Drain Pipe & Concrete Repair (continued)

The next step in the project is to dig down and repair the second basement wall crack, along with repairing a leaking drain pipe. This photo shows the exposed drain pipe along with the non-conforming connection of the downspout with the sewer line.

I added this photo to show the concrete rubble and the relative location of the hole to our kitchen door.

This repair required the removal of the non-conforming downspout connection, so I decided to cut through the pipe on the far side of the "Y" connection. I used a diamond grit blade on my reciprocating saw. It took a long time and it was very dusty. I kept the blade cool by stopping frequently to dip the blade into a jar of water.

I was delighted with the clean, straight results of the cut pipe.

I replaced the multiple clay pipes with two eight foot long sections of ABS pipe, using rubber unions. Then I leveled the new pipes and checked the height in multiple places with my gallon jug of water and clear plastic tubing (a simple water level).

Once the drain pipe leak had been fixed, we were able to start digging out the second basement wall crack. I hired a neighborhood kid to do most of the digging since I'm not up to that much work these days. We used the post hole digger for the bottom half of this hole. We filled a five gallon bucket, then hoisted it out of the hole using a ladder as a scaffold and a pair of rock climbing pulleys and rope.

There wasn't enough space for my ladder so we dug terraced steps into the hole.

This time I used a grinder instead of a chisel and it went much faster widening out the crack. I applied a patch of waterproof concrete and then four thin layers of tar as before.