"PipeDown" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Zootal" nousenetspam at dead ice dot us wrote in message
...
The previous owner of my house took all of the rain gutters, ran them
into a 3" pipe, ran the pipe 10 feet away from the house and dumped it
into a 3 foot deep hole full of rocks. He put a piece of plastic over the
rocks, and covered it with dirt. The only way I found it was that the
plastic was keeping water from draining and the grass above it was
turning yellow - otherwise I would have to dig up 100' of pipe hoping to
find where it drained to.

Is the a good way to drain rain gutters? The water table here is only 20
feet down, and if we get a lot of rain my basement starts to take on
water (I found this out the hard way - my basement was a foot deep in
water before I noticed lol). Dumping all of ths water 10 feet from the
house just doesn't seem like a good idea.


Its a good idea for a few years but those seepage pits tend to silt up and
become ineffective after a time.

You could put a diverter in so that when the rain is heavy, it runs over
the surface and is drained into a larger area of your yard.

As for 10 feet, I don't know where else you have to choose from, you can't
drain it onto your neighbors property but you probably can drain onto the
street if that is nearby.

You may need to dig up some of the pipe and the drain pit to get it to
absorb what you need and replace or clean the drain rock of silt. Replace
some of the solid pipe with drain pipe in a bed of drain rock.


In this case, it lasted a few years and the pipe end itself because plugged
with roots and silt. The pit itself was quite clear of silt, the rocks were
clean. I discovered that the city recommends (requires) that you divert rain
water runoff to the street or into the storm drainage system. In my case, I
have to run a pipe to the curb, and then *through* the curb so that it
drains into the street. I can't run the water down my driveway to the street
because the driveway has sunk so that all water from it drains into the
front yard - which has also sunken. Another source of water into the ground
right next to my basement