Roof Guttering Downpipe Question

drummond84

After weeding the garden at the front we noticed at the bottom of our roof downpipe guttering. the rain rainwater pooling into the soil. There doesn't appear to be a drain.

Whats the best course of action - Should we be concerned?

Its probably been like this since the house was built 40+ years ago!

roddydogs

Probably a blocked soakaway, may need renewing.

drummond84

I couldn't find a soakaway though..

Davesnave

drummond84 wrote: »

I couldn't find a soakaway though..

You can make one if your soil is reasonably free draining, as it must be if there's never been a problem. I've stuck a couple of extra ones on my property to cope with a big conservatory. It's an easy job, other than the digging!

These days, the soak away is supposed to be 5m from the house, which must be 'interesting' in some new build gardens.

However, as nobody is supervising you, the pipe run could be considerably shorter. You may well find a rubble-filled pit close to the house if you start digging. I did, under the original conservatory!

drummond84

The pool cleared away this afternoon. I managed to dig a bit deeper and found what I think may be a gully square -if thats the right term?

Davesnave

Yes, if you've found the gully trap, you may only need to clear that out, but if the pipework is blocked further on, you'll have some digging or rodding ahead.


It really depends on where the drain goes. At my old house the surface drains all went to the sewers; they shouldn't have done, but they did, so rodding would be the correct way to clear drains like that. Soak away drains, once blocked, may need to be dug up and cleared, or replaced. Depends how bad it is.

jk0

My soakaways are all blocked, so I replaced with what they do in America: Put a right angle bend on the end of the downpipe, and run a horizontal pipe away from the house (with a slight fall) onto the lawn. If you can fasten this to the fence, you won't risk tripping on it.