Trench drain grates are one of the essentials that any trench drain system needs to have in place to be used safely. Trench drain grates serve many important functions for your drainage system. They protect the trench from getting clogged with debris and they keep people from getting their feet caught in the trench. They can also be made to be decorative, enhancing the beauty of your yard or business space.
If you are ready to buy trench drain gates, you need to know more about what these important components of your trench drain system are for. Being educated about your options when it comes to trench drain grates can ensure that you are able to get the right gratings for safety and appearance at your property.
What to Know About Trench Drains
1. They Serve a Practical Purpose
Many people incorrectly assume that trench drain grates are entirely cosmetic and don’t have a real function. This reasoning is likely because there are other kinds of drainage that is left open at the top, such as drainage in garden spaces or in areas where there is no foot traffic and there are no cars that need to pass over installed drainage.
Trench drain grates actually serve a lot of practical purposes. They keep debris from getting into the drains, and they also keep people from slipping and falling into the drains as they walk around. They can also protect the integrity and strength of the drainage trench from heavy items, such as cars, that need to pass over the drains on a regular basis.
Trench drain grates are incredibly important to the overall function of your trench drain system. Without grates, your trench drains will not work properly.
2. They Impact Peak Flow
There are various designs of trench drain grates, all of which are intended to serve different functions while also impacting the amount of water that can flow into the drainage in question. Trench drain grates can be solid, ADA-approved, or patterned. All of these grating styles impact how much water is allowed to flow into the trench at any given time.
The gratings that you place in high water flow areas will have a different design than those that you place in areas where there is less demand. You might also need to take into consideration that cars or foot traffic pass over the trench on a regular basis, which means that you need to be sure that you have drainage gratings that will not cause issues with the strength of the drain or the safety of its placement in areas where foot and vehicle traffic are a common presence.
The design of your trench drain gratings needs to match the demand that will be placed on your drainage during peak water flow periods. This is always the most important factor when you are installing drainage solutions, which means that you need to know the peak flow in different areas of your property to install the right trench drains and to buy the right gratings.
3. Gratings Can be Decorative
Your trench drain grates can be customized to be decorative if they are going to be placed in areas where trenches can impact the beauty of a space. There are many materials that trench drain gratings can be made of, and most of these materials can be stamped or formed into clever and beautiful designs to ensure that you can get access to correct and effective drainage that is also pretty to look at.
These custom grates might cost a bit more, but they can be the perfect solution for those looking to create a beautiful space that includes drainage. From plastics to metal grates, you have lots of options when it comes to ensuring that your trench drain grates are nice to look at.
Whether you are looking for drainage grates for a courtyard, a pool area, or the space around a fountain, there are decorative grates out there that will make this drainage look lovely each and every day.
4. You Need to Calculate Peak Flow
No matter what kind of trench drains or trench drain grates you are going to install on your property, you need to calculate the peak flow in the area where the drainage solution is going to be placed. Your trench drains and all of their accessories need to be rated for the maximum amount of liquid runoff that might be present at any given time.
This is a simple enough calculation, but you might need to look up historic rainfall or information about business use that leads to high volumes of water being produced and needing to be removed from working spaces. The peak volume of water that is going to flow over your drainage is a key piece of information so that you can install drainage that will withstand and also deal with water or liquid runoff in large volumes.
When you only build drainage that is for the minimum water flow that might be present at any given time, you can run into issues with standing water, flooding, and bacterial growth. You can avoid these issues by taking the time to figure out peak flow before picking trench drains and trench drain gratings.
Trench Drain Grates Are Key to Drainage Function
Without trench drain grates, you cannot count on your trench drains to operate correctly. You might run into issues with safety, or problems with your drainage being clogged unnecessarily. If your drainage solution is clogged for too long, the clogs can undermine the trenches themselves, leading to costly fixes that could have been avoided.
No matter what kind of trench drain you have installed, if it is not a slot drain, it will need grates to cover the trenches for protection, longevity, and durability. Be sure that you are not missing this important aspect of creating a well-crafted and well-designed drainage solution at your home or business. There are so many trench drain grates out there that you should have no trouble finding the perfect drainage solution for your needs.
