If you discuss catch basins with an excavating contractor, they immediately think about large pre-cast concrete storm water drainage structures that are part of municipal, state or federal drainage systems. These basins commonly have an interior dimension of 2’ x 4’ or larger and are made of 8” thick reinforced concrete.
A landscaping contractor’s perspective on catch basins will be different. Typically, the largest catch basin used in a landscaping drainage system is 2’ x 2’. Precast concrete basins are available in this size, but they are referred to as 2’ x 2’ yard basins.

18 inch Square Yard Drain

Attaching PVC piping to polymer concrete catch basins can be a little trickier especially since it is ideal to avoid using concrete when installing this catch basin. However, you may find it is necessary to use concrete to help seal the pipe in the basin wall or maybe when forming a small apron around the grating to help direct water into the basin. And speaking of grating, polymer concrete catch basins may have some good residential options, but they tend to me more industrial in nature.
Plastic Catch Basins – The final basin type I am going to discuss is the plastic catch basin. There are a number of manufacturers are in the marketplace that promote plastic catch basins. I’m most familiar with products by National Diversified Systems (NDS). These products range in size from 24” x 24” to 9” x 9”. The larger NDS basins are made from high density polyethylene (HDPE) while the smaller basins are made from PVC.

Grating options are better as you decrease the size of the basin. For instance, the large 24” x 24” NDS catch basin has 5 grate options. On the other hand, NDS’ 12” x 12” basin has 15 options. Plastic grates in a variety of colors are common throughout the NDS basin product line. They also have cast iron and galvanized steel bar grating. Other manufacturers also have grating options for the NDS basins. Iron Age Designs is one such company. Below are four decorative cast iron grates made for the NDS 12” x 12” catch basin. Some of these patterns are also available in sizes that fit other NDS basins.

As you can see from the examples I gave above, there are many options in large residential catch basins. I realize that the information given here may not answer all of your questions. To get more details on a product or advice on a catch basin application, send me an email at michael@trenchdrain.biz or call TrenchDrain.biz at 610-638-1221.

There are a growing number of trench drain installations being made using decorative or ornamental grating.  I have written a number of blog articles on the topic.  Traditional slotted trench drain grating may be functional, but let’s face it:  if you are going to use trench drain in a commercial or residential drainage project, you might as well make it look nice.  A number of companies are in the marketplace that supply truly top-shelf ornamental grating.  However, from everything I’ve seen, I think IronAge Designs has the most versatile product line at the most affordable pricing.

In this article, I’m not going to discuss grate pricing.  Contact www.trenchdrain.biz  for product pricing.  I am going to show you 10 ductile iron ornamental grating products manufactured by Ironage Designs.  The designs are unique and creative.  All the grates are ADA (American Disability Act) compliant and are strong enough to be used with vehicular traffic.  Each grate displays a casting quality and detail that could someday be architecturally significant in identifying a style used in the early third millennium.  More importantly, each grate is made to fit a trench drain channel size that has become the industry standard.  And, to this point, I will briefly discuss trench drain channel standardization in the United States market. 

Let me begin by sharing a little history.  ACO was the first prefabricated, pre-sloped polymer concrete trench drain manufactured in the United States and, possibly, in Europe.  When  the ACO Group (of Germany) first introduced their trench drain product line to the US market, they kept the metric dimensions used in Europe, having a standard channel length of 1 meter (approx. 40 inches) and the standard interior channel width of 100 millimeters (or about 4 inches).  A cast iron grate to fit this channel is about 4.8” x 19.6” (or 122mm x 498mm).

ACO was very successful in the US market and quickly became the company to emulate.  For instance, ABT developed a 1000mm x 100mm polymer channel to compete with ACO called PolyDrain.  Plumbing giant Josam began distributing MEA products (also from Europe), which we currently know as the Mea-Josam product line.  Even plumbing fixture company J.R. Smith licensed ACO technology to develop their Smith/ACO polymer concrete channel and EnviroFlo HDPE channel product lines.  Other manufactures followed suit.  All of these products have a 1000 mm (1 meter) polymer concrete channel with a 100 mm interior width.  In essence, this channel sizing has become the industry standard in the US, although there are other trench drain manufacturers, such as Zurn and Polycast, that have ignored the “me too” mindset and gone their separate way with the dimensions of the products they developed.

All this market imitation has led to a “standardization” of trench drain channel sizing, at least in the smaller products.  All of the 1 meter x 100mm channels will support, essentially, the same grates between brands.  Companies like ACO have tried to devise quick grate locking technology to separate themselves from the other manufacturers.  But, in the final analysis, all these channels can accept grating from competing manufacturers. 

This grating interchangeability and the “coming of age” of surface water control in the United States have allowed IronAge Designs to develop a niche product line.  IronAge has developed a number of attractive ornamental grates that measure 5” x 20” and fit the ACO, MEA, Polydrain and JR Smith 100mm wide channels.  

IronAge is constantly adding to their product line.  In fact, the Riverrock pattern shown at the beginning of this article was added to the IronAge product line after all my photographs were taken.  It is difficult to keep up with their complete product offering because they are always working on new projects.  Their growing product line is an indication of their respected designs and their affordable pricing structure.

