Rain Rain No Go Away.

When we walked through the place initially, Dr. W, you noticed that there was standing water in the gutters above the screened porch in the back of the house.

This morning it rained a good bit. I took the opportunity to watch the gutters from upstairs as it came down, and over the course of the morning, the gutters filled up again like a bucket.

When the rain slowed down, I climbed up on our new Husky ladder and pulled a yucky, smelly fiesta out of the gutter. Mostly, it seems like Ellen's (our neighbor to the west) big Maple drops helicopters in there, and they decay and slush-up the gutter when one chooses not to remove them for several springs in succession.

Once I emptied the gutter, the water flowed freely, but I saw that the downspout was simply redirecting gutter water into our driveway. Uh oh. Rain rain no go away. Rain rain just stay and stay.

Two downspouts exit into a four-inch PVC pipe in the southeast corner of the house.


Presumably, the PVC pipe leads to the sewer under the house or under the driveway, but unfortunately, something was clogged or damaged.


That's standing, murky water in the drain-pipe.

I took apart as much as could be taken apart, and I stuck a few things down there. Okay, okay, not very manly things. First I tried a straightened-out coat hanger, then the plastic handle of a flyswatter I found in the house. When these miserable attempts failed to produce any noticeable change in the PVC's status, I rode my bike to Home Depot.

I caught the eye of a dude in an orange apron who looked like he had seen his share of mucked-up drain-pipes, and I explained to him my issue. Then I held up a "duty" snaking tool.

Dude shook his head as if to shame me, and he said, "No no no. If you're willing to use it, what you need is one of these." He led me around the corner, and he showed me this...


No, it's not a grenade. It's a bladder. Dude explained, you attach it to your hose, and you turn the water up slowly. As it fills up, it presses against the sides of the PVC. Quickly, the water pressure builds inside. Then from a tiny hole in the bottom, a laser-like penetrating blast of water shoots out and clears the clog.

He warned me though, make sure the bladder goes all the way into the pipe. If it does not, then when the water goes in, the bladder will press out the open top of the pipe, expanding freely until it dangerously explodes. The package corroborated the severity of this potential. Maybe it is sort like of a grenade.

Anyway, so after I ask him too many questions, I take this thing home. I connect it super-tight to the hose, and miraculously, it fits into the pipe, but just barely. I hold on to the hose just above the attached bladder. My hand is just inside the end of the drain-pipe.

I take a deep breath, and when I turn the water on, the bladder quickly swells up. There is a creaking sound as the bladder presses against the sides of the pipe, and the hose appears to rise threateningly toward the open end of the pipe. My heart skips a beat, and gripping the end of the hose, I press down hard to make sure it doesn't come out the top.

Then nothing! It got stuck. No laser-like penetration could come out the hole at the bottom, because this must be one heckuva clog. Phooey! After letting it sit for ten minutes, and turning the water on and off a few times. I actually had to stab the bladder with a screwdriver to release the pressure.

I have a plumber coming early in the week for some other stuff, and I'll ask him, but does anyone have any ideas?

PS
I start work tomorrow, one month to the day after leaving Red Cross. I have an orientation all day. The electric company, National Grid, should be coming by to turn on our juice, too. We're scheduled to close on Tuesday morning. The oil company's coming on Wednesday to fix up our boiler.