Drive over Dry well cover

Ryf

in our side yard, we have about a 3 foot by 3 foot dry well, it is about 5 ft deep with older brick (big bricks) and mortar side. when we moved in it was covered with a 2" thick concrete slab, no rebar /wire was used just poured over board. fast forward 10 years.. we have not had any problems, but this part of the yard has always been "off limits" to vehicle traffic. we want to make it a limited use parking area, which means the thin concrete slab has to go I think. I can get the slab off no problem, but what would be an acceptable replacement? I was thinking four 4 ft rebar's going each direction, so 8 total, the form would be a 3/4" sheet of plywood, same as the first time, but this time thinking 4-5" of concrete to give it some long term strength. I will be removing 1 brick height all the way around the top to keep it below/ at grade. my plan is this will be a fairly permanent solution, planned usage is light trucks and etc. in my mind this seems overkill, but I dont want to be wrong so i want to err on the side of caution, and I like over kill. another thought was to go out another foot all the way around to spread the weight around, but keeping it close to the "foundation" of the dry well also seems wise.. thoughts?

Missouri Bound

Is that dry wall functional? If not, fill it with gravel and be done with it. Pour a slab over the filled well.

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Ryf

yes it is, it pulls water from the crawlspace under the older part of the house out to the back yard, which helps keep the newer basement dry.


--added--
it does alot less work than it used to, we redid the front yard landscaping to include more water control systems, but backups never hurt right?

Missouri Bound

Could you rework the opening to use a reguar steel manhole cover? They are available in a few sizes and the assembly comes with a flange and the cover itself. Cover would be much easier to remove and you could always keep your moonshine in there.

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Ryf

lol, nah, dont really need a bug out hideaway, but neat idea, mostly just want something simple that a car or light duty truck wont fall through, if I drive over it. a friend drove his s-10 over it without my knowledge and was fine, but in retrospect I should have planned that out better for just in case your friends an idiot scenarios. since it held that, I imagine twice the thickness with rebar would be better right?

Missouri Bound

I'm sure it will be fine. Make sure the walls will support the additional weight.

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Ryf

I agree, it seems like a simple enough excercise, the 2" of basic concrete has served well enough, just want to make sure its safe for the next 10-20 years.

itsreallyconc

i'd make it 7" thick w/2 mats of # 6 rebar 18" on ctr - 1 mat at 90* to the other - 2" of conc, 1 mat, 2" conc, the other mat,,, who knows when the next vehicle will be heavier ? you never get hurt building bigger & stronger

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if you hear it from a guy in the apron store, be VERY suspicious the mtl/method will work,,, when it time to build something together, they won't answer phones NOR help
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