Lady has a three season porch over a later added 5 foot crawl with poured concrete walls and a foot or so rock layer covering clay.
Water’d been sitting in there for who knows how long rotting everything. Could get pretty deep in there if left on it’s own.
I’d figured the crawl water level matched the brook out back something like 25ft away and water had found a way to seep in thru the ground.
So everything’s now tightened up and I’m shoveling around where someone had put a little sump pump in an attempt to alleviate the situation when I see red oxide and a tiny square inch of rotted metal grill telling me there was once a sump hole there.
So I’m digging down there and discover in the that corner under the footer is a 4 inch castiron drainpipe sticking into the crawl a few inches and water is coming in thru that pipe. Sometimes a pretty good flow. That was the main source of water entering the crawl.
My attempts to plug the pipe only managed to lessen the volume of seepage in that the pipe is apparently rotted thru farther up as water is still able to enter from outside the pipe.
Now I’m thinking that pipe was originally suppose to be a drain from the crawl to the brook and either the waterlevel of the brook rose enough to backup the slant of the drain or the rusted pipe has sunk altering it’s flow.
Attempts to find the outlet of the pipe in the wooded brook have thus far been useless. Can get a general idea of location from angle of viewable pipe within the crawl if it is a straight shot out but no whirling eddy or abnormal water movement can be seen there.
The sump will be able to handle the flow but ideally being able to nip the bulk of the problem water in the bud by plugging the sucker up would be best.
Short of getting a metal detector is there anything else worth trying to locate the thing?
Thanks
Replies
wild ideas
length of #2 rebar and push down the pipe, since rebar 20' not sure how to attach 2 pieces
three lengths of emt push down the pipe see where it comes out
waste pipe augher?
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
I plugged the pipe and put the sump there by the pipe so I'm not digging that out again.I'm thinking maybe a vegetable dye up stream.
Beware. RFID is coming.
I'd give witching a shot first...then, maybe you could blow compressed air through, and watch for bubbles? I need a dump truck, baby, to unload my head
Funny, just this morning I was reading thru an old taunton paperback collection of tips and saw a little article on witching for ferrous pipes with bent coathanger wire in copper pipes.Maybe.
Edited 6/28/2006 9:31 pm ET by rez
The way I was shown to do it, it doesn't seem to matter what kind of wire, and no copper pipes needed... take around 2' pcs bent into ells w/ about 6" "handles"...hold 'em loosely in your fists pointing straight out in front of you. When you walk over water, pipe, wire, etc., sometimes they'll cross, turn out, or pull down...I've found telephone lines, old fences, and drain pipes, to name a few...maybe Jimmy Hoffa?<G> I need a dump truck, baby, to unload my head
another wild idea....
How about capping off the pipe in the crawl and feeding an air compressor line through the cap?
Maybe you will be able to find the bubbles in the babbling brook?
Just knock out a portion of the wall there with the pipe, and break the pipe off.
Then patch with hydraulic cement.
If you want to find the other end of the pipe and plug it as well, the air compressor is probably the best bet. Just let it run, you'll eventually find hissing or bubbles.
Welcome to America.The best republic money can buy.
dye test it .. even if the pipe is 99% plugged it will get through ..
How do you plan to get the dye to flow against the direction of the water flow?
If I'm following this, the outlet of the pipe is in the sump, it's the inlet he's trying to find.....you might have to use a metal detector (if they'll work on cast iron, but you might be too deep), or you may have to do some experimental digging.
If the sump end of the pipe was still open, you could maybe have tried to snake 1/2 plastic pipe up there, and then if you hit an obstruction blown air through it.
your right, you would have to dye it, cap it and pressurize it with a hose or air to reverse the flow ..
call a local plumber that has a scope/camera and the necessary do-hicky locator thing-a-ma-bob....
That's a technical term, make sure to write it down and quote it properly...
Our plumber has a camera/scope on about 100' feet of line, with the hand held detector we are able to locate the location of sewer lines etc. in slab homes or the main line on the exterior. I 've seen his pick up the line at least 6' underground, I do not know what the maximum is though.
anyway, long-short, it's possible to find the other end of that pipe with out to much trouble.
Yup, exactly what I was going to suggest.
Tracer dye, they comes in big tablets about the size of an alka seltzer tablet. Anyone in your area who does storm sewer servicing will be able to tell you where to purchase them. One or two tablets will make a harmless bright green or pink plume. Are designed for exactly what you are trying to do, trace a waterway. Just toss a few in the sump and keep an eye downstream. Obviously, they will only work if the water is flowing out of the sump towards the brook.
The only thing I could think of is running a drain snake down the pipe and putting a tracer on it. But that would mean you would have to un-plug the pipe.
I don't think dye would work, if the water is flowing INTO the basement.
Was considering the placement of dye a tad upstream of the approximate area of the drain pipe connecting to the brook, and watching the dye flow in the hopes that a portion of the dye would follow the waterflow to where the water is entering the drain pipe.
Beware. RFID is coming.
In the time you mess around with die and what not you could have called the plumber, located the end of the pipe, and had it removed ;)
sorry friend, it's not that kind of a job.
I think we live in different social climates.
Beware. RFID is coming.
what kind of job would it be then?
I don't get the social climate comment?
Edited 6/29/2006 6:20 pm ET by CAGIV
You might want to try sticking an airline in the pipe and looking for bubbles.
Or just call the plumber.