Driveway Drain Laundry Strainer

[Alan Smithee]

I have a 3" drain on my driveway next to the house which takes rainwater and puts it back into the city's sewer system. During stormy weather the drain has a tendency to slow down or stop because of bits of twigs, leaves and other debris start to accumulate around it. If this happens it's possible that my garage floor gets flooded because a small lake starts to form around the drain. I've heard of laundry sink strainers can help. Do they make this in a 3" size? How else could I fix this problem?

[trader4]

Is it legal to put rainwater into the city sewer system in your area? In most parts of the country it isn't.

[Gideon]

I would assume that he was referring to the "storm sewer system" rather than the "sanitary sewer system." The phrase "sewer system" is vague and should be read in context.

FYI, in our city (and many other areas) it was once perfectly legal and accepted practice to tie basement perimeter drain systems into the sanitary sewer system. During a heavy Spring rain, it is often possible to observe a tremendous flow of water from the perimeter drain system into the basement floor drain and on to the sanitary sewer.

During some heavy storms I have removed the sewer cleanout access and estimated the flow of water from my perimeter drains to be equal to or greater than a garden hose at full blast. I feel sorry for the folks who are downhill and downstream from us - those sanitary systems do backup once every 5-10 years during a Spring storm due to the overload from cross-connections which are now illegal.

Gideon

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[e-mail] wrote Is it legal to put rainwater into the city sewer system in your area? In most parts of the country it isn't.

[Gideon]

Alan,

This site has some 3 1/8" sink strainers, which could possibly work for you:

It seems that it should be fairly easy to make your own strainers if necessary. The moderately open-mess gutter screen material might be a good item to use, since it is designed for a similar purpose and intended to block materials which are of similar size to what you want to block. It should be available at any hardware type store.

I'd make 4 or 5 strainers, cut to the appropriate size from the gutter guard material. Then I'd use super-glue gel to bond several small super-magnets around the perimeter of each screen to help hold it in place over the (metal) drain in the driveway.

Small used super-magnets are rather inexpensive and available on the Internet. They are made of Neodymium-Iron-Boron and are recovered from motors, microwave ovens, disk drives, etc. The $0.20 magnets (item #10) at this site might work for the idea I suggested:

If you feel that the screens won't clog often and don't need to be removed often, then obviously a more permanent method of attachment would be preferable to using the magnets.

Good luck, Gideon

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[xrongor]

i dont see how a strainer will particularly help your situation. seems to me it will just catch more twigs and leaves and clog faster.

seems better to divert the water someplace else completely if possible.

randy

[Alan Smithee]

A "laundry" sink strainer is different than a sink strainer. It's vertical with ribs, plugs into the drain hole. It's designed so that as the water rises (clogs near the bottom) the water can still pour in...up to the height of the device. It's so that lint, a common problem in laundry systems, won't clog the flow. What I have on my driveway now is a flat "manhole" type cover with .5 inch holes in it. I think after viewing some of the suggestions here and poking around the internet I know what I need. It's a cap which is round

6" wide and rises about 2-3". It'll give me more surface area. I think it's a type of floor strainer. Most are plastic, I need a metal one, one strong enough so that if the car accidentally drives over it it won't be crushed.

xr> i dont see how a strainer will particularly help your situation.

[David Efflandt]

I guess others (and me) thought you were talking about a laundry hose strainer, which is just a metal mesh bag to catch wet lint, instead of letting it go into the sink.

Not sure what it is called, but you likely want something like the raised grate used on a roof drain (like for a flat roof). So if the lower part of the grate clogs and water rises, it can still flow into the grate higher up or under floating debris, and hopefully would not totally clog. So you might try a web search for 'roof drain'.

[MC]

would an atrium drain used in landscaping that rise a few inches upward work ?

MC

[Alan Smithee]

An Atrium Grate (drain) is what they're called. That's very very close to what I need. I didn't know the name of it. Thanks. My problem stems from the fact that the current drain only has about 5 holes which plug very quickly when the conditions are poor. Unfortunately it seems most of the atrium grates are made of PVC. I need something indestructable cast iron or metal preferrably. I'm getting closer with this tip though thanks. I'm also considering putting in a larger square grate similar to what a city might use on a curb or gutter this would give me the surface area I would need or time and money though.