Raising Cane’s, a fast-growing chicken restaurant in the Dallas Fort Worth area, was building a central corporate office to support its multiple locations. The design included an outside courtyard that the staff could use for lunch, breaks and outdoor events for Raising Cane’s employees. 

The lot was very flat, posing a challenge for stormwater drainage, and creating a list of three key requirements: the project needed a low-profile drainage system that could manage the site’s sheet flow, meet high storm intensity requirements even with the area’s flat topography and also feature a high-end finish since the aesthetics for the outdoor amenities were largely modern and made of stainless steel.

PREMIUM GRATES AND SLOPED CHANNEL MEET LOW-PROFILE, HIGH-END DESIGN  

Kimley-Horn & Associates, the project’s design firm, collaborated with the local NDS specification manager to come up with the right solution to meet the design criteria. Since the site had little elevation change, NDS BG-FILCOTEN pre-sloped trench drains were an ideal choice. A product with a built-in slope would provide a continuous 0.5% slant inside the channel drain, providing more effective and complete drainage because it keeps standing water from gathering inside the channel drain body. In addition, BG FILCOTEN drains are easy to clean as maintenance units are integrated directly into the channel and can quickly be accessed for cleaning purposes. 

The project would also utilize NDS’ slot top grates in stainless steel. Slot top grates are becoming more popular as specifiers look to products that blend in more easily with surrounding design elements and hardscapes. These ½-inch wide narrow grates can still inflow plenty of water and manage large rain events while matching the aesthetics and being more inconspicuous within the hardscape of the outdoor area.

DESIGN WORX SERVICES HELPS ENSURE BEST OUTCOME POSSIBLE

The NDS Design Worx team provides multiple free services that help free up time for busy specifiers and make the process go more smoothly. With this project in particular, Design Worx services produced shop drawings for the system. The team also developed a comprehensive parts list which made it easy for both the designer and the contractor to know exactly how and where to install the product, alleviating the guesswork for the designer and construction team. In addition, local inventory was available, so product arrived onsite in just a few days.

The construction team installed the drain system within the synthetic turf area and courtyard paver walkway. The contractor said the product packaging, labeling and installation details provided on the shop drawing by Design Worx services were very clear so there was no confusion, which allowed for a seamless installation. Often times due to the high number of parts showing up on a jobsite, it’s easy for product to get mixed up so having a detailed plan is of great value. 

This slot top solution has since been used on other jobs by Kimley-Horn because of how happy they were with the results.