Clay drain tile filled with dirt - advice?

[lhfarm]

We came over to our weekend farm to find the finished basement carpet soaked. We had heavy rain all week. I checked the drain tile that I know is around the foundation and empties about 100 feet and down a hill from the house. The end tile was filled with mud. I thought it might have collapsed, so I put my BH on and dug down and uncovered the first four tiles. The first three are all filled with dirt, almost to the top.

I know it has been a few years since I ran a snake up the drain, but this is something else. Any idea what would cause this? It is a possible a tile collapsed and mud just flowed into the pipe?

I was planning on replacing the drain around the house this summer. Our soil is heavy clay and it is a mess working in it now. If I thought I was looking for a broken tile, I might keep digging. Right now, I'm not sure what to do.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[schmism]

sounds like a broken tile that dirt has washed into.

While i dont like the idea of the expense, the alternitve isnt much better.

have it camera'd and find out were the broken tile is and or end of "plugged with dirt" is.

that way your not spending hrs and hrs diging up stuff that doesnt have to be dug up.

 

[lhfarm]

sounds like a broken tile that dirt has washed into.

While i dont like the idea of the expense, the alternitve isnt much better.

have it camera'd and find out were the broken tile is and or end of "plugged with dirt" is.

that way your not spending hrs and hrs diging up stuff that doesnt have to be dug up.

I pulled the first few tiles and was able to run a 50' snake up on top of the mud. I think that almost 50 years may be the life-span for this setup. I think it is clogged near the house. I had put in a couple of clean-outs near the house and I can see water in one. The cleanouts were just plastic pipe Teed to the tile and brought to the surface. Chipmunks have chewed holes under the caps, so it may be clogged with walnuts and other things.

We want to remodel the basement, but need to get the drainage fixed first. At least I have a BH now. That part was fun.

 

[Hammy]

Did I understand you right, the drain tile has been in use for almost 50 years? I'm curious because I installed a footing drain around the perimeter of my house along with a few clean-outs. Just wondering what kind of life span I can hope for. It is covered with fabric and gravel too and hopefully I can get 50 years out of it before having to replace it.

Thanks,

Craig

 

[lhfarm]

Did I understand you right, the drain tile has been in use for almost 50 years? I'm curious because I installed a footing drain around the perimeter of my house along with a few clean-outs. Just wondering what kind of life span I can hope for. It is covered with fabric and gravel too and hopefully I can get 50 years out of it before having to replace it.

Thanks,

Craig

The orginial house was built around 1960. A full length wide porch, was added to the south side, a guest addition to the west and an addition was added to the north. So except for the east side (we put on a second story instead of spreading out more) I can't get to the tiles. I think this was put in according to code/practice at the time. My father-in-law had run water from a basement shower, washer and sink through the tiles. They sink was used during our remodel 10 years ago to clean workman's tools and stopped up.
So I don't know if it really is a life span issue or owner/operator error. I'm leaning toward the latter.

 

[JB4310]

lhfarm,
I'm a basement waterproofing contractor here in CT, this business is region sensitive so what might be the accepted way of doing things here may not be where you are, but in my opinion an interior footing drain system would be worth considering especially if your gonna put money into remodeling the basement and since you can't get to the original foundation from the outside now (because of all the additions) your pretty much forced to approach it from the inside. you can still use your back hoe to dig a trench outside to daylight to drain the new interior footing drain eliminating the need for a sump pump.

As far as the existing exterior tile drain, it's almost a miracle that it's lasted this long even though you've been fussing with it, cleaning and snaking it in the past. but if you want to try and salvage it I'll try to help, first of all if you can see mud at the discharge end that indicates that there is surface water funneling in at some point to be washing that much silt in, ground water seepage would not normaly do that, it is normal for these pipes to be 1/2 or more full of sediment and still function.
You want to look around the path of the pipe that you can see and look for sink holes or depressions in the surface above it, thats where you get that concentrated funnel effect washing all that dirt down into the pipe, a common spot for this problem would be under one of those additions if they are built on piers and have dirt under them, but it could be anywhere along the foundation where water ponds up during a rain storm, or around those clean outs if they are in a low spot.

As far as cleaning that tile from the discharge end the snake is not much good except to maybe tell you where a blockage is, we use a heavy duty garden hose with special home made tip nozzels that blow the water backwards, that helps to loosen and clean as it goes in and blow everything back and it helps pull itself in, Hot water really makes things much easier and you need pretty good city water pressure.
A drain cleaning service that does water jetting would have that equipment, you may be able to rent it also.

But again if your gonna put money into remodeling I don't think you can rely on that exterior system, I would call some local waterproofing contractors, give them the basement's dimensions and ask them for a rough quote on an interior footing drain system with or without a sump pump, just to get an idea, it's not cheap but neither is a newly remodeled basement that gets water damaged!
Good luck, John.