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Water intrusion

TheBadDog

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 9, 2012
Messages
112
Location
Phoenix
I have a slab installed by the PO that is graded wrong between pool and house. Combined with roof runoff, I get water intrusion on the back wall with heavy rains.

To avoid a long description, suffice it to say the roof is really not suitable for gutters, so since it requires a major effort, that is my plan B.

There is one of those tiny 1" drain strips in the concrete right outside the "AZ room" closed in porch, flush flat roof is problem with gutters) that partially blocks the drain (yeah, I'm redoing in a year or two when I get caught up on other things), which is basically completely plugged with no practical way to keep clean.

My plan is to set up a sled system with some 20" angle iron "tracks" and wheels I have on hand. To that I want to mount my 4.5" grinder with diamond masonry cut wheel. I'll use this to make too neat kerfs some appropriate distance apart depending on grates I can find. The center portion will then be wasted out with additional cuts and small demo jack hammer, much like clearing a channel in wood using chisels.

Obviously I'm open for any suggestions, but my main question is where to get suitable drain grating? I want to make a ledge (using sled) to drop them in just flush with surface. This way they are removable for easy cleaning, and still avoid ugly scar and trip hazard. My ideal would be one of those iron grates seen in industrial settings, but my ideal would be only about 2" wide, and cost for the 30'+ I need is likely prohibitive.

I also thought about just making a few cuts to produce a 3/8" wide kerf and just leave it at that. Anything to get water away from the wall before it penetrates the crappy walls used to enclose the AZ Romm.

This will all empty into a long sunken flower bed with it's own drain system. Basically a field line buried next to the foundation about 10" down in a modest gravel bed with both pipe and gravel bed wrapped in drainage gauze. This leads past the house to a leach pit I made, also lined with gauze and filled with 3-4" rip-rap and having about a 75 gallon capacity (minus rocks).

If I can just get the water off the slab I think everything will be fine, but being Phoenix, I won't know till the heavy rains come in another month or so. If it still presents a problem, I'll have to find some way to flash over and put in gutters to keep the roof water off the slab.


Just in case it got lost in there, my main question is where to get economically sensible grating about 2" wide, suitable for heavy foot traffic, to span over 30' in length while being easily removed for cleaning the channel below.
 
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58Yeoman

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
8,999
Location
Central IL
Check your big box stores, they actually make a channel with covers out of heavy gauge plastic, maybe 4" wide. I ran across it while I was looking at putting in drain tile in my backyard. If you used this, you wouldn't have to make a ledge for the grate to sit on, just cut your concrete and drop these channels in.

If you decide to go with the steel grating, try checking metal recyclers. We use a lot of this grating where I work, but it comes in 4' x 8' 'sheets', and we cut it to the size that we need.
 
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TheBadDog

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 9, 2012
Messages
112
Location
Phoenix
Thanks. I saw some of those on their web page, but 4" wide and about that deep is more than I really wanted to try to cut. Wouldn't be bad further out, I could get a real concrete saw rented and knock it out quick. But I really wanted it close to the wall, which eliminates the obvious solution, and makes a larger trough correspondingly more difficult.
 
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