How to Install a Channel Drain | Ask This Old House

This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook helps a homeowner solve a driveway drainage dilemma. (See below for a shopping list, tools, and steps.)

Shopping List for How to Install a Channel Drain:

Tools List for How to Install a Channel Drain:

Steps for How to Install a Channel Drain:
1. Mark a straight cutline across the corner of the driveway to indicate the position of the channel drain.
2. Cut through the asphalt with a water-cooled circular saw fitted with a diamond-impregnated blade.
3. Pry up and remove the severed piece of asphalt with a shovel.
4. Use a small sledgehammer and brick-set chisel to chop out any rocks along the edge of the just-cut driveway.
5. Dig a 6-inch-deep trench along the end of the driveway. Shovel the excavated dirt into a wheelbarrow.
6. Glue an offset outlet and a 90-degree elbow onto one end of the channel drain.
7. Glue a short section of 4-inch-diameter plastic pipe and a 45-degree elbow onto the 90-degree elbow.
8. Glue an end cap onto the opposite end of the channel drain.
9. Mix up a bag of concrete in the wheelbarrow.
10. Fill the trench with wet concrete. Smooth the concrete with a pointed brick trowel.
11. Press the channel drain down into the concrete, then check it with a level to ensure it's sloping slightly toward the drainpipe. Tap down the drain with a rubber mallet.
12. Use the trowel to spread an angled wedge of concrete against the back of the drain.
13. Dig a 12-inch-deep trench out from the channel drain and across the yard.
14. Use a reciprocating saw to cut plastic pipe to extend from the drain along the trench. Glue the pipe and fittings together.
15. Check the drainpipe with a level to make sure it's pitched down and away from the driveway.
16. Backfill the trench with soil to conceal the drainpipe.
17. Line the end of the drainpipe with flat stones to deter erosion.
18. Sprinkle some asphalt cold patch between the channel drain and the driveway.
19. Compact the patch with the small sledgehammer, then add more asphalt and compact it again. Repeat until the patch is flush with the surface of the driveway.
20. Plant grass seed along the backfilled trench.

About Ask This Old House TV:
Homeowners have a virtual truckload of questions for us on smaller projects, and we're ready to answer. Ask This Old House solves the steady stream of home improvement problems faced by our viewers—and we make house calls! Ask This Old House features some familiar faces from This Old House, including Kevin O'Connor, general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, and landscape contractor Roger Cook.

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How to Install a Channel Drain | Ask This Old House

[darrylfitzys]

Neighbor: What’s that 100’ of drain pipe for?
John: So I can funnel all the water from rain storms over to your house.

[truthseekerKJV]

I'm sure the neighbor will appreciate them directing all the drain water down to their back yard.

[SP]

Two suggestions for this project: 1) Cover the grate of your channel drain while you’re working to prevent cement/asphalt from getting in. 2) Place a termination vent cap at the end of your PVC to keep rodents out.
Great video!

[richardkusimenkah]

My favorite part of the videos is reading all the professional comments. I feel like learned just as much reading as i did watching!

[tk]

"Lets Staaat by caaavin out this channel" I love and miss roger and all of his videos.

[IAmNotAFunguy]

RIP Roger Cook, a great landscaper and a great teacher!

[Chuckish]

Need some kind of wire screening on the lower end to keep the critters out of the pipe. An open pipe like that makes a very nice nesting area.

[AmentiProductions]

Next time on This Old House we help a homeowner who has excess water in his backyard coming from his neighbor's driveway.

[macsloan]

“Let’s put a trench drain in. drain the S.O.B. onto the neighbor’s property. You good with “

[PijamasGagarin]

What I like the most about all your videos is that your host is not afraid to get dirty, they work honest and solid. Thanks.

[herbiesnerd]

Nice drain install. One comment: I used to be a paving contractor and my comments are based on experience.

Do not ever use a bag of that cold mix asphalt. It is absolute garbage. Cold mix is designed for one thing and one thing only, not matter what you’ve seen or heard.

Cold mix is designed as a temporary material to fill potholes in wet climates during wet weather. It is not made for what he just did. When the weather warms up and drys out, the cold mix is removed and a proper hot mix repair is made.

Asphalt cement is a solid when cold (the black part of the pavement). Asphalt streets, parking lots and driveways all use Hot Mix asphalt. When asphalt cement is hot, it is fluid like and the pavement can be raked smooth then compacted with rollers.

When hot mix asphalt cools, it becomes hard and you can drive on it in a short period of time.

Cold mix asphalt uses a solvent to make it pliable while cold. It does not compact well and takes a year or two to fully cure. The solvent has to evaporate away. When it does you’re left with terrible partially compacted pavement that water will flow through.

I’ve installed many of those exact drain systems. Cutting the asphalt first like he did was perfect.

To finish this install, he should have just used the concrete. I can’t figure out why he didn’t. 2” to 4” of a concrete border on both sides of the drain box supports the drain better and water will terminate into the drain better than even hot mix asphalt could perform.

[kirkalley]

This edition of This Old House really helped me with rain water draining concerns! I decided to buy the "new" house on top of the hill and let everyone else build the drains. 😉

[porkchop]

“Ok John I think that does it. I just solved your drainage problem”..rain came and neighbor is calling John to ask about his new Lake on his property.

[reapermanslayer]

He solved it alright....right into the neighbors yard.

[MikeDayConcrete]

We install a lot of trench drains in the concrete floors we pour for homeowners garages and commercial garages. It is a little bit of a process to get the installation right. But not too hard to do. Nice video.

[jessijuniper]

I saw this video years before I purchased my house. Now I got the exact same problem in my home and this has just been a life saver. The folks before me let it go too long.

[pallen]

And now the neighbor is thrilled to have all that water jetting at his shed.

[jackaffeldt]

I’m a landscape contractor but I still like to watch these videos for fun!

[philpeters]

If I was the neighbor and saw this going on I'd high tail it to the home store and get me a 4 inch drain cap.

[mijiajosef]

"...what you can do now is come behind me and start filling it in..all the way to the top...." 😂🙄😂🙄😂