Simple overflow pipe question

sillygoose

Hi,

Does anyone know why the various overflow pipes on the house, after they have exited the house are fitted with a T-junction piece?

Just curious as having fascias and sofits done so I guess they will have to cut the T off and bring out through holes drilled into the sofit,

Thanks

aliasojo

Mine haven't.

We just have the end of overflow pipe sticking out.

Imp

Could be a siphon break and will allow the pipes to drain properly so they don't retain water, freeze and break in cold weather.

vaio

I think it’s an old fashioned thing from the days before global warming.

The idea is to stop the cold North wind blowing in and freezing your ballcock.

27col

Yes, it is almost certainly to help with preventing the cold winds blowing straight into your cisterns. Mine just has an elbow but a Tee would do just as well.

ormus

i was also going to say, why didnt they just use elbows?

andrew-b

Make sure your roofline fitters leave the overflows in a way that any water exiting from them can be seen ...i.e. not into the gutters! We had to have the edge of the new gutters notched out so the overflow could run over the top of them as for various reasons it was not possible to run them underneath.

sillygoose

andrew-b wrote: »

Make sure your roofline fitters leave the overflows in a way that any water exiting from them can be seen ...i.e. not into the gutters! We had to have the edge of the new gutters notched out so the overflow could run over the top of them as for various reasons it was not possible to run them underneath.

Doh! they have exited it into the gutter, sneaked that one in when I wasn't looking. Obviously the issue will be knowing you have an overflow, otherwise its actually quite a neat method. I am an electronics engineer so have decided to fit a couple of float switches I have kicking around in the tanks (Cold header tank for hot water cylinder and central heating header) and hook up to a low voltage alarm circuit so problem solved. Thanks for the heads-up anyway! this is why I hate using trades and not DIY!