The last post about our drainage work had me pumping the water out of the trench I’d dug after we getting 6″ or so over the last day.

Since then, I’ve started working my way down the side of the house. I was hoping that this would be easier since that’s down the slope. However, it’s now become clear why we had water pooling at the front of the house: the solid rock ground actually rises a bit on the side of the house. The ground here is also much more solid, almost like clay. This presumably presents an impermeable barrier to the water, effectively creating a “dike” holding the water along the top of the house.

This is how far I’ve gotten down the side of the house.

It was marginally easier to dig through this material, but the rock obviously poses some problems for keeping the grade on the drainage pipe. Luckily, Home Depot comes to the rescue, since they rent demolition hammers. It was time to kick it up a notch!

The demolition hammer made short work of the lava rock.

Armed with a 30lb Makita hammer, I went to town on the rocks. The lava is pretty easy to crack, so it was actually not that much work to get through the rock. Holding a 30lb vibrating hammer, though, isn’t exactly what my dainty software-engineer hands are made for, so I’m pretty sore now. But the rock is no longer a problem, at least not for the length that I’ve dug. I’ll probably need to get it once more since I assume the rock will be a problem at least until the ground starts sloping seriously down which happens maybe 9ft further down the side.

With all the rocks coming up, I was thinking I was going to have to throw in the towel and call a professional. But so far I’m still in the game. (My back muscles are too, but only barely.)