Proper Drainage For A Gutter Down Spout

A proper roof runoff system diverts the flow of water away from paved areas and toward storm drain systems and most importantly away from your home.

Proper drainage for a gutter down spout.

To get started measure the side of the house directly under the gutter to determine its length in feet. Gutters and downspouts are not expensive and they play a vital role in the roof doing its job. 10 gutter and downspout runoff tips. Buried or underground roof drainage downspout defects clogging overflowing holes corrosion leaks that cause wet basements or crawl areas proper installation of buried downspout extensions proper installation of french drains seepage pits at flat sites gutter downspout defects cause wet basements crawl areas questions answers about installing maintaining repairing buried roof.

If using a splash block at end of downspout be sure the splash block and ground upon which it rests slope away from the house. For any house it s important to remove the water that runs off the roof as quickly as possible. Slope long gutter runs 40 feet or more down both directions from the middle and put a downspout on each end. Without proper drainage erosion would ultimately damage that landscaping.

There are many things you can do to improve the effectiveness of your gutters. The right rain gutter slope is subtle enough that you won t notice it from the street but also steep enough so that it easily sheds water towards your downspout. For example if the gutter is 16 feet long the end near the down spout must be 1 inch lower than the starting end. Gutters can be made up of sections that are usually 10 12 feet long or they can be installed as one continuous piece up to 37 feet long.

Offset of more than 10 ft 3 0 m can affect drainage capacity. Downspouts should be constructed with conductor heads every 40 ft 12 2 m to admit air and prevent vacuum. Downspouts on gutters that drain large roof areas or if you live in an area with torrential rains. To do this i cut the black corrugated pipe added a t and aimed the pipe upwards to the downspout.

For the garage i used a downspout adapter without a leaf guard since there aren t trees close enough for that gutter to get clogged up. Attach elbow to bottom end of downspout and connect a downspout extension to carry rainwater away from the foundation. The size of the downspout should be constant through out its length. Clean gutters regularly to keep rainwater flowing freely.

The gutter outlet capacity should suit the downspout capacity. Buy special roof hanger mounting straps for houses without fascia boards or for fascias that aren t vertical. Screws are the best option for connecting gutters because they won t back out over time. Since my in ground pipe ran right past the garage i had the garage downspout dump in as well.

Multiply the number of feet by 1 16 inch to determine the total slope the gutter requires.