Trench Drain length

[woohokie]

Hey all, not in all my searching could I find the answer to this.

The space we are looking at for our 7bbl brewhouse (3 vessel HLT, MT, and kettle) will need floor drains installed. After reading how much better trench drains are, I've gotten a quote for 100.00/linear foot installed. First off, is that reasonable? This is for the Richmond VA downtown.

Also, how do you determine how long the trench drains should be? I imagine it depends on the brewhouse layout which as of yet we haven't set in stone due to considerations such as these.

We plan to have 4 7bbl fermenters and 5 7bbl serving tanks with only the serving tanks going in the cold room. So, how would you set up the tanks (stout tanks btw) and how much trench drain should we need for a given setup? If more info is needed, tank size wise, I'd be glad to post. Thanks for any input.

[lhall]

You want to have at least 3/16" slope per foot. That will help you decide how much trench drain to install. But it's better to have more than not enough.

[yap]

everywhere...

It comes down to how far you want to squeegee the water. More drains = less squeegee-ing. Think about the areas that will be the wettest (in front of the fermenters and the brewhouse) and try to have one close to them. Be careful about putting a trench in the walk-in as some building codes don't allow it. You also need to think about natural slopes in the floor (unless you are pouring new floors with slope built in). I put a drain nearly the entire length of my space but at the one end the floor slopes very slightly away from it so I am constantly chasing water at that end of the building to get it to the drain. If only it was a few feet longer....

Where the drains can/will go should be a major consideration when laying out the space.

Probably not a lot of help, but every install is different so as usual there is no one right answer to your question. As far as the install price goes, I did mine myself so I cant help you there. I will tell you it is a lot of work and you couldn't pay me $100 a foot to do it again...

[woohokie]

All the input so far is much appreciated, and clearly I have more research to do.

[Baldrick]

Cutting in new trench drains is nasty work. Much easier if there is no floor to begin with.

For what it's worth, this is the trench drain system that we have planned:

http://www.watts.com/pages/_products_sub.asp?catId=67&parCat=108

Click the Dead Level D link.
It's expensive but saves a ton of labour in installation. Somewhat less than $100 per foot.

[yap]

I used a similar material. I agree if you are starting with no floor it should cost well less than $100 a foot. Presloped trenches are nice and easy to put together and set to the floor height. Cutting through 6 inches of reinforced concrete, jackhammering it out, and digging another 12-14 inches through well compacted fill that is almost as hard as the concrete was...that's the expensive part...

[Selkirk]

I had 55' of the drain pictured below installed for $6800 including concrete. I put the drain down the center of the production floor. If I had it to do all over again I'd pay 15k to put the drain around the perimeter of the room.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Matt Dog]

If your floors slope properly you could get away with a lot less trench. If not put in as much as you can afford! I have worked in four different brewerys and the one that had the best slope was night and day better than the others. Low spots far away from any drains will kill you. I worked in a brewpub with only strategically placed 6" round floor drains that wasnt ideal but the slope except for a couple spots made up for it and everything would eventually drain. Currently its a nightmare layout with no slope and limted trench that requires much elbow grease on the squeegee and mops. Your labor costs will be much higher in a brewery without properly sloped and drained floors.

[woohokie]

Thanks for all the help thus far, but I now feel like I don't know enough to really know....

So, I'm guessing it would be safe to assume that 100.00/linear foot is for trench drains installed into the pre-existing concrete whether it slopes or not... Which I'm not sure if the space we are looking at has any slope to the floor at all. We are taking another look at the place tomorrow so I'll check and then call the concrete people to see what's included in the price.

From what I've seen and read here, I can't imagine paying to have trench drains installed without having the floors sloped to them.