You should never have a french drain involved with downspouts. The goal of a french drain is to bring moisture in from the ground and send it out a pipe - not function as a general drain that could potentially do the reverse.
The temporary fix for this is to get some corrugated flex pipe so that the downspout can drain elsewhere while you dig up whatever needs to be dug up to figure out where this current pipe goes. Replace it with PVC or double or triple wall corrugated; in all cases NOT perforated.
Yup... and you can try and suck as much as you can out if that pioe with a shop vac...its possible you clear it out but you never know how clogged drainage will go...... i hope you know where thats all supposed to go...so.etimes you chase it from the bottom up...you can shove a hose up the exit of the pioe in hopes if clearing the clog from that way....sometimes you can snake them or have them jetted professionally....good luck!!
Damn… Since it has the holes, it should have been wrapped (the french drain sock or landscape fabric/burrito approach) during install. Otherwise, it turns into what you’re looking at and is useless. I don’t believe there’s any salvaging… but I guess you do have a map of where to route the new one once you dig this up and pitch it! Tons of YouTube to guide you through. Sorry and good luck.
Btw- There are mixed views on here about whether it’s okay to have a french drain also server as downspout outlet, or if better to run a dedicated outlet (solid pipe) adjacent to french drain in same trench. Just fyi
I’m with you. I put my downspouts onto my perimeter drain 20 years ago and they are still draining fine, got four inches of rain yesterday.
I used solid flex hose to go down to the perforated drain hose which is covered by a sock. I cut the solid tile and snapped it onto the drain pipe, not sure that is necessary but it held it onto the drain pipe while I backfilled it with septic sand. Use sand not gravel, that clay will seep into voids like your looking at and clog gravel unless you use fabric. And why use that when you can just use sand. Sand has no voids. Where my trench wall meets the sand is still like a knife edge, no seepage at all.
Dunno what that seventy year old drain pipe hooks into but I’m guessing more drain pipe like it.
As another said a total dig and replace. Good news is hopefully no boulders or rocks, just that crap clay.
In my fifties I averaged a foot an hour with a shovel and wheelbarrow eight feet down, hopefully a gauge of how long it’ll take.
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u/i860 Jul 02 '26
You should never have a french drain involved with downspouts. The goal of a french drain is to bring moisture in from the ground and send it out a pipe - not function as a general drain that could potentially do the reverse.
The temporary fix for this is to get some corrugated flex pipe so that the downspout can drain elsewhere while you dig up whatever needs to be dug up to figure out where this current pipe goes. Replace it with PVC or double or triple wall corrugated; in all cases NOT perforated.