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Author Topic: 10m aqueduct  (Read 5626 times)

spandit

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • East Sussex
    • Sussex Forest Garden
10m aqueduct
« on: November 10, 2014, 01:01:25 pm »
The gutter from my barn goes to a down pipe and just splashes onto the ground where it causes a flood. I'd like to pipe the water into the adjacent field about 10m away

You can see the down pipe in the distance on this picture - the field is just under 10m to the right, behind the willow trees



Any suggestions on where to start? Thinking a few sections of drainpipe with a support on the barn wall, another at the far end with an intermediate support to the right of the track in the picture but don't want it to fall down
sussexforestgarden.blogspot.co.uk

henchard

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Carmarthenshire
    • Two Retirees Start a New Life in Wales
    • Facebook
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2014, 02:29:34 pm »
If it were me. I'd rig up a temporary bit of sloping drain pipe for this winter to take the water to the adjacent field. Then next summer I'd dig a proper trench with a soakaway and take it away underground.

Here's me doing something similar taking the water away from my garage (and draining the field at the same time)



spandit

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • East Sussex
    • Sussex Forest Garden
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2014, 03:45:27 pm »
Thing is, I want the water in the field as I'll be digging a lake. Soakaways are no good in waterlogged ground - believe me, we already have them but they overflow as nowhere to go!

Sloping drain pipe is what I had in mind, just supporting it will be an issue...
sussexforestgarden.blogspot.co.uk

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2014, 04:37:00 pm »
Maybe I've misuderstood, but if you're not bothered about the look of it, why can't you just lay the pipe along the ground, then either dig away any small high spots or support under any low spots to make sure the pipe isn't stressed?

As long as it's all laid in a U-shape, so air bubbles always have somewhere to go without causing an air lock, it should work ok. Then you can just put the other end of the pipe into your new lake.
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

Zebedee

  • Joined Jul 2013
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #4 on: November 11, 2014, 07:38:32 am »
How do the levels work? Does the land slope down from the field? It looks that way. You also have a downpipe on the near end of the barn. Why have one going to the field and not the other. You might be better off with a larger capacity gutter and a single pipe.

spandit

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • East Sussex
    • Sussex Forest Garden
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2014, 07:49:38 pm »
The down pipe at the near end will be capped off to divert all the water into the single pipe, which I think would handle the entire supply anyway.

I had thought of a U-shaped pipe but if it blocks it would be a devil to clear and the joints would be taking quite a lot of pressure as it would be full of water (which might get stagnant in drier spells)
sussexforestgarden.blogspot.co.uk

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2014, 11:38:56 pm »
That's a good point, but If it's not going to stay full, how is that an aqueduct?  It's just a long drainage pipe!  :-J
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

spandit

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • East Sussex
    • Sussex Forest Garden
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #7 on: November 13, 2014, 08:00:57 am »
That's a good point, but If it's not going to stay full, how is that an aqueduct?  It's just a long drainage pipe!  :-J

It's a long drainage pipe... Doesn't make for such a snappy title
sussexforestgarden.blogspot.co.uk

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #8 on: November 13, 2014, 09:08:25 am »
I suppose you're right Spandit.

"What have the Romans ever done for us?"
"Well, there's education, sanitation, the 10m drainage pipe....."

I concur - that wouldn't have worked nearly as well  ;D .
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

ScribbleUk

  • Joined Sep 2012
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #9 on: November 13, 2014, 09:20:07 am »
I had a similar problem.  Solved it by directing the downpipe in to a large spare water butt, then a regular hose pipe attached to the water butt tap that is always left open.  The end of the hose pipe can be directed wherever you want the water to drain out to.  The water butt is on a few blocks to raise the height to get a flow, and acts as a buffer to catch the water, before draining out.  Has never overflowed and is catching water off about 700sq ft of roof.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2014, 09:22:51 am by ScribbleUk »

spandit

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • East Sussex
    • Sussex Forest Garden
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2014, 06:46:45 pm »
That's an idea, although it would take up valuable space down my shooting range!
sussexforestgarden.blogspot.co.uk

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #11 on: November 14, 2014, 02:34:09 am »
I made a 3  x 3 metre by 5 mtr deep soak away in 9 inch walled hole of rough mortared brickbats .
They came in  a 20 tonne tipper lorry full of rubbish/ rejected  bricks for £ 55 , I sorted  them by hand to get anything resembling a whole brick .
Stacked them handy for building the walls
 

 Found someone with a decent JCB & back act to dig the sloping sided hole .
The broken stuff went in the bottom of the hole to make about 2 foot of rubble , broken concrete & other farm inert rubbish all set on top of about 20 empty dumpy bags from a local farmer .

When reasonably flat I then mixed  a foot of concrete poured & poured it in over some old chain link fencing .. using some cut lengthwise blue barrels bolted together & staked to the solid ground away from the lip of the hole to make the delivery chute. Used a long pole with a " T" bar securely screwed on the end to roughly level & tamp the wet concrete , then  left it alone for a month by which time the hole was about 1.5 mtr deep in water .. that concrete will have set like steel.
 
Meanwhile  I got four eight foot length of 30 mm hollow box tube , marked in pencil first Then  nicked  them on both sides at every bricks width & 10 mm with a thin blade in the angle grinder to make a brick profile gauge :raining:/guide & drilled several holes that would correspond with middle of each mortar joint so that when I'd carefully built the corners square to a height of about a metre , it was just a case of putting the profile up on plugs & screws once they had set at about day five .

Then  string a line round the whole tank and build up till the top over a week end.   Letting  it dry for a day or three I  back filled the hole on the outsides so I could work at an easy height over stages of every 2 feet up and move the profiles up the corners again.

