How to Install a Channel Drain | Ask This Old House

we can probably fit six to eight cars in this driveway that is a big driver yes it is however one of the things that's bad about the driveway is as you can see with the rain last night all the water just seems to run right down the driveway right well you have water coming down this way and then this side is pitched so it helps wrap water around here and it all gets concentrated and goes into the backyard up in here then here's where the erosion occurs and that's what happened that water is all concentrated and speeds up it's actually come through here and carved out a channel in the soil I know we used to have grass here at one point but now we just don't know what to do with this area I have an idea I think what we'll do is we'll collect the water up there at the driveway put it in an underground pipe and run it out at the back of the eye that sounds great to me okay now I'm gonna use a channel drain to collect that water as it comes off you're driving right this is one model it's about three inches wide it's really lightweight and I don't think it's big enough to carry all the water we're gonna get coming off your drive okay so what I want to use today is this medium-duty one it's four inches wide it comes with black grates on the top and this will really collect that water as it comes off the drive all right now in order to install this I have to make a cut right there and remove this asphalt okay I'm using a worm drive circular saw with a seven-inch diamond blade it has a water attachment to cool the blade and keep the dust down there you go perfect we're off to a nice clean start alright alright now we got to do some excavation but we don't have to do a lot we got to be down about 8 inches here so I want you to dig out about 6 inches of the soil put it in the wheelbarrow I'm going to break off some rocks I found here so we can get this channel all set for our drain all right sounds good alright that looks good now we're going to take this channel drain and it's going to be sitting right in place just like this a couple inches off of our cut but before it goes in place we have to put an end cap which is this piece and this will accept a 90-degree angle to get us down into the pipe so when this goes in like that we're gonna be able to set it and come down here and get into a pipe which is gonna go to the backyard great so I need to glue these fittings in place while I'm doing that I need you to mix up some concrete absolutely all right John let's try fit adriaen bring that right around you can see where I attached a pipe and another connection on the end of it we want it to set in read about there the one thing I want to check make sure we have pitch coming down this way we gotta go gonna come down just a little more on this one all right that looks perfect now what I want to do is just put a nice wedge in and hold it in place keep going okay right here now we're gonna let this set up for a little while while we'll letting it set up we're gonna take and continue digging our trench about 12 inches deep all right we're ready for another piece all right now this one here is gonna be 84 inches long you take care of that funny and do that Reed all right just bring that up to the trench for a second okay yep here you go clean the inside of this I need to clean that end put some glue on it all right now take that end put it right in the trench down my I push I push oh good okay you know I got to put a fitting on there we got one straight we're on the whole way down all right that's the last of our fittings now we use the fittings to change the direction of the pipe the rest of our run is pretty much a straight run so kay we're gonna be able to use the pipe itself on one end of the pipe is a bell end and that opens up so that it will receive if you grab that pipe right there we'll be able to slide hold the end we'll be able to slide the two pipes together without having it put a fitting in so it's even faster okay go right in the trench hold your end up so it doesn't get dirty come down to me push push push perfect hey John take a peek over here let me tell you how I finished off this pipe this is called daylighting where the pipe just comes out and opens right like that now protect it I've put some stones down in front of it and one on top of it what I want to do is keep leave and debris from getting in there and choking that pipe it's very important that you keep that pipe from getting clogged all right I can do that great well that's good the trenching pots done in backfill we only have one thing left to do all right what's that that's up here at the trench drain remember we left the space between the drain and the asphalt driveway we want to fill that in now what we're gonna use is cup asphalt patch it's not hot it's cold and comes in the bag we're just gonna take and put it in we're gonna go about half way up on this and then we're gonna pack it and we'll put another layer in will you grab the bag now just go down there and we'll just drop a little in work our way okay slit it out nice and easy good we don't want to get too too much out okay that looks pretty good now what we have to do is compact this and I'm just going to use the hammer and I can't get in there with anything else but this but you can see how much it's compacting yeah I'll work my way down what you can do now is come behind me and start filling it in all the way up to the top of the asphalt the existing driveway well John I think that does it I think I've solved your drainage

Channel: This Old House

Views: 5,393,721

Rating: 4.672791 out of 5

Keywords: This Old House, Ask This Old House, DIY, Home Improvement, DIY Ideas, Renovation, Renovation Ideas, How To Fix, How To Install, How To Build, channel drain, irrigation, drainage, landscaping, driveway, runoff, rainfall, home repair, renovation, do it yourself, diy, roger cook, norm abram, tom silva, tom silva this old house, tom silva house, tom silva construction, tom silva tools, tommy silva

Id: C39FWbhqiSA

Length: 7min 30sec (450 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 09 2016