Cost of draining land

[JMTHORNLEY]

Wish my drains flowed like that

 

[hally]

Wish my drains flowed like that

Yeah I know what you mean, spent the first half of the year trying to get rid of the bloody stuff and lately trying to find the bloody stuff.....ain’t farming fun

 

[pine_guy]

It will be clay so definitely need gravel , the bit that was done years ago has pea gravel in top but not much , possibly should be more but likely that was all that was budgeted then . Had a quick look at field today on way past and it does have a decent fall toward the ditch. Do we think I could just run straight drains from top down to ditch or does it need a more complicated system ? How close should drains be?

No experiance of it, but if you have a ditch and a fall to it and on clay, can you not mole drain it to start with?

 

[Boohoo]

Is it surface water or rising water that you need rid of? If there's a slope and you have open ditches I'd suspect rising water and the water will be deep in the gravel or rock. I'd start at the open ditch and dig into the slope getting deeper as you go so you just have a very slight slope on the bottom of the drain. Keep digging until you reach the gravel or the rock, you'll probably find the water under a dry part of the field.
Use good quality 4 inch pipe and plenty of clean drainage stone

 

[Kevtherev]

60mm drainage pipe is a waste of time 100mm minimum for any long term benefit.
A mouse will block a 60mm pipe.
Some drains can be close together in a system ie 6metres apart if the land needs it.
Without seeing the land it’s difficult to explain on here.

 

[Kevtherev]

Also the drainage stone needs to be clean and of a uniform size
Most popular 28mm or 50mm clean.
Dusty and dirty drainage stone will cause the ribs in the pipe to block with the fines out of the stone when water washes down through.

 

[7600-four pilot]

On this farm the wet springs move from time to time, as they this year. The idea of draining is to move the water from the wet spot into the ditch/gulley. It's not exactly rocket science the way I do it, I follow all old stone drains, clay pipes etc to the head of the drain, dig out, backfill. There is no need for perforated pipe on fields here, complete waste of time, I use non perforated. So therein I use shale from our own quarry, it doesn't break down. I drain fields here every year, the job is endless................ Use your nogin and you can't go wrong.

 

[Steevo]

Small area of drainage about to start here shortly.

11ac approx has worked out just under £20k all in with pipe and stone. The ballpark of £1000-1200 didn’t quite ring true this time around.

Drainage stone when I asked round about wasn’t cheap either-plenty of quarries wanted £25/t.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I think our type of stone is very shale type , great stuff for crushing into roads so I think it would seal up . What’s the idea dig the drain put pipe in then cover with stone then soil on top?how deep would u lay a plastic drain also what size ? 60 or 100mm

If it's a stoney field plough it and work all the stone to the top . Get a stone picker in and pick all the stone . Cut trenches 18 inches wide by 3 ft deep aprox and fill with picked stone to 8 inches from ground level . This worked on most farms around here 80 years ago as it does here today . As long as you have the right stone

 

[Matt L]

Small area of drainage about to start here shortly.

11ac approx has worked out just under £20k all in with pipe and stone. The ballpark of £1000-1200 didn’t quite ring true this time around.

Drainage stone when I asked round about wasn’t cheap either-plenty of quarries wanted £25/t.

That stone is expensive. Usually in east anglia pay 17.50 per tonne delivered! Also what spacing are the drains and are there mains involved? All changes the cost

 

[Steevo]

That stone is expensive. Usually in east anglia pay 17.50 per tonne delivered! Also what spacing are the drains and are there mains involved? All changes the cost

The stone was some I priced up a month back from quarries. Not sure what drainage contractor is paying tho.

Drains are 20m spacing. 80mm laterals, 100mm mains across two sides of field. Some mains are stoned, others not as just carrying.

 

[Matt L]

That’s the difference. 20 metre spacing makes a huge difference. Out here it is normally 40 but quite easily in good clay 80 or even 100m

 

[Steevo]

That’s the difference. 20 metre spacing makes a huge difference. Out here it is normally 40 but quite easily in good clay 80 or even 100m

Wow, that’s a huge difference in spacings!

 

[Sharpy]

12 to 15ft centres here, was obviously trial and error over about 150 years as in one field we have stone drains at 60 ft centres, mug (horseshoe ) tiles midway between then round tiles with flat tops and bottoms between them giving 15ft centres.

 

[puppet]

We have rock for evermore much of it like shale. We call it rotten rock as breaks up nicely. The only gravel we bought blocked up in a few years in some peaty soil.
If you can hire a digger it will cut your costs a lot. If you have a quarry and lots of rock then use a 2 foot bucket and backfill up to 6-9 inches from the top so you have a sump effect in the worst places

 

[fermec860]

That’s the difference. 20 metre spacing makes a huge difference. Out here it is normally 40 but quite easily in good clay 80 or even 100m

You'd be back next year in filling on our Warwickshire clay at those spacing 20 metres pushing it