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Landscape Design

Clear clogged corrugated buried drainage pipe?

14 years ago

I may have some clogging in my drainage pipe (4 inch), which is buried. After heavy rains, it takes a long time to clear (about 3-4 days) and there is some pooling of water in my catch basin. After immediate heavy rains, you can hear some percolating noises. I would imagine that dead leaves could be in there, but not sure.

Is there an easy and low budget way to figure out if it's clogged? I remember when it was dry I stuck my garden house and ran it. The water came out the other end fairly quickly but with heavy rains it could be different(?). Thanks.

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Comments (2)

sunnyca_gw
14 years ago
Well, I'm not sure but I have an underground pipe with a drain that comes out just down the walk from my kitchen. I have always ran a garden hose through to clean it out but apparently a gopher was able to get in a break in it as it has a lot of dirt in it & I stuck my arm in it as far as I dared & pulled out lot of fresh dirt. My thought is to try hose & if that doesn't work might put brass nozzle on it to try to force it out. My next idea is to see if I could get anywhere with a sewer snake, it's already rusty so thought I could loosen dirt with it., Might loosen up your leaves in there & get them so you can wash them out. If you have a long narrow pipe you might screw on another short pipe & elbow (to use as handle) & try going in at bottom end & loosening things up, I have a rebar that is full length as they don't cut it at Home Depot anymore & plan to take it & try to clean dirt out.(might work for you,but I would try other ideas 1st) That's about all this "do it yourselfer' can figure out! Big job to dig it out & put in new system. Good Luck!
heimert
14 years ago
I'd just jam a hose with a spray nozzle (the straight kind) on it into the pipe and push it along. Shold clear it out.
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