I am working on a project to drain my backyard which floods every time it rains. I have a ditch along my street in the front yard which is at a lower level than the backyard I want to drain to.

I have spent all day yesterday and today digging the trench from an existing drain in the front yard past the side yard, all the way to the draining spots I want in the backyard. Due to all the curves I had to follow due to trees, roots, and other obstructions, I feel I can't really use PVC pipe.

So I bought about 15 lengths of the corrugated 4 inch solid piping. The trouble is the stuff leaks like crazy at every joint! Adding duct tape helps but I don't want to do all this work and end up just distributing the leaks somewhere else in the yard. I want everything to flow to the ditch.

My yard is very flat so I don't have a huge amount of slope to work with, so my pipes have to get a bit of water in them before they will start flowing to the street. I don't understand what the point of these pipes are if they leak so easily. I have read that roofing cement will work, but that seems to take forever to dry. I have also read that once you pack the dirt back around the pipes that will compress the joints and there should be minimal leakage.

Can anyone offer advice on how to get a good seal on these things?

And please, I know PVC would probably be better, but as I explained before, it would be a huge PITA to use it in my situation---I am forced to dig a lot of wavy trenches.