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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:36 pm
by Colin James
What is a French Drain?
Also is a "metalled road" considered acceptable in 21st. century? I am think of dust, loose stones from traffic and so forth.
Regards,
Colin.
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:56 pm
by danensis
See the main web site? See the box at the top which says "Google Search"? Have you tried putting "French Drain" in there?
As for metalling, see-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavement_(material)
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 4:15 pm
by GB_Groundworks
a french drain is typically a trench with a perforated pipe laid in it and then back filled with a porus material such as clean stone, they are nothing to do with the French but were invented by Henry French of Concord, Massachusetts haha
main page drianage
gi
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 4:29 pm
by GB_Groundworks
quote from that wiki page
Metalling
Metal or metalling has had two distinct usages in road paving. Metalling originally referred to the process of creating a carefully engineered gravel roadway. The route of the roadway first would be dug down several feet. Depending on local conditions, French drains may or may not have been added. Next, large stone was placed and compacted, followed by successive layers of smaller stone, until the road surface was a small stone compacted into a hard, durable surface.
Road metal later became the name of stone chippings mixed with tar to form the road surfacing material tarmac. A road of such material is called a "metalled road" in British usage, or less often a macadam road, however the most common name applied to any U.K road surface is "tarmac", regardless of its actual construction. The word metal is derived from the Latin metallum, which means both "mine" and "quarry", hence the roadbuilding terminology.
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:28 am
by danensis
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day -- teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:41 am
by GB_Groundworks
i quoted the wiki page because i thought it was of general interest to the cabin, as i didn't know exactly why a metalled rd was called that save everyone a trip to wiki land.
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 6:15 pm
by Dave_L
I saw a sign the other day saying "Unmetalled Road" - thought that was odd, never seen one before!
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:18 pm
by Pablo
danensis wrote:If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day -- teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Have you heard the other version.
If you give a somalian a fish he will eat, if you give him a rod he will feed his family but don't ever give him a boat.
p.s. for all the mind how you go's the above is not in any way intended to be racist.
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:59 pm
by Mikey_C
I thought it was give a man a fish and he will eat for day, teach a man to fish, and he will spend most weekends on boat drink beer and catching nothing. 
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 5:50 am
by seanandruby
Dave_L wrote:I saw a sign the other day saying "Unmetalled Road" - thought that was odd, never seen one before!
perhaps it was'nt done to spec so wont take heavy loads ???
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 12:33 pm
by Tony McC
The trouble with 'French Drains' is that, like their cousins, the Soakaways, there is a lot of variation in what is considered to be a 'French Drain'. In essence, any form of trench with porous/permeable backfill would qualify as a FD, but some will incorporate a permeable pipe (as shown in the diagram above) and others will not. Some will be constructed using clean gravel, while others are usually little more than half-bricks or rubble stone.
The technically-correct definition of a French Drain is pretty much as shown in the diagram, with graded clean gravel and a permeable pipe at the base. They are more usually referred to as "Filter Drains" in civil engineering speak.
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 3:56 pm
by Colin James
Thank you for all this information.
The description of a French Drain was helpful, confirmed my guess.
The metalled road explanation was good, especially the fact that there seems to be two possible versions. This clears up a bit of confusion I had.
The fish????
Regards,
Colin.