Okay, so we’re doing some preparation for landscaping work, and I’ve been trying to trace the destination of a rain gutter downspout that just… disappears into the front garden somewhere. It backs up in heavy rain, so clearly there’s a blockage.
I actually want to find the end point and find out why it isn’t draining – although I think I’ve just answered the question: if it terminates in the front garden about a foot below the surface, then all it will take for the drain to stop draining is for the groundwater level to rise to that point.
During the recent drought years, the groundwater level is so low to be non-existent, and the drain does the job fine. But with the recent weeks of Pineapple Express moisture dumping, it’s a problem.
I started digging around, and found the pipe heading out to the front, but it has roots and things twisted around it.
One of the “things” turned out not to be a root, but rather, irrigation control wire.
Complicating the picture slightly, the two smaller pipe ends just to the right of the main run are actually much shallower, they are short lengths that run under the concrete that I’m kneeling on to take the photo. They are supposed to be used as chases to allow cables and suchlike to be threaded under the concrete path. You know, like, say, irrigation valve control wire. However someone in their wisdom did not use the chase for this purpose, and instead just lay the irrigation control wire alongside the main drain pipe. Cleverly disguised as a root. A root, I tell you. Why black plastic cladding? Purple or green would have been much less likely to be mistaken for a root. (OK, well, RED then.)
The water level you see here is about a foot below ground level. It’s not a leak; it’s just ground water. The pipe running from the T-junction to the left actually makes an off-screen right angle upwards, to a clean-out. That’s where I started digging to find out what it connected to.
Best figure out how to fix this severed control wire before the new pavers go down, I think.
I was out there again this afternoon tracing back the business end of the wire and pulling it up so that I could tape it off safely (low voltage but still, potential short) and the ground water level is now out of range. I couldn’t say how far down it’s gone but at the 1.5 foot level it is back to the usual stodgy clay. Now that the wire is taken care of, i can go back to tracing the far end of the drain pipe and see where it stops. It probably just needs a proper clean-out at the end, ending in a gravel pit. Which right now, it probably doesn’t. Who knows? We’ll find out…
I found the outlet! Yes it was blocked.
It just terminates at a right-angle, coming up to the level of the pavement. I wish it could be redirected straight out to the road, under the pavement.
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