trench

Help Support CattleToday:

D

danl

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 4, 2004
Messages
739
Reaction score
1
Location
Missouri
I need to trench about 150' to get a gutter downspout further away from the house.
I can hire it done by a neighbor for about $150.00, the $150.00 I don't mind but he uses a small excavator and is going to make a big mess of the yard for no more than I need done.
I can rent a ditch witch and do it myself, which I would rather do, but it gripes me that it will cost $250.00 to rent a machine and I still have to do the work.
I think it would be much cleaner with a trencher.

Any other ideas that do not involve a shovel and pick??? Its hot and my back hurts.


..
 
Show up at the rental place a few minutes before they close offer 150. If they don't take it get your neighbor to do it. Its grass and will heal with time.
 
I was just thinking I could trench a 4" wide ditch, and I think his smallest bucket is 12 or 14". He is good, that's his living.

Thought about a middle buster but that would probably make a bigger mess and involve a shovel more than I care for.
 
A trencher is the way to go but will still involve 'some' shovel work as it doesn't get all the soil out. Best thing to do is plan all or any trenching you might do in the near future and do it all at the same time--water lines, drainage ditches, etc to make the rental fee less onerous. If you have a close neighbor that needs trenches, you can split the cost with them and do it all the same day.
I've done the middle buster thing burying some 3/4 pvc for water trough needs and it wasn't too bad but the ground was dry and I wasn't too worried about the depth. Did it with a single breaking plow once too, but I don't reccomend it. Only good thing about that method is being able to just push the soil and sod right back into place just like it came out, since the breaking plow displaced the dirt and grass over to just one side. Won't work for your current project very well tho.
 
I've done lots of 3/4 with single ripper foot 2ft deep and when your finished you just drive back over it and its done.
 
If you have fist size rocks the excavator is the way to go. I fought rocks that size with a trencher for a hundred feet and it took 2 days. They love to get between the chain and the bar and lock it up.
 
dun":1i2gg10s said:
If you have fist size rocks the excavator is the way to go. I fought rocks that size with a trencher for a hundred feet and it took 2 days. They love to get between the chain and the bar and lock it up.
Click to expand...

Not to mention if your trying to grade something where it will drain a hoe is the best/right way to do it. B&G
 
Just rip it up twice and dig it out with a trenching shovel. It's only 150' but if there's rocks hire it out.
 
I would use a terramite backhoe if you are worried about tearing the yard up they are light and will get the job done if rocks are not huge. I don't know what they rent for but they should be cheap but personally 150 bucks I would have handed him the money before he changed his mind.... :2cents:
 
He gets 75.00 an hour 2 hour minimum, which I think is cheap. Its not the money. I want to do this myself because I'm not exactly sure how I'm gonna do it.
And I just want to do it myself mostly cause I'm that kind of guy :!:
I can rent a trencher from a friend of a friend for $100.00 and he isn't real concerned about how long I have it. or how many hours. I think he would just let me use it, but I don't want to do that for free.
However the teeth only measure 4.25" wide. I don't think 4" corrugated or even 4" s and d will fit, so I am thinking about wyeing 4" down to two 3" corrugated and stacking them in the trench. Is that workable?

3" corrugated is only $23.00 a hundred foot roll.
 
I would use smooth wall pipe because the corrugated pipe will eventually collect leaves and start holding dirt. Before you know it your drain will be plugged!

Also, the friend with the trencher may have some spacers. You bolt these on in three equally distances to widen the cut width. Only takes a few minutes to install them.
 
Why not set up a collection barrel and an automatic pump that when it reaches a certain level it will activate the pump which could be plumbed to a sprinkler system and water the garden or just fill a water trough for the animals
 
Any of you number experts know if 3" pipe will handle the run off from 1/4 of a 2000 square foot roof? I am guessing on the 2000'. We have a 1750 square foot house, upstairs. And a 6/12 pitch I guess that matters also. The front half of the house is properly drained away, On the back of the houseI have one downspout that goes the other direction, the one I am wanting to get further from the house is flooding our septic field system every time it rains hard. Which as of right now is NEVER...

M5farms that would be a good idea except a barrel large enough to handle that amount of runoff would get me murdered by the wife and it would turn into a icecycle in the winter.
 
A 3 inch pipe installed at 1/8 in./ft. slope will drain 548 sq. ft. during a 6 inch/hour rain fall.

A pipe installed with greater slope will drain a larger area.

FYI, a trencher ditch is much harder to settle than a wider ditch such as a 12 or 18 inch ditch that may be dug with the mini excavator. The trencher ditch will also leave loose soil in the bottom of the ditch and make it harder to achieve long lasting consistent fall.
 
Search online for roof rainfall water calculations.

Plug in your roof sq. ft. and amount of rainfall and the volume of water generated will be known.

If your going through all the work 4" smooth wall is the way to go!
 
It turns out a 4" sewer and drain will barely fit in a 4.25" trench, for future reference.
I put in over 400' of line Saturday.
We built out house 2 years ago and put in twice the field line we supposedly needed. It still sometimes comes to the surface. That is the reason I wanted the rain gutter out past the septic tank field line.
Our ground does not perk, but it is great if you want a pond.

I know it is not the right way to do it, but I added 250' of 4" perforated sewer and drain to the end of the field line we already have just by making a four inch trench and laying it in, no gravel. I figure it can't hurt. Didnt cost anything, already had the pipe, already paid for the trencher usage... Oh I did have to buy new glue.. Fifteen minutes into glueing pipe together I kicked the can over :frowns:

There was one downside to this cheap trencher rental, He had problems with the positrack or differintial lock, whatever... So he welded it in permanent locked position, great for digging extremely almost impossible to turn.
 

Latest posts

Top