Channel Drain

The owner of this property had previously experienced severe flooding in his backyard right beside a small building. The flooding had been coming from a neighbouring property and was pooling severely. The homeowner was concerned about significant property damage and had employed a portable pump the winter previous to stay above the water. Not wanting to go through that again, he employed us to find a drainage solution.

Since the water was observed by the homeowner to have been flowing in the form of runoff surface water in this particular corner, we suggested a catch basin or a channel drain. In the end we decided to employ a channel drain simply because it covers far more space and it would mean less chance of us need to come back. Since we were unable to see the flooding ourselves, this is a safer bet at catching wherever the water is coming from. With a catch basin, one needs to be precise.

The main challenges discovered during this project was a cacophony of roots from the neighbouring property’s plants, which we could not see due to the high fence. This made excavation, which was all done by hand, very difficult. Additionally there were large rocks and blocks of concrete that shouldn’t have been there hidden just below the surface. Lastly, the perimeter drain to which we were routing the water to, was oriented in an unexpected direction. This meant that we had far less space to work with than anticipated.

Due to these unexpected surprises, the pipe fittings that were ordered had to be modified and in some cases, new parts had to be obtained, as there was insufficient space for the pieces to fit together.

In the end, all problems were solved and the system was tested to ensure it worked. Water was hosed at both ends of the channel for 3 minutes straight and water was sprayed for 3 minutes at the corner that the homeowner had reported severe flooding the winter previous. The system performed as expected and this landscaping job was complete.