New house problem that I encountered during this last snow storm here in NY… when snow began to melt it had nowhere to drain and the entire back of the driveway was an ice rink. Should I rent a saw and cut a trench in the driveway to divert water to the grass on the other side? Is that a PITA to do? Help!
by NYRblue88
9 Comments
ideally you would want a drain going straight into the concrete and under the driveway
i do wonder if you could make a rugged drain on top of the drive way. make it like a speedbump.
oval shaped
Since you can trench it, you’ll have to put a rain barrel for the term.
Looks like it is there only solution. It’s not a pita if you’re handy. Cut it 6″ wide, digit out and make sure you have drop to daylight.
You need to be careful where you daylight bc if it flows to another trouble spot (e.g. your neighbors driveway) you could be liable to change it. No one wants your roof’s drain directed to their property.
Cutting concrete is absolutely a massive pain and I usually tell folks to treat that as the nuclear option because you are dealing with silica dust, rebar, and expensive equipment rental. If you just cut a groove the water is going to freeze in it anyway and create a tripping hazard so you would need to install a legitimate channel drain with a grate which is a serious weekend project for a pro let alone a DIYer.
Look at where that water is coming from first. If it is just that downspout dumping onto the slab, see if you can reroute the leader pipe along the siding to dump directly into the grass or a garden bed instead of the concrete. I help people with these kinds of layouts all the time and usually finding a way to pipe the water around the hardscape is way cheaper and safer than trying to go through it.
If you absolutely have to cut, you need to make sure you have a place for that channel drain to daylight or you are just making a fancy moat that will still freeze. Make sure the grade actually falls away from the house before you start cutting or you will just have stagnant water sitting against your foundation which causes way bigger problems than ice.
I’ve seen people re-route the downspout overhead like a walkway pergola, then it can drain on the other side of the walkway without having to cut the concrete. Renting a concrete cut off saw would be your best bet. You might be able to hire a landscaping company to cut the trench for you. The grate would be around $150 and you could install that yourself .
Cut out a trench, bury riding pipe that goes to a basin or popup and then properly compact the trench and pour new concrete in I’d how I would do it. Trying to do a French drain thing is going to compromise your base over time, especially if you’re in an area with a frost line.
Move the Belgium blocks back 4 inches . Put down 4×8 inch pavers in front of pavers lay atop 4 inch crushed granite. Use level. Start first brick 3/4 inch below driveway, slope to street gently
Here is a redneck solution for you, at least for the short term.
https://a.co/d/5UGrbmW
You can get a flexible plastic drain extension that you can drive over.