Clearing Old Egress Window Drains

[dneck37]

I have a 100 yr old house and 2 weeks ago my back egress window flooded and leaked into my basement floor. Upon inspection I found that the egress window drain has no screen and is full of dirt/mud. I dug out as much as I could by hand but still see more mud and now the drain is going down at a 45 degree angle so I cant get any further by hand. The drain pipe is approximately 4 inches in diameter. Does anyone have any thoughts on the best way to clear it? I've read up on using drain snakes/augers but that just seems to small for this size pipe and would take unnecessarily long. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[lthenderson]

I think I would start with a plumbing snake and boiling hot water myself to get it all loosened up and flushed down. I would put a lot of cold water afterwards to make sure you flushed all the debris out the end of the pipe so it didn't settle again in a low spot.

[Sibley]

They do make things that are designed to clear out 4 inch pipes. The plumber I call to clear out the tree roots uses that one. But if it's mostly dirt, a smaller size + lots of water is worth a try.

[MDM]

Can you see the other end of the drain pipe?

[twe]

I had a similar problem and as counter intuitive as it sounds, I used a hose. Ram a hose running full blast up and down and it will blast away the mud and let you push through. You can get an adapter for the end of the hose to make it spray like a fire hose in a pointed stream which also will help. I was careful to not overfill the window well, but once I got far enough down the water drained pretty quickly.

[dneck37]

Can you see the other end of the drain pipe?

Nope I imagine is goes down to an old french drain or some kind of basin

[BudgetSlasher]

Can you see the other end of the drain pipe?

Nope I imagine is goes down to an old french drain or some kind of basin

I would try and figure that out first (it might not be possible).

Because if the pipe were dump to daylight downhill somewhere, using a snake, water, pressure washer, or garden hose with spray nozzle to clear the dirt (and likely push it deeper into the system).

If it is a basin/dry well I might try using a combination of water and a shop vac hose to loosen and remove the material (to prevent more dirt form filling in the dry well).

It might be worth trying to map out your drain setup and its condition. My FIL has a 100+ year old house and all of the original drainage was clay tile. Not one of then was functioning when he bought the place (some were silted in and some had collapsed).

[MDM]

Can you see the other end of the drain pipe?

Nope I imagine is goes down to an old french drain or some kind of basin

As BudgetSlasher noted, it could be helpful if you find out for sure.

Does your sanitary sewer line go to a septic field or to a municipal sanitary sewer system?  If the latter, given the age of the house, the storm sewer (all footer drains, the line in question here, sometimes even eave gutter downspouts, etc.) might also tie into the sanitary sewer system.

[dneck37]

Thanks for the responses everybody, I was not able to find any spots that made me think they drained to daylight. My sewer line is to the municipal sanitary sewer system. I scrapped as much mud and dirt out as I could and them tried to blast them clear with a pressure washer, but no luck. I think I am going to rent a powered sewer auger with some of those root cutter bits and give that a try. I'll probably get some egress window covers for them as well.