NDS conducted a case study using their EZflow gravel free French Drain for St. Louis Country Club Golf Course in St. Louis, Missouri. The drainage was installed in the fairway of the course and with much success. Read below the review of the project from the course’s superintendent.
“We observed very poor drainage and ponding occurring along a 1,500’ length of the 6th fairway. This was a fairly long stretch of the fairway that ponded in excess of 3” after a 2” rainfall and would stay that way for at least a day. This would delay the use of the course by club members. After reviewing the problem we determined we needed a French drain. I obtained bids to regrade and drain that area, but the cost was too high and would put the course out of commission for too long. The contractors bidding the job came back with a plan to regrade the area, use dual wall pipe and catch basins as the solution. I looked at those bids and decided I wanted to avoid a regrade due to cost and decided to move forward with a French drain solution. At the same time as I was getting the French drain work planned, my distributor sent me an email about a new product from NDS called EZflow.
After receiving the information, I looked at the product web site and, after viewing the installation video and a golf course case study, I decided to try the product on my 6th fairway project. I thought it may work better because of the improved infiltration of water versus pea gravel. The product has 30% superior drainage performance over pipe and gravel. I originally planned to use a 7 member crew for 7 days to trench, install and clean the site of spoils. Once I started trenching, I was able complete the entire job in 1 day with 3 employees and actually found my guys waiting for the trencher to complete trenching so they could continue to install the EZflow product. Bottom line, I put 3 people on the job to trench and install the product that ended up taking 1 day to trench and install; 2 days to clean up spoils. If I had used pea gravel and pipe, I would have needed 7 guys for 7 days to trench, install and clean the site of excess gravel.”
To see the original case study notes click here.
