Drain King for a Day

I recently knocked out a much needed DIY yard project and installed yard drains around my kids’ playhouse and fixed a broken and clogged downspout. In reflecting on the project I realize the impact of tackling this DIY project may be much larger than at first glance. In fact, the monetary savings alone surprised me. So let’s take a closer look.

The Problems

As the weather warms up, I’ve been getting outside more often to tend to the yard work that was put on hold during winter. I’ve been taking stock of the items that need attention and the list is not small.

On the list I’ve noticed water ponding in the mulch below our kid’s playhouse. The drainage issue has been washing mulch across the yard, killing the grass, and leaving a muddy mess in the playhouse area.

Additionally, I noticed an area of mulch that has been washed away on the side of the house. At the same time our sump pump has been running like crazy. While we’ve had a wet winter and early spring the amount of pumping still seems out of line.

During a recent heavy rain, I decided to investigate both issues. (side note: perhaps the best way to identify the source and solution to drainage problems is to go out, get a little wet, and watch what the water is doing).

At the playhouse area, I identified two low areas that were holding water, and when I reached the side of the house, I was greeted with this sight:

Well Shit.

That’s a problem. It’s hard to make out in the photo but there is water spraying out of the downspout a couple feet into the air. Mulch mystery solved. This downspout was in need of immediate replacement. I also realized that it must be blocked as well. This downspout drains roughly half the roof. All that water has been getting dumped right along the foundation for however long this has been taken place. That could certainly contribute to the overtime the sump pump has been putting in.

Since I knew I had to buy some corrugated drain pipe, I decided to “make a day of it” and add the yard drains at the low spouts around the playhouse as well.

The Solutions

Playhouse Drainage

At the playhouse, I took note of the low areas that ponded and marked them during the heavy rain. I planned to install yard drains with grates connected by 4″ corrugated drain pipe, sloped to drain away from the playset through pop up emitters, so I wouldn’t trip over the discharge in the future.

Downspout Repair

Using the same corrugated pipe, I planned to replace the broken and clogged segment of the downspout. The downspout currently drains into a french drain system that reportedly is connected to the storm sewer. Our sump pump is tied into this as well. At the time I was uncertain whether I could remove the entire clog, so I decided to add a pop up emitter as an emergency overflow. To accomplish this, I planned to splice in a tee with a short section of corrugated pipe topped with the pop up emitter.

The Execution

The Downspout

I started with the downspout by using a shovel to expose the buried portion of the pipe. My goal was to replace about 10 feet of pipe with no joints extending from the gutter. This length gets the first joint outside of the basement backfill which helps keep any leaking water at the joint from ponding against the basement foundation. As it turned out there was already a joint in the pipe here so I simply pulled the old pipe out of the connector.

Here is what I exposed:

Yuck. That is about 8 feet of pipe fully loaded with roots, soil, and gravel from the shingles. Further, the downstream portion of the pipe was still plugged. I was able to reach my hand in and pull out he remainder of the root wad. Thankfully there was only about 2 feet to go and the pipe appeared to be open after that.

I then took the new pipe and cut it to length using a pocket knife (It’s super easy to cut). Then I added the tee and emitter which was accomplished by simply pushing the pipes into the tee until they clicked into place. I wrapped duct tape around the joints just to add some measure of protection against further root intrusion. Here is what the setup looked like prior to backfilling:

And here is what he finished product looks like:

Total time involved (not including shopping) about 1.5 hours.

The Yard Drains

Remember how I marked out the low spots during the rain? Well I laid out the drain path like so:

It’s worth noting that I used solid (not preforated) drain pipe. Either would work in this case. However, since I know where the water collects I can bypass the more expensive perforated pipe. And if I notice any lingering ponding areas I can always use a small drill bit and perforate the pipe myself.

Then I trenched through them about 1 foot deep and tried to slope the bottom of the trench to drain towards away from the playhouse.

In my case, it was easy enough to see how the yard sloped, but that is not always the case. In an ideal world you can use a level and a leveling rod to check this… but most of us don’t have that equipment laying around. In a pinch you can use a regular 2-foot or 4-foot level clamped to a longer straight board. Or you could fashion a water level out of a clear length of tube. As last result, you could flood the trench with a hose and see how it drains… though you would be working in mud the rest of the day.

Once I had the bottom sloped as needed I cut the pipe to length with my handy pocket knife and snapped the catch basins into place. The emitters also snapped into the end of the pipe. The end result prior to backfilling looked like this:

From there it was a simple matter of tamping the soil back into place. I replaced the mulch over the catch basins so the kids wouldn’t stub their toes on the hard plastic drain grate. Since the mulch is so coarse and free of fine material, the water can easily drain through it. Here are a couple photos showing the finished project:

Total install time: About 2 to 3 hours.

We’ve had one big rain since the drains and downspout have been installed. Early returns show a massive improvement to the mulch ponding and the downspout appears to be draining properly!

The $ Signs

Alright, now on to the juicy stuff you’ve been waiting for. I mean, I just bored you to death with 1,200+ words on ditches and drains, there’s gotta be some kinda of payoff for that right?

My total all in price for the parts came out as follows:

Item	Unit Price	Units	Extended Price
4″ Corrugated Pipe Solid (50 Feet)	$20.50	1	$20.50
Yard Drains	$10.21	3	$30.63
Drain Grate	$4.67	3	$14.01
Pop Up Emitter	$10.98	4	$43.92
4″ Snap Tee	$6.98	1	$6.98
Subtotal	$116.04
Tax	$9.28
Grand Total	$125.32

In reality it was actually about $18 less since I had some parts laying around from previous projects.

How does that compare to hiring out the work to a plumber or landscaper?

According to Home Advisor, burying downspouts and installing yard drains typically ranged from $9 per foot. Angie’s List shows a range of $12 to $25 per foot! At 50 feet (my total) I should expect a contractor to charge anywhere from $450 to $1,250!! Woowza! So this means I saved myself somewhere between $325 and $1,125 for about 4 hours of work!

I don’t know about you, but it’s hard to beat earning between $81.25 and $281.25 per hour!

To further drive the money benefit home, let’s consider if we invested the savings (let’s be conservative and say $325) in the stock market for a decade. This could easily grow to $582 or $701 assuming a 6% or 8% average annual return!

The Indirect Benefits

There are other benefits beyond the obvious improved drainage, and staggering monetary savings.

• Let’s not forget that keeping the water away from my foundation should result in a longer sump pump life, so there are some hard to calculate savings there.
• It is a helluva workout, so you won’t need to hit up the gym afterwards.
• It gets you outside (hello Vitamin D!) and away from your phone, TV or other distractions.
• I personally find peace of mind by being able to solely focus on the task at hand.

So in the end, not only do you help your yard and your wallet, but you can improve your health and mental well being too! Not too shabby for ditch digging!