Help With Driveway Drainage

[bcp]

Speaking of water levels, instead of long clear tubing, buy around 4 feet and cut it in half. Add a male hose fitting to one end and a female hose fitting to the other end. Connect these to your garden hose.

Bruce

 

[LD1]

Unless things have changed from when I looked at outdoor lasers, it's not so easy to see lasers outside and the ones you can see are expensive. If the tripod laser is just a hair off level at the tripod, the resulting error will be magnified.

Water seeks its own level. Pretty hard to mess up a water level.

You dont need to see the laser...they have a reciever. And they are quite accurate. Also they are self leveling

No one on jobsites in this country are using tubes and water. Drainage, construction, concrete flatwork, etc etc etc. Pretty much all use a rotary laser.

 

[dodge man]

Yes, rotary laser have been the thing to use for several years now. They are not self leveling but you just have to get them close to level, they usually have a bullseye style bubble you set them up with. If they get too far out of whack they stop working usually. They have a visible beam but you don’t need to see it just the receiver on the level rod. The good ones are highly accurate out to about 300 feet and not to bad out to 600 feet.

 

[2manyrocks]

Clear tubing is still a lot cheaper than a good outdoor laser for a homeowner doing a one time job.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Clear tubing is still a lot cheaper than a good outdoor laser for a homeowner doing a one time job.

you can usually rent them in a rental stores ... I usually used a string that I set with a level then I measure from it...

 

[2manyrocks]

$64 day to rent one vs $20-30 to buy clear tubing? It's not difficult to drive fence post at each end of a line, mark level with the clear tubing and stretch a string between the two posts to get a pretty accurate grade for this kind of job.

 

[LD1]

Yes, rotary laser have been the thing to use for several years now. They are not self leveling but you just have to get them close to level, they usually have a bullseye style bubble you set them up with. If they get too far out of whack they stop working usually. They have a visible beam but you don’t need to see it just the receiver on the level rod. The good ones are highly accurate out to about 300 feet and not to bad out to 600 feet.

Depends on the laser. I have used some that require setting up like an old sight level (but with the bullseye bubble) that you have to get fairly close. And others that you can just set up darn near anywhere you could set a coffee cup and it will do the rest

 

[LD1]

$64 day to rent one vs $20-30 to buy clear tubing? It's not difficult to drive fence post at each end of a line, mark level with the clear tubing and stretch a string between the two posts to get a pretty accurate grade for this kind of job.

Once the fence posts and strings are in the way makes it difficult to work around with equipment. You have to keep setting up and taking it down. Whereas a laser on a tripod can be out of the way. And quickly referenced several times throughout the project without the hassle.

But hey, a shovel and wheelbarrow is cheaper than a tractor too. But most of us have tractors

 

[2manyrocks]

Laser saves time on a commercial paid job. For someone just trying to figure out elevations to come up with a plan to solve a home drainage issue, I'd still go with the clear tubing and posts or grade stakes. Having posts or grade stakes will help him to visualize how much material has to be added or removed in a particular area.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I will create a border with cinderblock, keeping the elevation slightly higher than the left side of the driveway. Basically will create an 8" retaining wall, then fill with crush and run.

I'm not sure how much snow you get at your location or how you handle it. If you use a plow, sooner or later, you're going to plow up those 8" cinder blocks. Yeah, you can mark them with stakes but they're just something else to maintain.

They are also difficult to mow up against. You wind up using an edger or string trimmer which adds to your lawn grooming time.

I gave up using hardscape borders on my gravel driveway years ago for these reasons. I now use a shallow drainage swale instead. Much easier to maintain.

 

[UOFan]

I'm not sure how much snow you get at your location or how you handle it. If you use a plow, sooner or later, you're going to plow up those 8" cinder blocks. Yeah, you can mark them with stakes but they're just something else to maintain.

They are also difficult to mow up against. You wind up using an edger or string trimmer which adds to your lawn grooming time.

I gave up using hardscape borders on my gravel driveway years ago for these reasons. I now use a shallow drainage swale instead. Much easier to maintain.

We don't get enough snow down here to plow. The most snow i've seen was about 6" that melted within 48 hours. It was an anomaly, but I wish it happened every year because it was fun for the family.

Good point about the lawncare times, I don't mind adding an extra 150' of trimming, and really i've got a lot bigger issues with the lawn than some weeds growing too high against hardscape....my philosophy currently is "if it's a green and growing, it's good".

Regarding the swale, I would love to take that route. However, there is no good outlet location on the downslope side (left in the photos) of the driveway. I am planning out how to have all the runoff from the left side transfer to the right side (where there is already a swale in place). Probably going to do a combination of regrading and 2x broad dips.

 

[nyone]

I have one of these laser levels with reciever. They work amazingly well. I bought it used a few years ago to do my septic. I have since used it for many other projects. Recently I needed to move the overflow of a drainage ditch. 5min setup to find that I could just dig a shallow 2inx8in wide trench with a shovel to get the water where I wanted.

If you have the tools you will find a use for it.

 

[UOFan]

Broke ground last night. Thank you for everyone’s suggestions. I’ll post updates as it rolls along.

Step one: rough cut a small ditch and roughly level the driveway. Then, I’ll set up the rotary laser and start getting precise.

 

[UOFan]

Finished for the day. The driveway has gone from sloped to level-ish. Still have quite a bit of earth to move to give it a slight grade towards the trench

 

[UOFan]

More work updates: got the grade decent. Ended up moving a massive amount of dirt! Shovel for scale in the left of the dirt pile.

Extended the rough cut into the woods about 100’ and had to use my pallet forks to move an old bridge. We may use it later so it was easier to just pick the whole thing up.

Continuing todays work will be working on the cut, smoothing out the grade on the berm to prevent erosion and allow grass to to grow, and moving more dirt.

These tractors work hard for 24.9 HP.

 

[2manyrocks]

Doesn't look like you have large rocks in your ground. That makes a huge difference.

 

[EddieWalker]

You're making a lot of progress. What I've found when I dig ditches is that I always end up with a high spot that doesn't flow, and a low spot that holds water after a big rain. I always walk out to my ditches right after a big rain to see what they are doing, and what I can do to make them work better. Last week I found a built up are of pine needles and small sticks that where blocking my ditch and sending water over it's bank.

 

[UOFan]

Doesn't look like you have large rocks in your ground. That makes a huge difference.

Yeah no big rocks at all. Really just sand and clay.

You're making a lot of progress. What I've found when I dig ditches is that I always end up with a high spot that doesn't flow, and a low spot that holds water after a big rain. I always walk out to my ditches right after a big rain to see what they are doing, and what I can do to make them work better. Last week I found a built up are of pine needles and small sticks that where blocking my ditch and sending water over it's bank.

Yeah good point, I’ve been using the laser to check general slope but I did a water test today and found a few flatter spots.

Would you guys recommend laying down some landscape fabric in the cut before I put down some drainage stone?

 

[Rockbadchild]

depends whether or not you want vegetation to grow …

it is some very nice material you got there so other then slowing the vegetation growth i don’t see any advantage to put fabric down other then maybe reduce erosion

 

[UOFan]

On the sloped berm next to the cut I’m planning on seeding with something that’ll do well in the summer (Bahia or Bermuda…open to suggestions but it needs to tolerate sand), and then getting some erosion control rolled fabric to lay over the top while it germinates.

Inside the cut, I’ll just do some sort of stone. I don’t necessarily care if it sinks some, as the point of the cut is to be lower than the drive. There are a lot more experienced guys on here than me, so far I’ve changed my plans a few times based off the posts here.

Edit: trench is 85% done and shaped, image below