me culvert is partially but effectively blocked with what appear to be small rocks/old bricks (+ then silts,leaves, plastic bags etc but it's the rocks that are the main problem).
Trouble is they are approx 10ft from the exit of the culvert where I can see them by torchlight, and say 20 ft from the culvert entrance (which is now 10ft deep with water etc).
Any ingenious methods to extract the rocks before I begin the dreaded process of digging the f***er up? please!!
TIA JimK
Set of rods with clever hooks on the end?
I know this is uk.d-i-y, but I would get a professional drain cleaning firm in to remove the blockage. They will have seen it all before and they will carry specialist tools for this purpose.
More important, after it has been cleared out, make sure to fit a trash screen to the entrance to the culvert and clean it regularly. This will help you to avoid any similar problems in future.
tell me more....
JimK
Just wondering whether you had a set of rods for clearing drains. Shortish flexible rods which screw together as you push one end along a drain. Normally has a brush for pushing debris that screws into the business end. Sometimes also supplied with a sort of screw/prongs for clearing more awkward stuff. Might be possible to put something more useful on the end.
Regret I have to go back to the diy now but see links below
Following the above... I once had a gizmo for retrieving dropped items from inaccessible places... basically an outer tube with a split inner lightly sprung to open when extended beyond the tube opening. A length of lightweight scaffold pole and...
Alternatively, is anyone old enough to remember the Marx brothers film where they raid a grocery shop using an extending arm?
regards
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A garden rake or hoe (right angle type) with an extra long pole might work from the 10' end.
Cic.
A standard set of drain rods should contain a half round hinged scraper plate. This may be pushed past the obstruction then pulled backwards to draw the rocks with it. A bit like the old "umbrella" which was alleged to be used by pox doctors before penicillin.
indeed I lost one of those last time it bunged up !! seems to be rather more like a pile of rocks - looks like a "leaky dam" from 10 ft away by torchlight....
JimK
Admittedly not DIY but, if the culvert is wide enough [1], you could offer a large quantity of beer on the message board at
I'm 30+ years out of date but that used not to have to be very wide at all for some of the mad buggers
Am I the only one who hears the title of this thread to this tune:
Yup
They also come with a drop scraper which might well work.
A long scaffold pole forced into the blockage from the downstream end might dislodge the key that is holding the dam in place but if you have ten feet of vertical water head above the blockage the elements of the blockage (or the pole) may be firmly held in place and could suddenly turn violent if the dam is broken. Even digging the blockage out might incur some danger.
And just a final thought. The blockage could be a result of a collapse in which case you will have no option but to dig.
On a related note some years ago the driver of a private gully sucker dumped the contents of his tank, including all the plastic items such as bottles that should have been screened out, down the manhole of my mains sewer connection. As this is a private connection serving just my house the outlet is only a 4" pipe which was totally blocked by the plastic rubbish. I wasn't aware of this until one night when the water draining from the bath regurgitated in the kitchen sink. I had to get a professional in but despite a hour or more of jetting whenever the blockage was breached it promptly reset itself as soon as the pipe was removed. I eventually had to pay for another tanker to come and pump out the access shaft (possibly also ten feet deep) out so the blockage could be removed by hand.
mmmm how much do gully sucker / tanker things charge?
You do not say if you can get into the culvert from upstream. If you can then surely as the debris must have been washed down then you should be able to wash it out with high pressure.
I seem to remember that my bill came to £235. That covered both the ineffectual jetting and the final emptying. The access shaft was much the same size as the cesspool we had at my parents house back in the 50s.
It is a moot point whether the tanker I had spent most of its life sucking gullies or septic tanks. They all look the same to me.
mmm interesting....
:::the important question - do they suck rocks up?!
JimK
Unlikely. The rocks are probably going to have to be removed mechanically. Competent drain cleaning firms have the necessary tools.
The most important thing to remember is to fit (and maintain) a trash screen over the entrance to the culvert so that this blockage doesn't happen again.
That's fairly long culvert by sound of it? Suggestion: Can you somehow get a chain through the culvert; then work it back and forth to loosen the debris. If the chain were long enough it could perhaps be dragged through as a continuous loop, in one direction thus transporting the debris with it. Also some wire can be looped through the links of chain to entangle and catch the debris to drag it out????
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