that big for gutter pipes?:beatsme Is it local code? If we are doing gutter drains they just run out to daylight, into a storm pipe or detention pond.

[td25c]

dirt digger,Thanks for the comment and sharing pictures of your job.Looks like you got pretty involved on the gutter drain system.Most of these new homes have a steep 12-12 pitch roof line and the water fills those gutters quick in a hard rain.Many gallons of water will run through the gutter drain system on the bigger homes.Do you then install perforated pipe in the rain pit similar to a stone system septic leach line?We have all the pipe on this job running to day light now ,but we thought about installing small rain pits at the end of each line to help with erosion and I guess we still can in the future.

[bill onthehill]

That is a typical Pa. DER over engineered leach pit. They size them based on the square footage of the roof and make you line it and put cleanouts in the runs and stand pipes in the pit runs. PITA and expensive for sure.

[RocksnRoses]

I find it interesting that all of the water from the roof of the house is allowed to run away. Here, because of our dry climate and extreme shortage of water, most houses have rain water tanks and it is now a requirement for every new house to have a tank installed. Our state is also on a piped water scheme which is pumped from the River Murray, but because of a series of dry years with little flow from the catchments and over allocation of the water for the irrigation of rice, cotton, vines etc, the whole river system which runs through four states, is in dire straights. More and more is now being done to conserve water, using de-salination, storm water retention and all of the irrigators have had their water licencences cut to about 18% of their original allocation. Shortage of water is obviously not a problem where you are, but with none being retained, where does the domestic supply of water for the houses come from?

Rn'R.

[td25c]

Thats a good idea Rocksn'Roses running the roof water to a water tank or cistern.My geat uncle is still set up that way.We have had rural water "water main" out hear in the bush for about 8 years now .In my area we are blessed with sping water coming out of the limestone bluffs in the hills.We did not hook up to the water main. My home has a 1000 gal. cistern set up at the spring catching the water and its gravity fed to the home ,I have a pump in the basement to boost the pressure.My grandmothers home is set up the same way only she has a 1900 gal. cistern and a pump house at the spring because it is below the home.On the job site that I was installing the gutter drains they are hooked up on the rural water main.In my area all the older homes were built after the water source was found.If you run on to an old homested ruin in my area,there is either a spring or well nearby.

[dirt digger]

yes we run perf pipe in the beds just like a septic, only difference is we use #4's instead of #57's

all of the water that hits the site must be put back in the ground with a lot of municipalities around here, that particular house i posted the picture of had 2 catch basins as well

but nothing beats the over sized stone pit as this one....no roof gutters going into it...just (6) 8" green plastic catch basins...it is drainage for a courtyard at a very, lets say, famous persons house


or the next ones, biggest pit i ever dug...funny thing is this oversized hole was just to catch the water from the front of the houses roof...the rear of the house had a smaller pit

[Noose]

Those drain pits are unreal! I can't even imagine the costs.But we are in the hills and not too many people build in the the low spots. Grading the property and away from the house are our only concerns!

[td25c]

Thats pretty neet dirt digger.Your subsoil looks like The same type of red clay we have in most areas.But for some reason the job that I posted on this thread has some of the toughest most compacted red clay that I have ever worked in.It's on a hilltop and when I get further away from the hilltop it digs alot easyer.A machine could not pack the dirt this tight.On the sidewalls of the trench ,I can only get my pocket knife blade to stick in about 3/8 of an inch pushing on it hard and we have had alot of rain lately.I started calling it dinosaur dirt because I could not think of any thing else that would have compacted it this tight.

[td25c]

Well, I finished the gutter drain system today.The dirt was alot better on the east side of the home.It dug nice and I did not have any trouble using it as backfill around the pipe.I did call the power company to kill the electricity as I had to cross a 7,200 volt primary line running to the transformer for the home.

[stock]

Well here in good ole Eire alot of people are putting in grey water systems now to be green ,this water is used for toilets washing machines etc, well for all non potable uses,as well as that we are facing the introduction of water charges at some time in the future so it becomes a cost saving issue.


Stock

[CM1995]

Stock I thing that could be a good nitch market for ditch diggers in the future. Rainwater harvesting for non-potable and irrigation uses on individual homes will be something we will see more of in the future. It make sense to capture your rainwater and re-use it for a beneficial purpose. The economic payback and geographic location of the system will determine it's utlimate popularity though.

[td25c]

$2.11 a ft. for 8" sdr 35.......79 cents for 4", times 3 =$2.37, 8" would have been cheaper, and easier than 3 lines, plus 1-8" pipe holds 2.61 gals per l.f....where as 1- 4 " pipe holds .65 gals per l.f....times 3, =1.95 gals per l.f.....8" would have been a better bang for the buck, and quicker

dayexco,you need to share your pipe supplier with all of us.8" sdr 35 is over 4.00 dollars a foot in Indiana.

[ATCOEQUIP]

Dang...that's enough difference to cover freight easy!