The Drain Problem: A Personal Experience

We've been dealing with this drain problem for about six years now, and it's been slowly sinking over time. Our garage is located nearby, and we're starting to get worried that it's going to damage our cars as we come in and out because of how low it is. With two small children, we have to be extra careful when they're outside to avoid them tripping and falling into the drain.

The Drain System

This dry well drain collects water from basically all over the driveway, which makes sense given its location. We have high spots nearby that pitch in behind me, as well as another one near our garage. Everything wants to flow into this drain because of gravity, so I'm actually happy with its placement. To start addressing the issue, we need to take out the grate and begin digging away at all the leaves and debris that have accumulated inside.

Cleaning Out the Drain

We've had problems with the drainage being clogged before due to leaves, but once we remove them, everything seems to work fine. Now, we want to clean more of it out to ensure that there are no further issues. To start this process, I'm going to remove a frame from under the drain so I can inspect and clean out any remaining debris.

Identifying the Failure Point

Once the frame is removed, we'll be able to find out where exactly the failure occurred in our drain system. By cleaning out as much of the debris as possible, we can identify the source of the problem. We've found that some bricks are damaged but others seem intact, which gives us a better understanding of what we're dealing with.

Disassembly and Reconstruction

With this new information, we'll be able to disassemble our current drain setup and start reconstructing it. We'll begin by replacing the old bricks that didn't meet our expectations with new ones. All the debris, sediment, and dirty gravel will also be removed and replaced with fresh gravel.

Adding Cement for Strength

After clearing out all the dirt and debris, we're going to use a certain type of cement around our new setting. This will provide extra strength to the newly rebuilt drain system. Once that's done, we'll apply asphalt on top to complete the process.

Assembling the New Drain System

The final step in rebuilding our dry well drain is applying a layer of mortar and stucco to add some extra support. This is mainly for added strength but will also help blend the new patch into the surrounding existing pavement.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthanks so much for coming thanks for having me anna this is the drain this is the drain we've been here for about six years and it's been slowly sinking over time at this point um our garage is over there and we're starting to get worried that it's going to damage our cars as we come in and out because it's so low and we have two small children and we have to be really careful when they're outside and watch them so they don't trip and fall in and it would be great to not worry about that all right well this is a dry well drain as i'm sure you already know and what it does is collects the water that comes from basically as much as the driveway as possible so we have a high spot over here that pitches in behind me is another high spot and of course by the garage another high spot so everything wants to flow into this drain so i'm actually very happy with its uh location the first thing we want to do is take that grate out and start digging a lot of leaves and debris and i know it's been clogged before with leaves but once you move the leaves everything slips through yeah once once you're able to clean it out the drainage hasn't been an issue okay well we're going to want to clean more of it out but right now i want to get this frame out so all i'm doing with this frame and i know there's a lip somewhere on this frame and i just got to get down to that okay great no pun intended all right oh this is in great shape so this will be great to reuse all right now we got to find out where the failure happened and i'll just clean out as i go all right well look what we found we got the brick that are all busted up right here that correlates with our problem over here this was the deepest spot that we found and look at these brick over here they're actually intact and where they're supposed to be and of course correlate the damage we have minimal damage over here so we know what we're up against right now i just want to see if i can take that brick out that brick all right i also found cinder block which is great because now i know that's set on a footing and that's the manhole if you will that we have below this brick so the next thing i want to do is cut out all this bad asphalt all right now all i want to do is rinse off existing work now that the demo is done we want to start the rebuild and to do that we're going to start with brick so all those brick that we took out that we didn't really like and replace them with new ones you know all the debris we took out all the sediment all the sand all the dirty gravel we're going to replace that with some nice fresh gravel after that we're going to take this type s cement that's going to give us some strength right around our new setting and after that we are going to use the asphalt we're going to put that all around our cut and again we're going to try to blend that in as much as we can with the existing asphalt sounds great all right let's get going so you're going to spread that mortar right there there's a brick wiggle it right into place exactly is that the right spot that's perfect now here and i'm going to ask you to throw this brick in for me i'm going to go right there you're just going to bridge right across yeah but you want to go like that yes remember we're keeping our height thank you good move now what i'm going to do is take the backs out of my trowel and i'm just going to stucco this up a little bit mainly because it'll add strength for us i'll do this side you do that side that's great right there if you give me that string put it right there i'm going to go across and i can throw a tape down right now but i i know this is the flow that i want this is the measurement i use my hand and again from existing pavement into my grate i know that i have the right pitch that's going to help the existing asphalt stay in place you all right anna what do you think it looks fantastic and i don't think we're going to have to worry about the cars or the kids falling in anymore which is really exciting that's always a good thing exactly so with the car if you can just stay off of this area for a couple weeks let this guy set up a little bit and then as i may suggest you seal the driveway as well it's good for the driveway number one but also if we bring it into this great it'll make that patch go away sounds good all right well thank you thank you so much thanks for watching this whole house has got a video for just about every home improvement project so be sure to check out the others and if you like what you see click on the subscribe button to make sure that you get our newest videos right in your feed\n"