LOW IMPACT TRENCHING. You can apply “Industrial Engineering” to material handling when digging out and filling in trenches. Waste and damage can be avoided entirely. Strings can be used to define work and guide the shovel, so the pitch of all ditches and pipes, is worked out prior to any digging, and errant digging is eliminated. Each shovel-load should go into a tub. Plan for tubs, tarps and boards to work on. Plan to dispose of lots of disturbed soils because the trench’s Fabric, Gravel, Piping, Concrete and air are new volume. Plan to puddle-compact any soil you do reuse.

AVOID CORRUGATED DRAINAGE PIPING. Corrugated black pipe comes in a roll on a pallet. Corrugated piping is wavy, leaky, flexible, inconsistent, hard to straighten out, and almost guaranteed to fail.  Uphill sections are common and often the last few feet are uphill, because you can make errors digging too low. It should be uncommon for a drainage contractor to leave a yard looking like a bomb went off, only to install a wavy, floppy, pipe that is restrictive, resistant, improperly pitched and destined to fail. Corrugated-pipe is wavy and flexible and often has multiple uphill sections in each lineage as installed, and often the last few feet are uphill. It is not uncommon to see solid corrugated-pipe accidentally confused or mixed with perforated-corrugated-pipe and for there to be no visible termination to daylight at the end of an extensive drainage project.

USE SOLID 4″ PVC AND MAINTAIN A PITCH! 1%-2% minimum pitch is required!!

Sump-Pump Discharge and Gutter Water and Yard Water and HVAC water can all be taken away from your home’s foundation with one 4″ or 6″ PVC pipe running from just above the lowest footing if you have a sump-system, or below the lowest footing if you have an exterior french drain.

Rather than your conveyance-ditch or exit-trench being an afterthought, it might have to be the first part of the project.

Storm drains are often on YOUR PROPERTY so use them to keep your yard dry.