Culvert Questions

I’ve had a couple culverts installed on a long driveway. I have no interest in weed whacking or trimming around them.

How are most of you finishing off the areas around functional culverts? These specific culverts are appropriately sized and will only pass water between fields in significant rain events.

My tentative plan is to stake in the toughest landscape fabric I can find around the culvert openings and approach (cut for a good fit) and surround the uphill and downhill side with approximately 6″ stones. I don’t want large boulders that are a PITA to get there, but I also don’t want something small enough to wash. On the downhill side I’m planning to have a longer span of rock to act as a splash pan hopefully slowing down any water coming through and potential erosion in major rain events.

Is this a sufficient plan? Kudos to any solution that is “pretty” for Mrs. Bucky’s approval and requires less maintenance. I don’t want to mow around it, nor do I want a weed bed around the culvert.

I’ve used large flat stones, seems to have done the trick

Softball sized rocks will work well. For the fabric look for Geotextile fabric. It will be the heaviest stuff you can find. And I know Menards has it in like 12foot wide sheets so you don’t need to mess with multiple sheets.

I’m not a big landscape guy so I weed wack around mine once a year or so, plus it’s not a high volume water area so it sees basically zero erosion.

BTW-
When we going to start seeing some pics of the new build?

Use some smaller rock to lock in the 6″. Scrape away sod around the end of the pipes, so your rock won’t slide. DK.

EPG – I’ll share some progress shots in a clump when there’s more worth looking at. 1200’ of driveway, a hole with concrete, and a bunch of equipment isn’t all that much to look at. Things will start rocking more quickly here once the floor trusses arrive.

Try checking with a local sand & gravel outfit. I was able to get a “riprap” mix of 2-6″ rock for around my culverts in the ditch at the house. Has been in for 16 years now and no issues.
I used about 7’ish yards on the upside and downside, and used the rest (10 yd load) for some pathways in the woods to the dog kennel and smaller landscape spots in the yard.
I will say it was a pain in the rear to spread with a shovel in the ditch. I ended up with some tendonitis in the elbow by the end. But its held up really well. I’m near the top of a hill and slope is probably 3-4% in the culvert and the rocks have moved very little.

xplorer wrote:

Try checking with a local sand & gravel outfit. I was able to get a “riprap” mix of 2-6″ rock for around my culverts in the ditch at the house. Has been in for 16 years now and no issues.
I used about 7’ish yards on the upside and downside, and used the rest (10 yd load) for some pathways in the woods to the dog kennel and smaller landscape spots in the yard.
I will say it was a pain in the rear to spread with a shovel in the ditch. I ended up with some tendonitis in the elbow by the end. But its held up really well. I’m near the top of a hill and slope is probably 3-4% in the culvert and the rocks have moved very little.

I’ll swing by our local spot this weekend and see what they have available. I wouldn’t need a full load as these aren’t giant culverts or ditches around them, rather just enough to fill a pickup bed. Did you put some type of fabric under it to keep weed growth between all the rock to a minimum?

Regarding the fabric…. Oh heck yeah.

buckybadger wrote:

Did you put some type of fabric under it to keep weed growth between all the rock to a minimum?

I did, but 16 years ago it was a double layer of heavy MIL black plastic It has held up incredibly well and other than near the downside edge, I’ve had very little weed growth in the rock itself. I did about a 10′ x 20′ swath on both up and downsides.