Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Down The Drain,...

...Not!

Two years ago, when I tarped the main roof, I used some bricks to hold the tarp down whilst I was fastening it down with stringers and nails.  When I was done, I tossed the bricks over the side to the walkway.  The drainpipe for rain runoff runs alongside the walkway, and is not completely buried.  Mind you, I'm three(!) stories up, and just tossing randomly.  Needless to say, one of the bricks shattered the exposed pipe.

In the intervening two years, I have seen chipmunks darting down the hole, and lots of runoff going down the front steps.  So, last week, I go the parts I thought I needed - two coupling joints to glue in a new section of pipe, that I was going to cut from a longer section I had stashed on the side porch.  All was good, until I pulled out the pipe I was going to use.  It is heavier duty than the downspout pipe, so it doesn't fit the couplings.
 
The system is the drain for the second and third story roofs.  It runs down the side of the house, under the porch, then out thru an exit on the front retaining wall:


As I was sawing the street side of the pipe, it seemed to be WAY to wiggly.  To my mild surprise, I was able to pull a section out from under the porch.  Using it, I was able to cut a section off, and couple it to the upstream end:



The only way to get at the rest of the system is, of course, to disassemble some or all of the front porch.  WAY more fun than I want, need, or can physically handle right now.

So, I improvised:


And, after yesterday morning's rain (which I mostly slept through), it looked like it worked.  Next time it rains, I'm going to go look and make sure it's actually draining, and also not flowing under the steps.

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