Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Not my favorite farm chore

Sean learning how to clear a drain

This is a Super Vee drain cleaner, also referred to as a snake.  When I built my small barn I put in floor drains, which work most of the time, but get clogged.  This little beauty allows us to clear the drain, but I have got to say that it's not my favorite thing to do. 

 Its basically a drill with a special fitting on the front that contains a flexible metal hose with a special tip.  You put it down the drain, 4" at a time, and spin it, and it clears whatevers down there.  Most of what gets into the drain is a fine sediment, mostly dirt.  I rented this thing from the local hardware store a few times, and then finally decided to buy one.  They work great. 

Next time I put in floor drains for a barn, however, I'm going to do something other than a 2" line.  Maybe a full-on 3" or 4" line would work better. 

2 comments:

David said...

If you know that your barn is going to have lots of debris or sediment on the floor that needs to be washed away, what about a recessed trough with a drain cover the full length of the trough. I think that I have seen these types of floors in commercial car washes. Obviously the floor must slope towards this trough and the cover needs to be strong and stable enough to be stepped on or driven on. Being able to take off the cover and wash it out with a hose or scoop it out with a shovel sounds like a pretty good alternative to a drain snake. (I have been planning to build a barn, and this is something that I have been considering.)

Bruce King said...

What I installed are 8x8" floor sinks with a 2" line below them. I also built in cleanouts so that I can snake every section pretty easily. What is getting into these drains looks like fine, grey mud, which may be dirt tracked in, or it may be something in the feed, like mineral supplements or something. I don't really know.

I think I'd seriously consider a storm drain type approach next time. 2x2' with a steel grate and a settling chamber below. The only problemw is that there's no easy way to clean those suckers out, and that's why I didn't do it here.

That's what those giant vacuum trucks are for; that's what municipalities use to clean them.