Did I mess this up? Buried downspout, 25′ non-perforated corrugated pipe.
by Cottons
Did I mess this up? Buried downspout, 25′ non-perforated corrugated pipe.
by Cottons
8 Comments
I want to get the water as far from the house as possible, so I dug a straight trench.
* I ensured downslope through the whole trench
* I used tile tape for the joints
* Trench is 25′ long
* The pop up emitter is in a sock with drainage stones in it
* I do have 2 additional bags of drainage stones in the last few feet of pipe
At the end of the run is a 90 elbow with a perforated pipe and a pop up emitter. After a small amount of rain I’m seeing standing water in the pipe. Ya the trench is uncovered but even with the small amount of rain we just had I don’t think this much water should be present.
The red arrows indicate the slope of the terrain. Overall grade is towards the road beyond the pop-up emitter.
My question is, if this were your house, what would you do? Dig a new trench and direct it more downhill? I’m picturing the exit of the pipe coming out of the dirt at a 45 degree angle near where the red arrows are?
If it goes to the street, it will drain just fine. If it drains into the lawn, probably not. You will end up with large wet areas, perhaps a lake. Water needs to be drained “away” to work properly, not “Into”.
I think you did fine. Most will say it should be PVC pipe, but I think corrugated is fine. It’s cheaper and easier to install, but PVC is better.
A few things if you’re looking for feedback.
1. Is the pipe 3″? I’d want 4″ minimum. Especially if you aren’t capturing debris before the pipe (good gutter guards, downspout adapter, etc.).
2. Use external couplers instead of internal couplers when join pipe. Debris, especially if not being captured before the pipe, can get stuck on the internal couplers. I’ve had it happen to me.
3. If you are planning to do this in other areas, it would be worth it to buy 100′ of continuous pipe so you don’t need any couplers.
4. I would just leave the pipe where you have it now. It’s far enough from your house and should find downgrade easy enough. If it doesn’t, it’s easy enough to move, especially since you used corrugated.
5. Putting a 45 is okay, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Water should move away fine and straight pipe is best for avoiding clogs.
The trench is filling with water because that’s the lowest point when it comes out of the pipe. The water isn’t going to jump the gap from the grate.
Backfill and compact the trench and the water will run down the hill. Everything is fine except for that. There will always be some standing water in the pipe because it has a popup on the end. Water can’t defy gravity.
I would extend the pipe to about 1’ from the road and have your pop up there. Otherwise over time that area where you are now releasing the water will become a nightmare. Wet and most likely dead.
We are just removing an old drain in a home where a portion of their backyard becomes a small pond when they run their sprinklers. When it rains it’s a lake. All because they put their pop up in their yard and not out to the road. It’s created a natural holding area and takes days to drain.
Do you get lots of rain/runoff in that area? If so add crushed rock around the pipe for extra drainage.
Once you back fill a lot of that standing water will naturally run off on top of the grass.
GL
You need to build a dry well with lots of gravel under there for the water to disperse into. If it already did this after a “light rain” once you fill that up with dirt the water will have no place to go and during a hard rain will just back up to the downspout and overflow.
Do I see a big drainage grate at the front corner? Replace your corrugated pipe with solid PVC, and slope it correctly down to that drain, having the pipe pop out right above the grate. You can cut the end of the PVC at an angle so it more easily transitions above ground.
Run it downhill enough to come out of the ground horizontally.