Finding drainage in your garden — without digging everything up
Published:
Drainage is the most invisible infrastructure on a property: buried once, registered never, and only interesting when the grass gets too wet or a pipe clogs. It can be found back — with clues instead of an excavator.
Why drainage gets lost
Drainage pipes often predate the current resident. They are not in KLIC information — that system registers network operators, not what a previous owner or gardener once installed.
The only evidence is indirect: it works (or worked), so it is down there somewhere.
Reading the clues
Look after heavy rain: strips where the grass dries first often betray a pipe below. Find the outlet — drainage discharges somewhere, into a ditch, a pit, or a rainwater drain. From that point you can reason backwards.
Inspection covers, old invoices, previous owners’ photos, and neighbours with the same construction year are gold. Careful probing with a soil probe can confirm a pipe — carefully, because the same probe goes through a cable too.
Found it? Record it immediately
Every metre of drainage you find back is one you never have to search for again — if you record it. Note depth and direction, photograph any section that is open anyway, and put the line on your map.
In ErfPlan you draw the found route and attach the photos and the date. Next wet summer, you do not start from zero.
ErfPlan is a reference map for personal use — not a replacement for an official KLIC report and not a legal survey tool. Digging without a report where one is required remains at your own risk.