Boondox
Elite Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2000
- Messages
- 3,871
- Location
- Craftsbury Common, Vermont
- Tractor
- Deere 4044R cab, Kubota KX-121-3S
Thanks for all the advice last month, guys. I took a couple of days off last week and finally tackled the job. Day one was pretty much devoted to siphoning the springhouse down to the point where I could hop in and begin chipping out the remains of the old rotted outflow pipe. Obviously our groundwater is plentiful this year, as before it was over I had four garden hoses siphoning out the water just to keep up with the spring!
I had planned on running a 3/4" line into the spring, but in the end settled for 5/8" PEX since that was the largest diameter that would fit in the hole. I could have chiseled it larger, but was worried about cracking the old concrete. If I had power up there and a rotary drill I could have bored it out, but with only a chisel I opted for the safer route.
All went well until the chisel broke thru the springhouse wall. The previous handyman had stuffed newspaper around that copper line before covering it with plastic cement. A wad of that paper got sucked down the outflow pipe and my water supply to the basement was almost completely blocked! I had no way to know where the blockage might be, and had visions of using the backhoe to dig up and replace a quarter mile of pipe! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
In the end, we decided to rent a small Echo water pump. Took suction from the springhouse and connected the discharge to the outfeed pipe. Turned it on and used the ATV to race home to see what was happening in the basement. After several belches of air, a tight wad of soggy newspaper shot out and after that, a steady flow of crystal clear water!
Lesson learned: plug the darned hole when generating debris!
I had planned on running a 3/4" line into the spring, but in the end settled for 5/8" PEX since that was the largest diameter that would fit in the hole. I could have chiseled it larger, but was worried about cracking the old concrete. If I had power up there and a rotary drill I could have bored it out, but with only a chisel I opted for the safer route.
All went well until the chisel broke thru the springhouse wall. The previous handyman had stuffed newspaper around that copper line before covering it with plastic cement. A wad of that paper got sucked down the outflow pipe and my water supply to the basement was almost completely blocked! I had no way to know where the blockage might be, and had visions of using the backhoe to dig up and replace a quarter mile of pipe! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
In the end, we decided to rent a small Echo water pump. Took suction from the springhouse and connected the discharge to the outfeed pipe. Turned it on and used the ATV to race home to see what was happening in the basement. After several belches of air, a tight wad of soggy newspaper shot out and after that, a steady flow of crystal clear water!
Lesson learned: plug the darned hole when generating debris!
