Focks: If I hadn't been in such a hurry to get back home to deal with the septic problem and the root canal, I would have done that! My wife is adamant that she wants a "french drain" installed around the house this weekend, so that if it rains heavily again, she won't get flooded while I am out of town on business next week. I have had to engineer that between other crises this week.
To build a french drain, we need to:
- Dig a "trench" 6 to 12 inches wide, and at least 12 inches deep, around 3 sdies of the home (the uphil side plus both sides that follow the hill downward, but not on the downhill side of the home).
- Extend the trench on each downhill run so that it goes WELL past the house - at least 20 feet past
- Maintain a slope of around 2% (1/4 inch per foot). Since the u-shaped trench is 51 feet long on the uphill side of the home, and will slope down BOTH ways from the center of that wall, the trench will drop 1/4 inch x 25.5 feet = over 6 inches by the time it hits the uphill corner of the house. That means it has to be at least 18 inches deep at each of thsoe uphill corners. Then, it has to follow the hill downward, but at a slightly lower slope rate than the ground, so that the pipe end emerges from the ground 20 feet past the home. I get to use a "water level" to engineer this!
- Then, 1 or 2 inches of river rock gravel to line the bottom of the trench, for its full 51+50 + 50 = 151 linear feet.
- Then, 151 linear feet of performated plastic pipe, plus elbows, cleanouts, glu, primer, etc.
- Then, the trench is filled to ground level with more river rock.
- Grills on th putput ends to keep critters from setting up home in the piping (especially that large skunk that we see periodically in the woods in front of the house)
This will require 9.5 cubic yards = 38,500 lbs of river rock (arriving Thursday, just before session 1 of the root canal!
). THis has to be moved by a combination of tractor and wheelbarrows (you can't get the 8' high tractor under the car port that restricts access to half of that 51' wall, and the 6000 lb. tractor must NOT go over the septic field adjacent to the OTHER half of that wall!
).
Oh, did I mention that the 51' wall has the following impediments to digging:
- 2 AC condensors (the builders of our tiny 1428 sq ft home zoned it so it requires TWO separate AC systems. Why? I have no idea)
- The underground telephone entry line
- The underground power line
- The underground water line from the well
- Two separate underground septic lines from the home to the septic tank
Hitting ANY of these would cause , uh, unpleasantness.
One of my friends at our church has graciously organized a group of guys from the church to come here this Saturday and help us do the work.We are hoping that we will prevail over the rocky ground, miss the power and water lines, and get this protective system in place before I fly out Monday!!
Yeah, I AM a bit busy . . .
Jim G
