Cost of land drainage

Reenascreena

I'm currently looking into draining the land to the rear of my house. It's about 1 acre lawned of a total site area of about three acres.
The lawned part is very boggy and is holding water and needs draining.
There is a stream to the rear and the obvious thing to do is lay drainage pipes to the stream.
My question is how much should I be paying for this in the current climate?

It's a pretty big job, as I say about an acre and will require a few tonnes of pea gravel I reckon, plus top soiling over the trenches too.

Does anybody have any idea what the going rate for this type of work is at the moment?

flynnboy

Hi Reenascreena

I have a very similar drainage job to do and I am struggling to get info'. I was wondering if you got anywhere with your enquiries re costs ?

Thanks

flynnboy

Callow Man

This should take no more than a day with the right equipment. An acre will need about 50 tonne's of washed stone(2 lorry loads) and 1 to 2 rolls of 3inch drainage pipe and a 5 to 10 tonne digger and dumper.
You should price all of these seperately but you should get it done for between 1 and 1.5 K.

Best of luck.

lickirishallsor

Callow Man wrote: »

This should take no more than a day with the right equipment. An acre will need about 50 tonne's of washed stone(2 lorry loads) and 1 to 2 rolls of 3inch drainage pipe and a 5 to 10 tonne digger and dumper.
You should price all of these seperately but you should get it done for between 1 and 1.5 K.

Best of luck.

I was just about to say something similar!

flynnboy

This should take no more than a day with the right equipment. An acre will need about 50 tonne's of washed stone(2 lorry loads) and 1 to 2 rolls of 3inch drainage pipe and a 5 to 10 tonne digger and dumper.
You should price all of these seperately but you should get it done for between 1 and 1.5 K.

Thanks guys. Is this based upon the idea of buying the materials and hiring the equipment myself, or hiring a contractor to do the job ?

Thanks

leitrim lad

im a contractor myself, and do jobs like that, im not advertising myself, or anything,
an acre of a lawn should take no more than 1-2 days, with a 4-5ton machine, 2 rolls of the yellow land drainage pipe, and two lorry loads of clean 2-4 inch drainage stone,
as you say its boggy so you dont need a dumper (only making work)
use a 1foot bucket or a shoreing bucket to dig the drains,and peg the stuff out to one side ,lay your pipes,cover with the stone using machine (not dumper as it will close the drains in), then use the machine to grade out the boggy stuff acros the filled up drain again, dont plaster it into it just finely grade it , and comd the rough out of it, scatter a bit of grass seed over it and hand rake to finish,
this should work wonders for your lawn.

ps you are lucky in one way to have boggy ground as it will only take it a few weeks top turn green again after the works,

leitrim lad

sorry i forgot the cost, 2 x loads of drainage stone @ €150each €300
4-5 ton machine x2 days €300
2 x rolls of yellow land drainage pipes €150
1 x bag of grass seed €30
labor 1 x man for 2 days €300
diesel €30

so around €1100 and 2 days should do the trick for you

flynnboy

Hi LL, that's great , thank you very much. A couple of questions if you don't mind.

with a 4-5ton machine,

What kind of 'machine' would that be ?

use a 1foot bucket or a shoreing bucket to dig the drains,and peg the stuff out to one side

By 'peg to one side' do you mean just lay it to one side of the dug drain ?

then use the machine to grade out the boggy stuff across the filled up drain again,

I'm not sure what you mean by 'grade out' ?

My field is sloping down and so do I simply lay parallel lines of drains with the pipes running from to bottom - if so what should the gap be between each drain and at what depth do I dig the drain channel before I lay the pipe?

I hope I am not asking too much LL, I really appreciate your advice. By the way it's not for a lawn, Reenascreena wanted to do it for a lawn but for myself I want a good vegetable garden and at the moment it is just too wet. My field in fact is probably closer to 1/2 acre and so I guess I simply 1/2 the quantities you mentioned ?

Cheers LL you're a good man.

leitrim lad

for the machine a 3 ton would probably do with a good driver, however a 4 or 5 ton machine has a longer track and would have less of a chance of getting stuck in the boggy ground,thats a mini digger im talking about.

the depth of the trench is and isnt important depending on if you have a good fall, no less than 1 foot and no more than 30 inches,no need to head for australia, your only draining surface water

and about 3 metres apart ,it can be more if your on a slope, thats up to you.

and by pegging the stuff out to one side, i mean when digging your trench keep all the spoil on one side of the trench in a neat row, and when you backfill with stone, you will not be tracking across this spoil and having it falling into your trench.

by gradeing out the spoil i mean when the drains are finished, you use the spoil as topsoil and tickle it along with the bucket of the digger(ditching bucket) and that will leave it ready for grass seed and a light rake by hand to put the finishing touch.

i would only be delighted to give any more advice, thanks leitrim lad

leitrim lad

for the veg patch follow along the same lines, you just wont need to rake it out at the end and you wont need grass seed , so about a good day should cover your veg patch, now im open to argument on that but if you wanted your drains, in right and working properly ,its advisable to spend that extra hour or two at them that means they are a lifetime job then.

flynnboy

Hi again LL

Okay, so, we are just talking about a digger equipped with a digging bucket of 1' width ?

Very important as I'm just not sure about this, can the drains just be laid in parallel lines without having to make any complicated herring bone type patterns ?

If the answer to these two questions is 'Yes' then I'm well on my way to sorting this out

Cheers

flynnboy

leitrim lad

o left out the bit about the direction of the drains, run the drains at an angle to the slope to catch the water,dont run a drain strait up a field as it wont catch the water

leitrim lad

id say 4 or 5 strait drains, about 3 metres atart should do the trick no need to get complecated, and study the gtound for the falls and directions ,and start at the lowest point

flynnboy

I'm getting there LeitrimLad but you've given me one more question.... why "start at the lowest point' ?

fb

leitrim lad

always start at the lowest point along the drain or stream your letting the drains into, this will act as a template for you to guide you troughout the field, and is normally where the most surface water will end up

flynnboy

Leitrim Lad...... you are a star !!:cool:

I am very grateful to you, you have saved me a lot of time and money

I know what I have to do now thanks to your time and patience in answering my many questions - great stuff

Good man yersel

Thanks again

flynnboy

leitrim lad

:Dyer welcome flynnboy, any time,

tis easy to make time this weather:D

flynnboy

Slainte !

Ye'll nevor plow a feeld by torn'n it ower in yer moind !"

So Id better get crackiin!

Cheers

Hangsangwich

Leitrim lad
I learnt from reading this too
Thanks

Morpheus

Cheers, im doing my back garden tomorrow.

40ft of drains
1 ton pea gravel
1 mini micro digger
40 ft of pipe
1 very helpful mate
240 euro!