Drainpipe Drama
So, I try to keep this blog focused on progress and avoid unpleasant subjects. It’s not that I don’t have plenty of tea to spill, but this isn’t the place to do it. But I beg your indulgence while I make a brief deviation from this policy.
The back yard had a storm drain that connected directly with the sewer system under the street. The ADU Environmental Plan required that the old drain go away, and the drainage from the new unit’s rain gutters be flowed over the driveway and into the street. The contractor who implemented that thought it was ridiculous, and ran the drain directly to the street (although to the gutter, not into the sewer), supposedly with the approval of a city inspector. However, the city rejected this at final inspection.
Instead, we needed to go with the pop-up drain to go over the driveway as per the original Environmental Plan. This was implemented. However, the new placement was rejected by the city as being too close to the sidewalk – the rule now being that the drainage mustn’t flow down the driveway into the street.
The pop-up got moved further back so it will flow into the garden. That was also rejected, because it needed a 3-foot concrete boundary around the drain pop-up so dirt wouldn’t get into it. Three feet? That’s 27 square feet of concrete!
We’ve been working on getting the garden prepared for that boundary, if it is indeed what needs to happen. I had to move a sprinkler, which I had just moved to the present location back in April. Annoying.
The driveway contractor pointed out to us that the geometry of the situation is such that the pop-up is physically higher than much of the drain system. In general, it seems to us that the water’s not really going to want to run uphill. We’ve reached out to the city for clarification.
Meanwhile, the driveway gate’s been moved, and the driveway work is progressing nicely. Here’s pictures of all of that.