Need some ideas on cleaning mud out of a storm drain

[lzicc]

I have a storm drain at the end of my driveway that leads out to the storm drain out at the road. I would say from the drain on my driveway to the one at the road, the distance is about 30'. The drain of what I can see is half full of clay type mud. I reached in as far as I could to clean out what I can which is only a few feet. The drain pipe is about 12" wide. I tried to push a 1" flexible plastic pipe through to get to the other end, but it stopped after about 20". I did put a pressure washer in the try to flush the dirt through, but again, that only reaches in so far. With the angle that the pipe is from the surface of the driveway, I have no way of sticking anything rigid in there. If I could have got the plastic pipe to come out the other end, I was going to feed a steel cable back through, tie a concrete block to one end and pull it through using my tractor, but I don't think I can get anything the whole way through. I'm not sure what I am hitting when I go 20', maybe an elbow or something, but I did try. Any ideas on how to get this cleaned out?

 

[aczlan]

How about running a piece of 1" PVC with a cap and a small hole in the end in from the downstream side and hooking that to your garden hose?

Aaron Z

 

[lzicc]

I don't think I would have enough pressure to do any good. When I stuck my pressure washer in there, I had one of those spinning heads on the end of it and that helped, but I can't reach in very far. The dirt that is in there is clay, so it is going to take allot to try to flush it. Good idea though.

 

[aczlan]

Is there a way to put a flexible hose between the "gun" and the nozzle on your pressure washer? If so, you might be able to run the pressure washer hose inside a piece of PVC to keep it pointed straight and going forward?

Aaron Z

 

[Artisan]

Fire hose from the top end, but preferable a high volume hydrojet hose
from the lower end (see your local full service plumber). You could get
all mid-evil on it by getting 32' of maybe 3/4" steel pipe screwed
together and fab up a rounded hoe at the end and enter
from the lower end and try to pull towards the lower end.
All while water is running will help erode away the debris.

But if debris lingers because someone decided they could
outsmart physics and make water roll uphill, just dig it out
and put it back right.

 

[Billrog]

Try going at it from both ends it will flush out easier once you get it loosen up . I made up a 2' piece of copper pipe jet stream hole in the center facing forward and a no. of holes facing backwards for cleaning drains hooked to a stiff garden hose but it would work better with a pressure washer.

 

[lzicc]

I'll have to see if I can get the storm grate off on the road end and take a look up there. I just hope it doesn't elbow in right there and I hope it isn't running uphill, although when the drain fills with water, it does end up draining out on it's own.

 

[gghb]

search for pressure washer jetter and look at them I have a 50 1/4 inch model with a sewer jet nozel for my pressure washer it works great but will hang up if pipe is broken.
Greg

 

[Egon]

Water flush and vacum truck.

 

[kevinwak]

You could find a snake end for your pressure washer. Lots of the steamer truck companies around here have them on their power washers to clean out culverts. It goes on the end of the hose in place of the wand. There is then one jet pointed forward and four jets pointed backwards. The backwards pointing jets will actually pull the hose through the pipe. You can feed it in and then pull it out and those backwards jets give it a good scrubbing. Repeat as necessary. The safety hazard to watch out for is that it is possible for the nozzle to accidentally turn itself around inside the pipe and come back out towards you, causing you to get sprayed with the high pressure water jet.

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