Drainage Ditch     
April 19, 2008

I think it was two weeks before I got around to the second phase of the project . The plan was to run the drain pipes into an underground sump. Lowes had these cool plastic sump thingys that was perfect.

Over time your drain field will fill with silt and other debris that washes down the drain. Eventually it renders your drain area useless and everything backs up. With this cool sump thingy (which comes with a lid), I could dig it up and more easily clean out the crap.

At least that was the plan. 



  
 


With the whole elevation change thing going on, I had to string up some lines to figure out exactly how far down the yard I had to go with the sump. From the lid of the sump, I was going to add an overflow pipe and vent, so when the sump got full of water, it had somewhere to go. The key was making sure the overflow vent was lower in elevation in the yard then either of the catch basins.

Unfortunately the yard sort of levels out after the corner of the garage, so I had to go quite a ways to make sure the overflow would work.

Considering the drain pipes had to also make a constant drop in elevation, that meant a lot of digging for me out and down into the yard. Which by the way, turned to clay about twelve inches down. 


You can see I had a lot of digging to do to get the sump down to the correct depth. 


Almost there. Notice the water in the bottom? We have a very wet yard. 

Finally it's deep enough! Unfortunately I didn't measure the final depth of the hole. 

I lined the hole with drain fabric, though now that I look at it. 


Then ran all the pipes.  

Here's the step-down from the sidewalk ditch   

Another shot of the step-down and the junction from the garage. 

And finally where it all comes together in the sump.

 
 
 
 

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