I’m not going to give specific pricing on these grates, but I will say they are roughly twice the price of a standard slotted ductile iron grate.  Every grate you see in this article is the same price, though.  There is not one grate more or less expensive than another in this product grouping.

 As mentioned previously, these grates are made of ductile iron. Manganese bronze or brass grating can be made in one of these patterns if you want, but be prepared to pay 5 times the price of a standard iron grate.

Of the 10 grate patterns shown above, the Interlaken is the most versatile.  I’m saying this because IronAge uses this pattern in a number of catch basins and other size trench grating.  So, if you wanted to build a drainage system in your hardscape with more options than a single width trench drain, you will have more drainage structure options available if you use the Interlaken pattern.  The Locust leaf pattern and Oblio are two other patterns that come in different sizes.

If you have questions on any of these products, or want to have your own pattern developed, please contact a drainage specialist at TrenchDrain.Biz by calling 610-638-1221.  You can email us at sales@trenchdrain.biz.  Product cut sheets are available at www.ironagegrate.com.

In recent years, I have been traveling to Brazil with my wife over the Thanksgiving holidays to visit family and friends. It is a good time to visit Brazil since it is prior to the busy Christmas season and just the beginning of their summer season. School is still in session, so you basically have the beaches to yourself if you can find a day that the sun is out.

Lately we have been traveling to the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo where we have access to an uncle’s beach house. The drive is eight hours of mountainous terrain that takes you through the heart of their coffee growing region. Along the way, we occasionally stop at roadside luncheonettes for coffee and a piece of cheese bread. In 2008, we made a stop at one such location that just happened to be installing a trench drain. This drain ran along their sidewalk and out into the parking lot where it met with the gasoline pumps. At this time, I took photographs of the construction and filed them away, not really thinking I would be seeing them again.

Almost exactly one year later, I found myself at the same luncheonette to refuel our vehicle and have coffee. I realized when my wife and I arrived that we had been to this location before. This time, the trench construction was completed. I took more photographs to give my readers a before and after view of a trench drain installation that is very different than our approach in the United States.

In Brazil, they have a very different set of circumstances governing their construction industry. First of all, their high unemployment gives rise to low labor costs. Because of low labor costs, there is a tendency to use “man power” rather than “machine power”. For instance, in projects where I would use a backhoe to excavate a small section of ground, they would have a tendency to dig with hand tools. Also, as labor is cheap, there is less of a reliance of pre-manufactured or pre-formed construction materials. Sidewalks and parking lots are often made with tile or paving stone rather than concrete. If concrete is used in small quantities, the cement, sand and gravel is brought to the site and the concrete is batched and mixed by hand. Only on large construction projects is a ready-mixed concrete product brought to the site. 

In the case of a trench drain installation, this has big implications. There is no pre-cast concrete trench drain that is made off-site and dropped into place. There is no polymer concrete pre-sloped channel with locking cast iron grates to set in place with concrete. These products don’t even exist. Ready-mix concrete is cost prohibitive or difficult to justify on these projects. And, trench drain bar grating is often made by a metal fabrication company or made on site by a craftsman using local materials, such as rebar. However, cast iron and aluminum castings are available in specialty stores.

In this particular installation, the trench was to be used for drainage and for running a utility line. Paving stones were removed from the sidewalk and areas in the parking lot. The ground was hand dug to a 2 foot depth. Luckily in this part of Brazil the weathering of the soil is deep; the earth is predominantly sandy clay which can be hand dug easily when dry.

Three courses of 100mm wide x 200mm tall concrete block were laid for the walls of the trench. A frame for the grate was mortared to the top of the block. Portions of the block wall were cut away to accommodate placement of the frame anchors. The anchors were then mortared into place. To ensure a proper spacing between the two frame sections, a template was built which emulated the grate. This template was placed between the frames while it was being installed on top of the block wall. To make certain that the grate wasn’t going to fit too tightly, a metal spacer bar was used with the template to guarantee a little extra room.

Throughout the trench, a metal support that ran between the trench walls and about 10 inches off the trench floor was installed every 3 meters. This support was used to carry the utility pipes that ran from the luncheonette to the gasoline pumps. After the frame installation, the trench walls were layered with ½” of waterproof mortar. The floor of the trench was then lined with a few inches of concrete. Bar grating, made off-site, was put in place. Soil was back-filled behind the trench walls and tamped into place. Paving stone was replaced in the sidewalk areas. Alongside the trench in the parking area, a ½ meter concrete border was installed to give additional support to the trench.

The process used in Brazil for this trench installation was much more labor intensive than we would use in the United States. We probably would have had a backhoe dig the trench. Gravel would have been poured in the trench and compacted into place. A former system, such as EconoDrain, would have been installed to form the trench shape, and a ready-mix concrete truck would have been brought in to supply the concrete. The Brazilian project probably took 1 - 2 months to perform. In the US, this same project would have been a week, at most.

Send your comments or questions about this article to Michael@trenchdrain.biz.