Areas that receive heavy rainfall may need extra preparation in order to prevent flooding and inundation. There are a few key ways you can prepare your land or garden for the rainy season, and ensuring proper drainage is one of them. Some homeowners or contractors may turn to rubble or lawn aeration as a solution. However, drainage crates, also known as soakaway crates, provide a number of distinct advantages over these other options. Read on to learn what drainage crates are and what advantages they possess.
What Are Drainage Crates?
The first question you may be asking is, “What exactly are drainage crates?” Drainage crates are cube-shaped crates, typically made of plastic, designed to help water percolate at an even rate through soil and prevent buildup on the surface. The cubes contain a grid-like structure that allows water to pass through it, while still being strong enough to provide support. The grid structure also controls the rate of water flow through the crates to keep the ground from becoming inundated
Reasons To Use Drainage Crates:
Whether or not rainwater is allowed to run freely depends on the quality of the soil. Densely packed or clay soil has low permeability, while better aerated soil has higher permeability. In areas of excessive run-off or rainfall, however, the soil may not be able to handle large amounts of water. Water, therefore, collects on the surface of the soil and gets absorbed by the soil until the soil reaches its saturation point wherein it can’t absorb any more water. At that stage, it becomes very difficult to remove the water from the soil.
This is where the advantages of using soakaway crates come into play. Drainage crates are a practical, affordable, and durable solution to drainage problems prevalent in many urban and residential areas.
Here are four reasons to use soakaway drainage crates:
- Water Management
Installing drainage crates around pipes and under typically inundated soil is one of the best ways to improve poor drainage. Urban areas typically offer few permeable surfaces, which puts a lot of pressure on the drainage system that does exist.
First of all, permeable surfaces quickly become inundated, resulting in flooding and standing water. Secondly, increased pressure on drainage systems can lead to burst, split, or fractured pipes, which also leads to flooding.
Drainage crates can easily be installed around any underground pipe to help mitigate the flooding risk associated with any minor cracks or leaks. You can also use drainage crates where there’s no direct access to sewers, as it helps regulate run-off and provides an alternative for other, potentially strained, drainage systems. These crates let water enter the soil at a sustainable rate rather than putting extra stress on drainage in the area.
- Save Time
Drainage crates are lightweight and easy to assemble. They also take up a lot of volume. This gives them the edge over traditional drainage solutions, which typically involve digging a hole where the run-off is occurring and filling the area with rubble. Drainage crates keep you from having to transport large amounts of heavy rubble, and, instead, you can fill the space with a few drainage crates. Ultimately, drainage crates are easier to transport and more space-efficient, meaning you need fewer of them and you need to expend less effort to do the same job.
- Long Lasting
Rubble, while effective in the short term for solving issues of standing water, is not terribly effective over longer periods of time. This is because sediment begins to trickle in with the draining water, filling up the gaps and making the rubble ultimately as impermeable as normal soil.
Drainage crates, in contrast, present a longer-term solution. They’ve been engineered so as to allow water various routes to percolate downward. This means that, even if sediment ends up flowing into the crate, there’s a better chance of it flowing through and allowing water to continually run off instead of inundating the soil around it.
- Durability
Despite their lightweight nature, drainage crates are designed to be incredibly durable. This means they can also bear heavy loads and provide drainage in areas that experience considerable traffic. Manufacturers will have options for areas that experience foot traffic, car traffic, and even truck traffic, mixing the drainage you need with the support to keep the area a bustling thoroughfare. Other solutions, in comparison, compress quite easily, leading to major issues.
The Bottom Line
Drainage crates present a number of advantages over other run-off solutions, from being durable and lightweight, to presenting a variety of water management options. Consider using drainage crates for your next water management project, and you might be surprised at their effectiveness.
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