Once walling was about four feet high I put up a simple platform of wood on top of  310 litre blue barrels in  middle of the tank & boarded it out to the sides so I had an internal platform to play on . It made bringing in more bricks on the pneumatic tyred sack barrow much easier  , the same with wheel barrows of mortar . It only took six evenings to build to the finished height of a foot below the mean ground level.

As I built the wall ,in one corner where the access manhole was going I set in wall steps every six courses alternating as a left then  a right one 400 mm apart , so that if needed someone could climb in or out the tank when it was finished .

I'd already made provisions to trench in a 40 mtr long black 120 mm perforated ground drain to a lower point on my land to take away the surplus water in winter & brought it in through the wall at about 1000 mm deep , the rainwater filling pipework was also set in place at the same level  in  the input trench. Both were set  on a foot bed of pea grit , covered with the same to another foot then I laid on lots of strips of cut up dumpy bags to help keep the soak away run clean for 30years or so , then finally back filled the run with earth &topped it with the original turf


Around the rim of the square tank I laid a pre-used 3/4 thick plywood roof over it using old floor joists at 400 centers on new galv wall hanger plates , made an outer screwed on frame with a 9 inch lip which overlapped the wall by about four inches , set in a manhole cover on some glued down polystyrene blocks & hole cut in an extraction float level indicator tube made from some foul water pipe and a collar with a top & bottom spigot /pipe .  Laid down two 6 mm dia  100 x 150 square cut to shape rusty weld mesh reinforcer mats . Set these mats on some cut length wise through the middle three hole brick standoffs , wired them together in a decent overlap and then poured something like  30 barrow loads of nice and sloppy home made concrete on it  , got my lass to help me tamp it flat.

 Over the next few evenings i set up all the rainwater piping then filled & turfed the  trenches


After two weeks I lifted the manhole cover and used the drill & jigsaw to remove the ply under the manhole , was quite surprised to see the tank only about 2 mtrs  deep in water .
A weeks or later it was full to the soak away point  . I set up a float controlled submersible pump ,  bringing the outlet & power cable up the float rube  used the water collected and seeped in water for all the farm equipment washing every week end  didn't realise ti at the time that I would eventually be using about half a tank each w/e .

 I'm so glad I took the time and money to do the tank and soak away , for we had a big scare from the water board  when it was announced on mobile loud speakers that clostridium bacteria had been found present in the local water supply & we were not to drink any boiled or not,  treated or not , as it's a very difficult bacteria to kill off once it's in the supply ,  We had to wait till the mains pipes had been flushed , our water pipes were also flushed & tested then a few days later we were given the all clear .

 Mast farmers were tanking in water from elsewhere to give to their stock , I just used the rainwater out my tank & pumped it up into the big header tanks in the sheds via a simple hang over the side ballcock on long hose pipe arrangement after tying off the normal plumbed in ballcocks to stop the waterboards contaminated water coming in .

 I nearly forgot ......  I used two campers chlorine purifier tablets a day on each of the sheds header tanks , to knock any nasties in the header tanks on the head by dissolving the tablets n a bucket of warm water and tipping that in the header tanks each evening just before I started the submersible pump & filled them up from the  big tank rain water tank.
 

  Once the grass had grown in the soil which was finally finished just above level with the top of the tank lid I put some 900 mm raised beds made of heavy block work on the tank cap in an L shape , on  looking at it , it looked as though I'd made a slab of concrete and put a fancy flower bed  around two edges of it.

« Last Edit: November 14, 2014, 03:11:53 am by cloddopper »
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

spandit

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • East Sussex
    • Sussex Forest Garden
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #12 on: November 14, 2014, 11:26:10 am »
There's already a 3000 gallon concrete soakaway installed at one corner of the barn but it overflows as the water table is so high at the moment (and all of last Winter - there is a covered ditch not too far away so I am going to dig an overflow into that but the water coming off the other side of the barn (where the photo was taken) has nowhere to go - it's currently about 4" deep with water and I don't want to have to start using electric pumps. I could dig a trench and connect it to the drains at the front of the barn which will lead into the aforementioned soakaway but it seems a shame just to dump it when I could be using it to keep my new lake (as yet undug) topped up (roof area is about 235m2 each side so just under 3cm of rain will give off 3000 gallons which would be fine if it actually soaked away but any rainfall we have (and we have a lot, in case people haven't noticed!) has nowhere to properly go to

This is the layout of the land (thanks to a friend with a drone!):



(I thought I'd marked where the lake was going to go but for some reason it's not showing - the darker patch directly above the barn is rushes and that will be excavated as there is an existing shallow pond there but it doesn't hold water.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2014, 11:28:42 am by spandit »
sussexforestgarden.blogspot.co.uk

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #13 on: November 17, 2014, 05:28:28 pm »
Do you need planning permission to dig the pond ?
 Are there any local green /eco deals that can help you financially if you comply with their suggesting . Here in Wales grant money was available for small holders to make ponds a while back ( don't know if it still is )

 I'd excavate my pond first  and then do the land drain exercise using two or three runs back to the pond . That way if there is any clay deeper down you can line the sides with it , saving you  from having to buy a waterpoof /resistant liner for the pond
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

spandit

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • East Sussex
    • Sussex Forest Garden
Re: 10m aqueduct
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2014, 05:31:15 pm »
There's an existing pond that I'll be enlarging so as far as I know, no planning needed. I'm hoping there is enough clay around to line it naturally as don't want to put a plastic liner in. Not sure about grants, but will have a look, thanks!

It will also be fed from a dammed ditch on the left of the photo, which in turn will be fed from a spring putting out about 3000 gallons a day in wet weather.
sussexforestgarden.blogspot.co.uk

 

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