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Author:
sum (FL)
I have a foreclosure property which I am trying to turn into a rental. Has a bunch of city violations by the last owner and I have been slowly correcting them.
The current project involves demolishing the entire backyard that has a poured concrete deck. The backyard is next to a lake. City calls for 40% landscaped areas and this property is 80% concrete. So I started to tear things up.
In the middle of the backyard, about 20" down, I was excavating a trench for a downspout drain line, and I hit a pipe. Diameter seems 4"? It has ridges on it, looks like clay material. I heard you guys talking about clay pipes, is this it?
Here are some pictures.
There are some labels on the pipe itself. Says "...LLEDGEVILLE GA. OCONEE CLAY PRO..."
First, is this old? What? 1955? House was built 1955. Or later? It looks very new.
Second, is this a sewer line? It makes no sense. The house had a septic, but was in the front yard, then in 2000 connected to city sewer. There is no septic in the backyard. But as soon as this pipe was exposed, when it rained water rushed in and never filled up. It looks like it goes somewhere. May be it drains to the lake? Possible?
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Author:
hj (AZ)
I doubt that any "sewer" pipe would have those ridges because it would be impossible to seal the connections. It is probably a field drain pipe.
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Author:
sum (FL)
hmmm...this is interesting.
This has to be put there from original construction? Yet it looks so new.
I did some Googling and found some information.
"...edgeville GA OCONEE CLAY PRO..."
It probably meant Milledgeville GA. There is a terra cotta company there sells recycled clay products. They mentioned a brickyard in the city.
"Milledgeville and Baldwin County, Georgia, have a rich history of producing products from our red clay soil. A “brickyard” was operated on our site from 1908 until 1979, manufacturing bricks, vitrified clay pipe, flue linings, drain tiles, and other “burned clay” products. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of feet of pipe were made, and as in any endeavor of that magnitude, thousands of feet of pipe were discarded due to cracks or distortion and deformity. These culls were deposited on the back side of the plant and over time were covered with dirt and vegetation."
So this pipe is probably made by this company that closed in 1979.
Should I cap it? If so how? Or may be dig it and see where it goes?
Edited 1 times.
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Author:
Palm329 (VA)
That's a clay drain tile. Each segment is a foot long, they were originally laid with 1/4 inch gap between them, and hopefully surrounded by gravel (larger than 1/4 inch obvio).
It's a 1950's French drain, and if u need any replacement segments let me know because I have a pile of them in my backyard I gotta trash that I just dug up and replaced with slotted 4" HDPE.
I'd be careful about dealing with it, if your house is on a slope it's possible it's a gravity drain originating from your footer drains around your foundation and daylighting towards that lake. You have a basement?
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Author:
sum (FL)
No basement in south Florida. The water table is too high.
So this drain tile is multiple segments of clay pipes, most likely in a bed of gravel? and it daylights on the slope to the lake? The problem is there is so much overgrown vegetation on that slope to the lake I can't see if there is a hole on that slope.
Is the pipe itself hollow to carry the flow or is it also filled with gravel on the inside? If I stick a garden hose in and turn it on would I hear water coming out the other side? Or is it more likely to drain into a pit of gravel?
Not sure what I do with this, to bury it or to connect to it a french drain pipe? Should I connect something like this to it?
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Author:
Palm329 (VA)
1. Originally would have been hollow, but over time they are known to silt up and clog.
2. Your new pipe, you have it upside down, holes need to be at bottom if there's one row. If there's 2 rows they normally lay at 4 and 8 o'clock positions, water will enter and leave this pipe by gravity... Actually I prefer the type with small slots all the way around, less likely to clog and easier to install.
3. Your question about how to connect the drainage and also where it's going, can you draw a map of the house, the hill, the lake, and also showing the position and direction of the discovered clay pipe?
4. Could end in gravel dry well (perhaps not in Florida high groundwater), I'd suspect it day lights depending on topography of yard, probably once was visible 60 years ago but today covered. It's probably run most direct path towards lake from your discovery spot, I guess you might try the hose idea, or maybe try sending noise down the pipe and see if you hear it, again need a map to see distance to the lake. Also you might notice an area on slope with more rocks... Or different vegetation if you look closely.
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Author:
Palm329 (VA)
Yeah good luck with that. Still don't know the angle and position of this pipe compared to the house and it's downspouts plus the slope of the yard, but just based on your pics it's quite possible they had a water puddling issue back in the day just like you do in that pic and they installed a french drain to speed the yard drainage and move the surface water towards the lake. So after it rains you don't get puddles as bad.
If it's only one segment, who knows maybe it was just tossed in a hole as backfill... Everything I've said is based on a presumption that there's an actual run of these pipes buried in a gravel bed underground.
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Author:
WPKathy (FL)
Thanks for this posting, solved a mystery for me! I recently moved into a 1958 house in Winter Park FL and have been finding this clay pipe in my backyard. What I have found is broken but it does have gravel around it. My yard is very flat, not near a lake, am thinking it was just to drain rainfall away from the house .....
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Author:
Christiana (CT)
Hello,
I recently moved into a house built in the 50’s. It’s built on a slope that leads down to the lake. We have been dealing with wetlands at the bottom close to the lake. About halfway down from the house to the lake, we recently found an exposed black rubber tube protruding from the ground trickling a constant flow of water from it end. We clogged this end and waited a day and discovered a wet spot of pooling water about 100 yards up the slope towards the house. We unclogged the end to stop the pooling and dig up the area and discovered terracotta clay pieces underneath with water flowing through it. We don’t know how to resolve this flow of water and what the source is. We also are wondering if there are other areas where there are rubber and clay piping we need to discover and resolve on the land. I should also note that there is a slight septic odor coming from the exposed tube and also discovered that the water has a iridescent sheen on its surface. Would really appreciate any advice you have on how we can resolve it - as we would like to move forward and sow and plant our land with flowers and plantings.
Please advise.
Thank you
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Author:
rlschell (GA)
Someone may have already answered this, but... Those are in fact part of an old septic tank drain field from the fifties. It's possible that the septic tank wasn't always in the front yard. I'm grateful that you made this post because I was looking for photos of exactly this while we were working on our own ancient system, which probably has a good 20-30 different sorts of drain pipe coming from the general area since the house has been here for a century. The family has always replaced the septic tank in the same place when a new one was needed. I was trying to explain the old terracotta pipes to a friend who was vaguely boggled by it and was so pleased to come across these photos. Thank you very much for them!
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