Hi,
I have an existing 20' x 40' vinyl liner pool with a full concrete surround. There is 6' of walking area on all sides. This means that the long run is roughly 52'. The original plastic micro drain channel is in really bad shape, collapsed, etc. I want to replace it with 4" or 5" channel drain on the two sides (long side and adjacent short side) and plumb to existing rain drainage piping underground which leads to daylight. The project is straight forward but I can't wrap my head around what people actually do regarding channel slope. The short side won't be much of an issue, however at 52' the long side will require over 3" of slope to achieve a spec I found on a UK website of 5mm per 1 meter. If it started flush at the high corner it would be 3+ inches below deck at the outlet end. Concreting a swale from deck level to this would be difficult, it would look terrible, and be a tripping hazard.
What do expert builders do when installing a working channel drain in a concrete deck? Leave it level and hope the remaining standing water doesn't stagnate to the point where it smells or causes problems? Use an incredibly expensive pre-sloped channel system? (not in my budget unless there's an affordable one I haven't seen yet) Put a really tiny bit of slope into it and hope for the best?
Factoring the natural slope of the property and physical restrictions I can't gravity pipe this trench out anywhere but to the far end as described above. It runs parallel to a 3' retaining wall that leads to another level which is a massive concrete deck above the pool level. I don't even want to entertain the labor and cost of a below-grade sump pump that would collect at the middle and shoot it out subgrade to the drain pipe.
I am not thrilled about the idea of making a completely custom concrete "luge" due to the labor intensity and intricacy of crating a custom shelf and grate system. I really want to incorporate an affordable (couple thousand) channel system plus installation and make it work as best as possible, but if a flat or nearly flat system won't work I'd like to know before starting the project. Or if a reasonably priced sloped system could be sourced that would be ideal. A system with accessories like corner pieces for clean integration and available replacement grates for future proofing would be critical. Plastic with a standard load rating would be fine, these areas see very light foot traffic only.
Water on the deck is not a major situation, IOW it's not a flooding issue even with the mostly useless existing drainage. Planting areas on three sides take most of the water. But there needs to be a solution that is longer lasting and better than micro channel without going broke.
I have an existing 20' x 40' vinyl liner pool with a full concrete surround. There is 6' of walking area on all sides. This means that the long run is roughly 52'. The original plastic micro drain channel is in really bad shape, collapsed, etc. I want to replace it with 4" or 5" channel drain on the two sides (long side and adjacent short side) and plumb to existing rain drainage piping underground which leads to daylight. The project is straight forward but I can't wrap my head around what people actually do regarding channel slope. The short side won't be much of an issue, however at 52' the long side will require over 3" of slope to achieve a spec I found on a UK website of 5mm per 1 meter. If it started flush at the high corner it would be 3+ inches below deck at the outlet end. Concreting a swale from deck level to this would be difficult, it would look terrible, and be a tripping hazard.
What do expert builders do when installing a working channel drain in a concrete deck? Leave it level and hope the remaining standing water doesn't stagnate to the point where it smells or causes problems? Use an incredibly expensive pre-sloped channel system? (not in my budget unless there's an affordable one I haven't seen yet) Put a really tiny bit of slope into it and hope for the best?
Factoring the natural slope of the property and physical restrictions I can't gravity pipe this trench out anywhere but to the far end as described above. It runs parallel to a 3' retaining wall that leads to another level which is a massive concrete deck above the pool level. I don't even want to entertain the labor and cost of a below-grade sump pump that would collect at the middle and shoot it out subgrade to the drain pipe.
I am not thrilled about the idea of making a completely custom concrete "luge" due to the labor intensity and intricacy of crating a custom shelf and grate system. I really want to incorporate an affordable (couple thousand) channel system plus installation and make it work as best as possible, but if a flat or nearly flat system won't work I'd like to know before starting the project. Or if a reasonably priced sloped system could be sourced that would be ideal. A system with accessories like corner pieces for clean integration and available replacement grates for future proofing would be critical. Plastic with a standard load rating would be fine, these areas see very light foot traffic only.
Water on the deck is not a major situation, IOW it's not a flooding issue even with the mostly useless existing drainage. Planting areas on three sides take most of the water. But there needs to be a solution that is longer lasting and better than micro channel without going broke.
