Blocked Stormwater Drain Cleared and Replaced

The Eden Plumbing team was called out to a house in Eden with a stormwater drain that had stopped moving water away from the homeowner’s property.

Stormwater lines tend to go through a lot more damage than people think. Leaves, bark and silt come off the roof, down the gutters and into the drain, and most of the time it all washes through. Now and then, it doesn’t. The debris gets stuck in a bend or joint, water starts to back up at the surface, and the pit that’s meant to take it away sits full instead. It is one of the more common callouts we get during storm season as a plumber in Eden, especially for the older homes around town.

What We Found

The leaf basket put by the back path of the house was packed with silt. The small outlet beside the channel drain had worked loose in the gravel, and water coming from the downpipe at the corner was pooling on the surface rather than running away.

Clearing the blockage was the first job. After that, we had to work out whether the line would stay clear for good.

What We Did

Jetting the Line

We ran the high-pressure water jet through the existing access opening and flushed the drain out. The water began to move again, but our team noticed that the line itself was overdue for a replacement, so after discussing with the homeowner, we worked on that next.

Ten metres of new 100mm PVC

We replaced ten metres of the stormwater line with 100mm PVC. Part of that sits in a shallow trench across the lawn. The rest is suspended drainage, hung off the floor joists under the house using galvanised strap hangers.

If you need suspended pipework, it’s best you look for a plumbing company that has experience. If the fall is off, or the hangers are spaced too far apart, the pipe sags between the brackets and water will start to sit in the low spot. Six months later, you’ll have a blockage in a brand-new pipe.

Not every stormwater line has to come out. Where the pipe is still holding its shape, and the damage is cracks, open joints, tree roots or a lifted section, relining it from the inside is usually the cleaner option. We have set out how we help you choose between the two in our blog.

A new sump for the low corner

The other half of this job was finding somewhere appropriate for the surface water to go. We put in a new surface water sump at the low corner beside the path, set it flush with a galvanised steel grate on top, and connected it into the stormwater drain running alongside it.

The channel drain along the concrete was already there. What it didn’t have was a proper pit at the end to collect the water and catch the leaf litter. Now the downpipe and the channel both run into one, and the grate lifts straight out when it needs clearing.

When the trouble ends up being the actual ground holding water rather than the pipe being blocked, subsoil drainage is the answer instead, and that is a different job again.

How it Finished Up

Ten metres of new PVC now runs from under the house out to the existing line, and the corner that used to hold water has a sump sitting under a steel grate. The lawn went back over the trench and the ground was made good around the pit.

Clearing out a stormwater pit is a five-minute job when you can get to it. And thanks to this fix, on this one you now can.

If your stormwater pit fills every time it rains, or water sits around the house long after the gutters have stopped running, it’s worth looking at the entire line rather than clearing it again and waiting for the next time. We handle blocked drains and stormwater work across Eden and the Sapphire Coast. Give us a call, and we will come and have a look.