Deck drain clogged and replacement drain covers

[tbombaci]

Just bought a house with a pool. The pool is about 40 years old and needs a bit of maintenance. I finally have the chemistry down and I am at a point where I need to change out the DE powder in the filter. I ran some phosphate killer and need to purge the system to get it out of the filter.

When I had my "pool school", the pool guy and I did the entire process so I am good there. My issue is a clogged deck drain.

I have 4 3" circular drains around the pool. I am only assuming they are all connected and they all do not drain. Aside from smashing the covers, I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to remove the drain cover. Are these things one giant unit? Do the covers come off some how?

I want to snake the drain but I cannot get the snake down there. One of the covers is broken and I was able to shove my smaller shop vac in up to a point to suck up the left over DE powder, dirt, leaves from the last 40 years. Other than that, I am stuck.

I searched the forum for an answer but couldn't find anything close; perhaps I am using the incorrect terms?

Help!

Thank you,
Tom

 

[jmhjgh]

Is there a way to get a decent picture of the drains in question?

 

[tbombaci]

Is there a way to get a decent picture of the drains in question?

I am at work but I found this on my phone (zoomed up). My wife is at home today. I just asked her to snap a few pics and send them.

 

[tbombaci]

Here is a higher res pic. They are 3" in diameter.

 

[tbombaci]

Major update.

I found the covers at Lowes for $2 each. When the work was done, I lubed them up and put all new ones back in.

I finally had to call Roto-Rooter. When the guy showed up, he asked me where the deck drain ended up. I only presumed it was attached to the storm drain and told him so. Since this is a learning process for me, he told me it was pretty rare, even way back when, to connect it to the storm drain. Of the four drains, he determined the once closest to the side street was the end of the line. We popped off the drain cover and he hooked in his pressure contraption and then we waited to see water somewhere. 10 minutes later, we see water next to the fence closest to the side street. We begin digging to find a 3" pipe with a "T" connector buried in the dirt. Rather than fight with the T fitting, he cut the pipe and the fun began.

Here is the cut piece (note the root growing through the T fitting!:

Here is the hole and the pipe (note the dirt/root/DE powder log in the upper right.....ugh

Chunk of dirt, roots and DE powder; 40 years worth!

I have a video of the dirt log coming out as well as a root so long, it looked like Indiana Jones' whip! The dirt log was the entire length of the pipe from the last drain to the end of the pipe; it was unbelievable!

I attached a longer pipe with a T fitting and drain covers the next day and left it exposed on the side yard.

Oh what fun...

Tom

 

[Aloha76]

Do you think it was originally done that way?

 

[tbombaci]

Do you think it was originally done that way?

Judging by the placement of the T fitting and how deep the pipe was buried, no. I bet it worked well for the first two or three years then just unnoticed for the years after until it fully clogged. The deck would drain over a day and a half normally. From what I can gather, we are the third owners and the second owners did ZERO maintenance on anything for about 20 years.

 

[jmhjgh]

Worth the money wtih Rotor Rooter. Are you now going to install a pop up drain at the end?

 

[tbombaci]

Worth the money wtih Rotor Rooter. Are you now going to install a pop up drain at the end?

I hadn't thought of that. Maybe in the future. I have sprayed the end of the exposed pipe brown to match the dirt for the time being.