Since we moved in this drain pipe setup
has bothered
me
. Not only is it ugly, but in the winter
it drains water onto the sidewalk which then freezes and
becomes a hazard.
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In addition to the drainage issues across
the sidewalk, the corner of the driveway had this pooling
issue when we got heavy
rains.
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Since Jen decided it was time to replace the
old mulch, I knew now was the time to fix it permanently,
which started with digging a ditch toward the
sidewalk.
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A ditch that would ultimately go under
the sidewalk and come out the other
side.
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A ditch big enough for a four inch drain
pipe.
To get the pipe under the sidewalk I started
hammering it with a sledge
hammer.
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It would only hammer so far before I'd
have to pull it out, clean out the contents and hammer it back
in. As you can see, pulling it out required some ingenuity. I
backed up my rental Ford Focus and hooked a ratcheting strap
to the car and the pipe to winch it
out.
It was at some point during
this process I blew a gasket in my belly.
It
was also at some point during this process I realized
driving a four inch pipe under a four foot sidewalk wasn't
going to work, so I switched to a two inch pipe as a
pilot of sorts.
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I also started driving the pipe from
the other side where I had more room to maneuver. Since I
couldn't get the Focus around in the yard, I pulled the
tractor out and setup some stop blocks to use as my
anchor.
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Here you can see where I originally tried
driving the four inch pipe, but switched to the two inch pipe
to get it
through
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Once the two inch pipe was through, it
was back to the four inch. I went through a lot of pipes as
they'd break up into pieces being hammered in and pulled out
of the
hole.
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It took an entire afternoon to get the
pipe under the sidewalk. Once that was done it was onto the
fun stuff of putting the new drainage system
together.
The plan
was to put this catch basin in under the downspout to catch
its runoff and the runoff from the driveway that used to pool
here.
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