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Keeping Outside Drains Clear of Leaves and OtherThings

  If you have a set of stairs outside that lead to a basement door, there's a good chance you have a small drain that is supposed to keep water from getting under the door.
  Having lived and worked in very old buildings, I was all too familiar with the tendency of leaves to gather on the drain cover which is often embedded in the cement outside the door.
 
  Since my house is surrounded by trees including one very large Walnut, I was always clearing leaves from the drain to make sure we didn't have any flooding.
  Eventually, I laid a piece of window screen at the bottom of the stairway, but leaves just blew underneath, and it was pretty ugly.

 So last fall I came up with a way of layering river stones and window screen to bridge the gap that usually caught the leaves and produce aesthetically pleasing, almost zen-like leaf build up prevention.


  Knowing water could slip through the river stones, and leaves as long as there was somewhere for it to go, I carefully laid a few stones in-between the holes on the drain cover and topped them off with a screen cut in a circle to fit. Now there was room for the water to flow.

  Next, I laid a bunch of little rocks on top of the little screen to add even more distance from the leaves and the drain cover, topping it off with a larger circle of window screen and securing it with an assortment of river stones aroung the edges.


  It almost looks like a little fireplace, and only takes up the space of the drain so it is easy to go in and out throught the door.  I'm happy with this little invention.  We have had no water build up in the stairwell since I put it in place.

Be Inventlive!