More Drain Pipe

Sunday, 11 September 2011

In mid September i installed yet another drainage pipe in my yard. This time however i used black corrugated plastic pipe instead of PVC. I should have used this stuff from the beginning. It's much easier to use, cheaper, can bend around corners and doesn't need additional fittings.
The new pipe is at the back of my house.
I first dug a small trench. This went a lot faster since i didn't hit tree roots like last time.
Although i did have to dig up some potatoes in the process.
I also unearthed my bamboo roots.
But i laid the pipe and backfilled the trench with grass clippings. Then dumped dirt on top. Like before, i used grass clippings to try and allow the water to seep into the ground. If i just backfilled with the clay soil it would never drain.
Although i did make sure to pack the pipe near the house with clay. That's the one area that i don't want the water to drain into the soil, because it would then leak into the basement.

This was easy compared to the other times. No 300 pound slabs of concrete to move and no tree roots to chop. It took a couple hours to dig.

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Gutter Drainage Again

Monday, 20 June 2011

The first drain pipe in installed by the side of the garage works perfectly. 1st drain pipe The second one i made doesn't. 2nd drain pipe

There's 2 reasons why it doesn't work. First, all the soil in my backyard is clay, which doesn't let the water drain. Second, is that my backyard is basically flat, which also doesn't let the water drain.

So i tried extending the pipe another 10 feet.

Then instead of just backfilling the trench with clay i added, then compacted, logs and grass clippings. I then put the dirt back on top of that. I'll probably have to fix this again next year.

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Drain Pipe #2

Monday, 9 August 2010

A few months ago i routed my roof downspout to drain underground. It was a little difficult digging the trench but it turned out ok. It was fairly easy, just a lot of digging and trenching under the concrete walk.

Right after i finished that i started working on the other roof drain in my back yard. That was a long time ago.

This time i had to chop and saw my way through vines and tree roots, dig along side a fence, hammer and chisel and eventually move concrete slabs.
The problem was that my concrete patio was in the way. So i thought i'd just take a chisel and a big hammer and make a hole in the concrete and run the pipe under it. But first i had to move a big slab of concrete out of the way. I used 2x4's and rocks and levered it over a few feet.
Then i discovered that under the concrete slab is another slab of concrete. So instead of making a hole i just knocked out the corner. This all took a long time over many days and many smashed knuckles, to bash away enough concrete to fit the drain pipe.
Once again the clay soil doesn't drain well in the backyard either. But i was eventually able to place the PVC pipe on sand in the trench.

I still have to pour concrete to fill in around the pipe. It's a lot of work for something most people will walk by and never notice.

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Actual Civil Engineering Work ... well kinda

Monday, 17 May 2010

I got tired of tripping over the 2 gutter downspouts on the side of the house so i decided to make underground drainage. Here's the first one on the side of the garage.
Step 1. Dig the trench. To go under the concrete i used an ice auger.

Step 2. Fit the pipes

Step 3: Backfill with sand

Materials:
10' PVC pipe ----------------------------- $8
10' PVC pipe with drainage holes ---- $8
cloth pipe cover ------------------------ $6
drain cap --------------------------------- $3
two 90 degree bends ------------------ $2 each

I did buy two of everything for the drain in the back yard which, i haven't finished yet because i had to chisel through the concrete and drill a lot farther with the ice auger.
The bad part is that my yard is all clay, which doesn't let water drain. So i had to use sand to backfill around the pipes.

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