OK, you folks helped me with the depth & covering of a drainage pipe (for the record, 35 feet of 6 inch schedule 40 PVC at 9 inches below surface, with dirt tightly packed around the sides of the pipe). After a major rain, the pipe works great and driving my tractor over such is fine, but I've also a couple of adjacent "rivulets" (about 25-30' to the North and South of the pipe) that are eroding my freshly covered land (was swamp). So, I either trench across my property isthmus at other locations (80 feet and 20 feet), or a dig a trench along the whole side of my property isthmus (about 100 feet) to funnel all water into the PVC pipe I just placed. My FEL will dig about 18" deep (by about 2 feet across, before my front wheels risk collapsing the sidewall of the trench I'm cutting; my middle buster will achieve about 4" more depth but only a 10-12" width - multiple passes with the middle buster does not mean a wider trench, at least not a "clean" one). Anything more will require "a man and a shovel" (meaning me- show a little mercy, folks). Any guesses as to whether a trench 18" X 24" will suffice for modest amounts of water after rainfalls (for years, I want to get this right the first time), and if so, should I lay down some sort of mesh in the trench to minimize collapse of the sidewalls?
Depth & LIning of Trench
- Thread starter cisco
- Start date
MarkV
Super Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2000
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- 5,670
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- Cedartown, Ga and N. Ga mountains
- Tractor
- 1998 Kubota B21, 2005 Kubota L39
Cisco,
A ditch 18”x24” will handle a pretty fair amount of water, so I would think that would be plenty big. Now if it were me, I would consider going at it a little different. I would create what we call a “swale” which is a ditch with more gradually sloping sides. The advantage would be the ability to cross it with the tractor, it would be easier to get grass growing and also the ability to mow it. I would think if your middle buster made the first pass you could drop the tractor tires in that shallow ditch and use the FEL to cut the sides.
Of course if the ditch is going to be someplace that you don’t need grass there would be no need for a swale.
MarkV
A ditch 18”x24” will handle a pretty fair amount of water, so I would think that would be plenty big. Now if it were me, I would consider going at it a little different. I would create what we call a “swale” which is a ditch with more gradually sloping sides. The advantage would be the ability to cross it with the tractor, it would be easier to get grass growing and also the ability to mow it. I would think if your middle buster made the first pass you could drop the tractor tires in that shallow ditch and use the FEL to cut the sides.
Of course if the ditch is going to be someplace that you don’t need grass there would be no need for a swale.
MarkV
gerard
Veteran Member
I agree with Mark. If you do a ditch with steep sides they wil erode into the trench eventually. Also the trench would need periodic touching up to remove the fines that will inevitably fill in. (Usually drainage culverts like you're talking about have rip rack in the bottom to prevent erosion. That's an added cost and labor) A swale will accomplish the same thing and if grass gets established it will stabilize the soil and prevent erosion. If the land slopes naturally in the direction you want the water to run it's amazing how shallow a swale you'll need to direct the water.