“Oh, by the way,” Mrs R said to me, with that tone she has when disclosing a minor disaster, “I was messing with the downspout at the back of the house and the lower part fell off and fell down the hole.”
I went out to look over the situation. The downspouts at the back of the house are of unusual length, so the lowest two feet or so are a separate section, pushed over the end of the upper piece. The lower two-foot section had popped off and dropped into the footing drain, which runs vertically down into the ground for about four feet and tees into a horizontal section which collects all the downspout water and routes it off to places unknown.
Poking a flashlight down the hole, I could just barely see the downspout section, down at the bottom. I didn’t want to leave it there, lest it block the flow of water to places unknown. But how to get it out? It wasn’t magnetic, so I couldn’t go fishing with a big magnet.
Finally i had an inspiration. I got a piece of electrical conduit (well, actually, a defunct flagstaff made of conduit) long enough to reach the errant downspout section. Then I got out my butyl tape. I don’t know if you’re familiar with butyl tape, but it’s a sort of sticky rubber stuff, sold as a flat strip, coiled with paper between the turns, used to mount windows in RVs.
I wrapped the end of the flagpole with butyl tape, kneading it into a sticky ball. Then I went fishing. I was able to insert the end of the flagpole into the errant bit of downspout, then press the sticky ball against its inner surface. A little gingerly hand-over-hand lifting, and voila! The downspout appeared.
It’s back in place now, secured with a screw. And I’m feelin’ obnoxiously pleased with myself.
Tomorrow I’m going to walk around the house with a handful of screws, and secure all the downspout lower sections.