I’m not a historian on drainage systems (though it sounds interesting).  I’ve been thinking about the history of trench drain.  Where was the first trench drain crafted?  What was the application?  Was it seen as special for that location?  Did it catch on or was it forgotten, only to be re-designed for the first time by someone else in another part of the world?  

Let’s look at a couple classic contributions to the current day trench drain:

1)  Aquaducts of Rome (initiated 312 BC) -   Built of stone, brick and mortar, eleven (11) separate aquaduct systems were put in place that carried drinking water from the areas surrounding Rome into the heart of the city.  The aquaducts were an essential tool in making it possible for up to 1 million people to inhabit Rome. 

 www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/aqua/intro.htm

2)   Sewers (egouts) of Paris - Paris initiated it’s first sewer system in the 1200’s which consisted of a common trench down the middle of the street.  These early “open sewers” contributed to the spread of the Black Plague.  By the mid 1800’s, the system had moved underground and is currently in operation today.  During this time, metal grates were used to cover the catch basins.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-s01/mapping-paris/Paris_Sewers_Page.html

 3)  Moats of England (14th and 15th Century) - Moats were mainly for defense purposes, though there was a design element focused on water drainage.  At the gate house, the moat resembled more a culvert with a removeable lid (draw bridge).  By a stretch of the imagination, you can imagine this to be a large trench drain.  But really, it was just a bloody culvert.

  www.moats.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk

The need to control waste water drainage always seems to follow population growth.  And problem solvers as we humans are, we work with the materials which are at hand to solve the problems that we have at hand.  This first guy that designed and built a trench drain, I can imagine, probably didn’t like water coming in his from door everytime it rained.  Maybe he dug a trench in front of the door, lined it with stone and then fitted flag stone or brick on top of the trench to allow water to flow away from the door.  Wha - la.

With time, our construction materials have changed.  Trench drain products, as we know them in North America and Europe, are a direct result of an evolution of construction materials.  Cast-in-place concrete trenches with metal bar grating, once the standard, are less common.  Increasingly, the trend is to replace the labor intensive trench drain construction practices with labor saving, lightweight engineered polymer trench forming products.  Advances in grating materials have also been responsible for the shift in trench design.  Simple cast iron or steel grating is now giving way to a wider assortment of strong lightweight materials with designs to compliment the surrounding architecture. 

In countries where labor is less expensive than engineered materials, traditional cast-in-place and precast concrete still dominates.  Expensive materials for infrastructure aren’t in the budget of construction projects if the skilled labor can perform the task with a little more “elbow grease”.  In my travels to South America and Asia, I have never seen a polymer concrete or fiberglass trench drain system.  They probably exist in the expensive hotels and shops (a reason why I never saw them).  However, the economy of their construction practices haven’t reach that critical point to where you would see them on a grand scale.

So what am I really trying to say here?  The need for drainage systems and the evolution of trench drains as a method of drainage is a function of:

• Local population and infrastructure
• Environmental considerations
• Construction material costs
• Labor costs

We’ll continue to see changes and improvement in drainage products as these factors continue to change. Know your options!!

                                                                                 Michael

In layman’s terms, a trench drain can be defined as a trough or channel used for the rapid evacuation of surface water or for the containment of utility lines or chemical spills. Employing a solid cover or grating that is flush with the adjoining surface, this drain is commonly made of concrete placed in-situ and may utilize polymer based or metal liners to aid in channel crafting, chemical resistance, and slope formation. Characterized by its long length and narrow width, the cross section of the drain is a function of the maximum flow volume anticipated from the surrounding surface. Channels can range from inches to feet in width, and have depths that can reach 4 feet.

Trench drain is commonly seen in our daily lives and frequently overlooked.  Look around the sidewalk at your local outdoor plaza or down the ailses of your neighborhood garden center.  You’ll see it in a parking lot or at the base of a driveway sloping down to a loading dock or garage door.  These are typical examples of trench drain being used for stormwater evacuation.  The fluid being evacuated is rain water that is usually directed to a storm sewer. 

Trench drain used inside a building is usually associated with a sewer system.   Quite often, trench systems in an automotive center, fire station, chemical plant or food processing plant are used for collecting spills or water used for washing down the work area.  Fluids from these sites contain contaminants (oil, grit, organics, chemicals) that need to be isolated from storm water.  The contents from “in-door” trench systems are often passed through a oil-water separator or neutralization chamber prior to being routed to the sanitary sewer line. 

With so many different applications for trench drain, it is no wonder that there are many different manufacturers of trench drain and so many different materials are used for making trench drain.  This variety makes product selection a little difficult for the contractor or home owner who rarely needs to purchase a trench drain system.  For me, this is what makes trench drain so interesting.  TrenchDrain.Biz is hear to help you through this selection process.  Look at our website www.trenchdrain.biz or contact us by phone (610-638-1221) if we can be of service.               

                                                                                                  Michael

Thanks for stopping in to this blog.  This is the world’s first blog about trench drain.  Right now, it might seem a little silly having a blog about a type of construction supply.  But believe me………You’ll be seeing more and more of this from our industry in the future.

The construction industry has been about 5 years behind the rest of the industries in embracing the internet as a tool for selling products and services.  More often, a contractor will have an immediate need for a supply because he has neglected to plan.  That forces him to buy locally and at a higher product price.  He ends up having to absorb the cost of their supplier carrying the inventory and processing the order twice.  His lack of planning leads to his incurring higher construction costs.  This has a number of related effects, not among the least are lower profits and lower value to the customer.

This is slowly changing.  The old guard in the construction industry is being replaced.  Younger engineers are entering the work force who are computer and internet literate.  Plan rooms are becoming harder to find as project plans are being posted to GC web sites.  Better project planning and purchasing practices are helping companies to finish their projects on time and under budget.

TrenchDrainBlog.com is a part of this trend.  We are one location that you can find information about trench drain products, installation, application and selection.  Expect to see more web sites and blogs that deal with seemingly mundane topics like this one.  What else did you expect from the internet???  I hope to hear from you soon.   Michael