The storm drain at my folks' place took 3 afternoons to clear

Went back to visit my parents outside Spokane last week and their backyard flooding got worse every rain. I figured it was just leaves, but the drain was packed with 14 years of silt and roots from that old cottonwood. Took me three afternoons with a shop vac, a plumbing snake, and a lot of swearing to finally get water flowing again. Anyone else spend way too long on a fix that looks simple but turns into a whole project?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_shah25d ago

That cottonwood root story hits close to home, my folks had the same thing with a maple near their septic line. So after you finally got the water flowing, did you actually figure out what caused the 14 years of buildup, or was it just a mix of everything? I ask because I cleared a drain once and thought I was done, then two months later it clogged again with the same junk. Turns out the pipe had a slight dip where stuff kept settling no matter how many times I snaked it. Did you check the slope of the line while you were in there, or is it one of those fixes you hope holds for a few years?

gracec1625d agoMost Upvoted

My uncle had a similar thing with his RV dump line, drove him NUTS for years. He finally got so fed up he just ran a brand new pipe in a different spot, total pain in the butt but he never touched it again. Meanwhile my neighbor fixed a clog and then found a FRISBEE lodged in there from like 20 years ago when his kid was little. Funny how it's never just one thing, it's ALWAYS something stupid you'd never guess. Hope your dip theory is right though, that's the kind of fix that either works forever or comes back to bite you at 2am on a Sunday.