What are these drainage pipes?

DPR87

Hi all,
I have these two white pipes protruding from the soffit above my front door. They stand out and are rather ugly. I have tried tracing them back and i *think* it terminates in the loft. I lose them a bit when they leave the loft but it seems to match up. They are not connected to anything in the loft. The previous owner installed a combi boiler in the house so any water tanks have been removed so could it be for that? Only thing is I can only see one pipe in the loft but two in the soffit. 

I've attached a pic of both the loft and the soffit.
Would I cause any issues if I cut them flush with the soffit?

Many thanks

stuart45

You would have had an overflow pipe from the cold water tank. The tank would be redundant when the combi was fitted.
Did you have a header tank up there as well?

grumbler

It's overflow pipes. They used to be connected to the cold water tank and to the CH expansion tank before the boiler was upgraded.

It's odd to see them above a door as usually they are right under the eaves. 

Also, there can be a similar overflow pipe for a toilet cistern.

princeofpounds

It's a very weird place to put them, but they look like overflow pipes, presumably from your cold water/central heating/expansion tanks.

https://www.google.com/search?q=overflow+pipes&oq=overflow+pipes&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5j0i22i30l4.1859j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

If they are redundant (and the removal of the old system suggests they might be) then they can be removed. But you'll need to figure out why you have two.

TELLIT01

princeofpounds said:

It's a very weird place to put them, but they look like overflow pipes, presumably from your cold water/central heating/expansion tanks.

https://www.google.com/search?q=overflow+pipes&oq=overflow+pipes&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5j0i22i30l4.1859j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

If they are redundant (and the removal of the old system suggests they might be) then they can be removed. But you'll need to figure out why you have two.

As others have said, one will be from the c/h expansion tank and the other from the cold water tank.  As both tanks have been removed the pipe can be removed from the loft space and the hole covered from the outside.  Why you can only find one in the loft is a bit odd but I suspect one has already been cut off at the eaves.  As they are only a couple of inches apart it shouldn't be too difficult to find both ends near the eaves somewhere.

Jeepers_Creepers

grumbler said:

It's odd to see them above a door as usually they are right under the eaves. 

Very sensible place - you can't avoid them if they overflow.

Ganga

I bet it is a bungalow as ours were under the eves next to the upstairs bedroom window ,removed both when the combi boiler was fitted .

DPR87

Ganga said:

I bet it is a bungalow as ours were under the eves next to the upstairs bedroom window ,removed both when the combi boiler was fitted .

Hi, It is a standard two story houseprinceofpounds said:

It's a very weird place to put them, but they look like overflow pipes, presumably from your cold water/central heating/expansion tanks.

https://www.google.com/search?q=overflow+pipes&oq=overflow+pipes&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5j0i22i30l4.1859j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

If they are redundant (and the removal of the old system suggests they might be) then they can be removed. But you'll need to figure out why you have two.

Many thanks - I'll have a closer look and see if I can find where the second terminates! stuart45 said:

You would have had an overflow pipe from the cold water tank. The tank would be redundant when the combi was fitted.
Did you have a header tank up there as well?

Thanks - I don't know what was up there before. We only moved in last year and the new boiler system had already been installed

nofoollikeold

Could be WC cistern overflows, particularly at just above first floor height.

Jeepers_Creepers

DPR87 said:

Thanks - I don't know what was up there before. We only moved in last year and the new boiler system had already been installed

Almost certainly it's as said by others above - from the 2 tanks that used to be in the loft. I'd be reluctant to cut them flush until this is confirmed, tho'. It's possible, for example, that the 2 tanks fed into a single overflow, so that leaves the other as possibly being a toilet overflow.

If you take a spouted jug of water up into t'loft, raise that visible pipe end up and pour into it, that should ID one of them at least. Reward that helpful pipe by cutting it flush, pushing the end back into the soffit and making a nice wee brown cap to go over that hole.

If you really can't find evidence of a second pipe in the loft, then I guess you could try lifting the lid off each toilet cistern on the upstairs floor and activating the inlet valve until it 'overflows' - does any water appear out the other pipe?

stuart45

Be interesting to know what route the pipe has taken from the loft down to where it is now, and why to this level.