Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Plugging a drain tile?

So when we built the pond we just missed an old clay drain tile. From the start we knew there was a leak but thought it would stop in time. Found the tile and leak.

We plugged the leak but now the tile has pressure on it when we raise the level on the pond. The tile then leaks out the joints of each tile and give us a soft spot on the dam equal to the water level.

We have the tile located and will be marking the whole thing. Digging down and plugging off the tile.

Is there any advice you guys can give in sealing off this tile? We would love to raise the full pool another 24"s but every time we do right now the bank gets soft. Before we plugged off the tile on the lowest end the bank was never soft. I am guessing because the water was just draining away.

Thanks for any advice or thoughts.

Cheers Don.

Standard practice on wetland creation is to dig out 25 feet in each direction from core trench and pack trench with clay. Did the same on my last pond and it worked well. Did you not hit the tile when digging the core trench?

No and I can't believe we didn't. This bugger runs right along the bank as well. Where we capped it on the lowest end of this tile we dug out 25 feet if not more and capped both ends. At this point we thought we got her. This spring now as we added water to full pool this added pressure to the tile again and gave us soft spots for about 70 feet.

We have let the water level go as low as it will and we are going to have at it again.

Like you have stated maybe we need to cap the other end. We have little to no idea where it gos. We are able dig it up run a camera and sensor 40 feet then mark and dig up again. Then go another 40 feet.

Was thinking of just dumping a half a bag of portland cement down the open tile at every 40 feet and hope for the best. Wondering if anyone may have a better idea. I can get bentinite (Spell check) and maybe some how get it down into the tile.

Cheers Don.

Anyone every try to push bentonite down a hose with air pressure?

Thinking of trying to push some bentonite into the drain tile. I will have be trying to fill a 30 foot section with both ends of the tile open and dry. Maybe a sand blaster tank we keep filling up and pulling the hose back as we go?

Thoughts?

you can do that but would not expect it to seal off all moisture in the tile pipe. It would slow down any flow. Now, if you can figure out how to mix the bentonite with diesel it will form a tuff/solid/putty type plug.

Check into "Mud Jacking". This may not be something that you would want to afford, but a little research may give you some ideas.