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Putting drain in existing barn
I am in the prcess of adding on to a barn and renovating it for horses. At the site, I have a borrowed backhoe and a load of stone. Seeing those two things together it occured to me that maybe I should put a drain in the aisle of the barn. The floor is gravel, which I will be digging up to install the waterline. Once the water (and hopefully drain) is in, I will cover everything with either stonedust or sand; the better half is debating which she wants to use.
If I just dig a hole and fill it with stone and put a grate of some sort of top, will this do anything, or do I need to have a pipe at the bottom of the hole that runs out of the barn?
I've never done anything like this before, but am not afraid to try -- any suggestions on how to go about this project would be appreciated!
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Putting drain in existing barn
I would be concerned about disposing of water under a barn, if enough water stayed in the ground it could cause problems with frost heaving and the like.
If you already have access to a B/H I would pipe the drain out to a disposal site well away from the barn itself.
Best of luck.
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Putting drain in existing barn
Just ran out to the barn to check out options, and realized that I need to pull the water away from the barn. I have a great, easy access spot to burry a drain pipe. What should be at the bottom of the pit I am digging in the barn? I understand how to put in the pipe that is carrying the water away, put don't visulaize how to get the water into that pipe.
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Putting drain in existing barn
Making a 'catch basin' of sorts might be your best option.
Have the floor slope to a central drain point. Usually you want that to be out of the area where horses will be walking or standing. The cover can be a plate of steel with holes in it, or a steel mesh grate, the options are endless.
The easiest is concrete, make the form from plywood or use a plastic barrel, or even concrete blocks with a parged water-proofing on the inside. Have the outlet point a little ways up off the floor, that way any debris will settle in the botttom where it can be easily scooped out before it clogs the drain pipe.
If you use a poly barrel you can use plastic drain line and glue it all together then just pour concrete or stone dust around it later, after you have verified slopes, etc., are all OK.
Engineering is not all that mysterious, as one of my prof.'s use to say "As long as you remeber that s#$% only runs DOWNHILL.".
Best of luck.
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Putting drain in existing barn
I don't know touchy enviro things are in your area. We installed a gray water pit and the rules here require it to be 3' above the high water table (and that's for gray water). The rules required us to raise the pit 3' above grade due to a high water table in the spring. It might be good to check regs in your area. Of course, if you ask you may get an answer you don't want.
Our pit had to be rated at 375 gpd for a health permit. It is 6x12x4' stone filled with a 3' chamber.
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Putting drain in existing barn
I'll be honest; I am afraid to ask what I can and cannot do as there is a stream nearby and the regulations in this town are a bit strict. It seems silly to me that this is an issue at all, as with or without a drain we will be using and dumping the same amount of water. It's just a question of whether it gets dumped into a drain which should help spread out the water or it gets dumped in what will become a big, muddy pit.
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Putting drain in existing barn
If I were doing it I'd look for a large buried rock face and put a pit over it. That forces water to stay closer to the surface so more evapourates and also to travel further through soil before it enters the water table. Typical pit construction is cement blocks turned sideways and a similar central chamber topped with a slab or paving stones. The pit is filled with stone, untreated building paper is placed over the stone and then it's covered over. The soil firms up before the paper deteriorates. For high water tables and no rock faces, leech-lines take more area but require less depth. Some types of trees can help evapouration with pits but usually not leech lines.
Regs can be a pain. I figure that I live here and I'm the one who has a stake in the environment. Regs tend to be standards for the worst cases of irresponsibility rather than guides for solving particular problems in particular places--still they do have some teeth. The inspector for our new septic system was also going to a place near here. Rumor has it that somebody with a partially built a system without taking out a permit first and then called for an inspection. I'll eventually hear how it turned out. Even if the system is up to spec I don't suppose the owner is going to be a very happy camper.
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Putting drain in existing barn
Oliver
This is what I did in my garage, before pouring my slab I
bought a "septic tank riser". This is a cylinder approx.
24" in dia. x 36" high used to extend your access to a septic tank. or "Murf's barrel". I prefered the concrete
because of it's two in. thickness to support the cover
and it's compatible with the cement floor holding it in.
Dug a hole for it and set it 2" below grade for drainage.
I put my exit pipe about 6" down from the TOP as to create
a sand trap,"winter road sand on tires" for all you flatlanders. When I poured my floor I put some in the bottom
and finished the floor up to the edge.Had a 3/8 steel plate
cut and drilled,3/4 in. holes for "kids fingers" and heavy
enough so they can't lift it.
In the winter I dump a gallon of RV non-toxic anti-freeze
in to keep it from freezing.
As far as a pit outside,I just let it go on top of the
ground where it exits the grade away from the house.
If you had a lot of water, I would dig a "dry well"
An open pit filled with rocks. This would really depend on your site?
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Putting drain in existing barn
As grinder and Muft point out the size of the project depends on the volume of water, what's in it, the soil type and climate. All those things should be factored in, and codes aside, it is good to perc leechate of through at least 3' of soil before it get to the water table (further if much muck is involved).
The septic system we just retired was a pit construction with a small cedar timber primary tank. It worked for about 40-years before some cedar logs across the top gave way. Our modern usage of the system probably hastened its demise since the tanks likely were full up to the logs a fair bit of the time. Contrary to code, both tanks were covered with vapour barrier to stop surface water going into the tanks. Even so the capacity probably wasn't enough for the original users since a small leech line system was added to the pit. That's something that can be done later if necessary.
In my pit construction I mentioned an outer course of cement blocks. I realize now that they aren't usually needed. I was thinking about adding several courses above grade to simplify constructing our raised pit. Figured it would reduce soil invasion into the stone when mounding it up. Didn't have enough extra blocks and didn't do it.
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Putting drain in existing barn
Oliver I would not put stonedust or sand over your stone It will slow the water down when it drains be muddy when wet and dusty when dry. I put down six inches of 3/4 clean and stall matts on top. It makes a nice finish that is easy to clean It is never muddy or dusty. My wife loves it. I did the same thing in the stalls and it is very easy to clean the stalls. We use much less bedding now. The urine just drains b/t the matts and into the stone. good luck.
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