gutter overflow disaster

elchanco

Hi,

I need to have a down pipe installed in my gutter at the rear of my house (3bed end terrace). There is 3 houses in my block being serviced by one down pipe.

When it rains heavy the corner of my gutter overflows very badly (there’s no down pipe on my house)! I went up to have a look recently and there seems to be a build up of rain water in the gutter.

I had a friend (builder) have a look & he said there is a dip in the gutter where there should have been a down pipe installed!

How did my engineer not spot this when i bought the house (3years ago)!

Would HomeBond cover this problem!

There is no drain for the rainwater to flow so will I have to drill an additional drain?

Any ideas/advice please

Sleipnir

You could put a bracket at the lowest point of the sagging gutter. This will lift it and also take the weight of the water when it rains preventing it from sagging more, filling with more water and then overflowing.

You can't just 'drill' for a drain. The drain needs to be joined to the sewer system.

Sleipnir

Oh, and Homebond is for major structural defects only.

elchanco

cheers

Any recomendations to contact about inserting a bracket and where would you buy them? I have a pvc gutter.

Is it normal to have one down pipe for 3 houses?

aujopimur

you can not drain rainwater into sewer

Sleipnir

aujopimur wrote: »

you can not drain rainwater into sewer

Right, it goes into a drain and then where?

Ciaran500

elchanco wrote: »

Any recomendations to contact about inserting a bracket

Where do you live?

elchanco wrote: »

and where would you buy them? I have a pvc gutter.

You'll need to know more than that, every company has different shape gutters. If the gutters were pitched back for a down pipe on your house then they would be pitched from both sides, so sticking another bracket in there won't solve the problem.

elchanco wrote: »

Is it normal to have one down pipe for 3 houses?

I've seen it plenty of times on small terraced houses around Lucan, but it depends on how long the run is.

Sleipnir wrote: »

Right, it goes into a drain and then where?

Into a soak hole. A big pit in the ground full of stones.

Sleipnir

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Into a soak hole. A big pit in the ground full of stones.

In the country maybe, but not in the city. The reason they don't drain into the sewers in the country is because there often isn't any sewers!

Mine and my neighbours all drain into the sewer. My parents' in another country also drain into a sewer.

Ciaran500

Sleipnir wrote: »

In the country maybe, but not in the city. The reason they don't drain into the sewers in the country is because there often isn't any sewers!

I used to live in the centre of Lucan Village and we had to dig a new soak hole after we built an extension onto the house.

Sleipnir

Ciaran500 wrote: »

I used to live in the centre of Lucan Village and we had to dig a new soak hole after we built an extension onto the house.

I used to live in Liffey Valley in Lucan and they used the sewer system. Come to think of it, why else would they have a u-bend?
Dunno, maybe some use the sewer and some use a sinkhole.

I know when we the did the extension on our place in the city centre we had to lay a system where all the gutters drained into the same system as the toilets as sinks etc.

Carlow52

Any chance the others have the same problem so consider increasing the size of the downpipe and gutters at back?

Joey the lips

There is a cheap solution to this but I am not sure if its legal. Can you not seperate your gutter from your neighbours and just catch your water in a harvester. Then just allow it realease slowly into a soakaway.

aujopimur

Rainwater should drain to a stormdrain or soakway.

elchanco

thanks for all the help lads but im still baffled on what route to take?

stormdrain or soakway!! Hav'nt a clue what this is?

Would the builder be responsible for putting in bad guttering in the house?

I live in west cork..

brendansmith

Are you the middle house?

elchanco

brendansmith wrote: »

Are you the middle house?

No, Im the end (right) house. The gutter is on the end (left) house..

brendansmith

In that case i would recommend getting the gutter propped up at your side or drilling a hole in the gutter and having a barrel underneath which could be tipped into a drain when full or which holes in to allow controled drain out

elchanco

just an update..

I had a guy look at my gutter, he suggested I install a downpipe into the sewage pipe! I have no drain for the rain water to flow!

He quoted 300euro & when he saw the shocked reaction:eek: he said he would do it for 200euro:rolleyes:!! What should this cost? 1 downpipe!

billbond4

I had a similar problem, i live in a semi-detached house and when it rained water would pour over a part of the gutter in the back of the house.
House next door is rented and the gutter didnt get cleaned out too often so the water would always be in my clean gutters.
Someone thought it would look nice to have two downpipes to take the water for the back of the two houses and sides of houses instead of three.

Anywho, I got a gutter fitter out to install a new downpipe at the back of my house and it goes into the same trap where the kitchen/dishwasher goes.
He also tightening up the gutter as it was a bit loose, after that no more problems.
I paid about 130/150 for it, if I remember

I asked about putting a downpipe into the main rising sewer gas pipe and he said it was against building regulations

elchanco

billbond4 wrote: »

Anywho, I got a gutter fitter out to install a new downpipe at the back of my house and it goes into the same trap where the kitchen/dishwasher goes.

I asked about putting a downpipe into the main rising sewer gas pipe and he said it was against building regulations

cheers for the reply..
I was informed that putting the downpipe into the rising sewer pipe was illegal but the guy who had a look at it last week had no problem doing it!!

Was the trap for the dishwasher/kitchen on the corner of the house! The trap for my kitchen is on the middle of the house which makes it awkward. Its the end which constantly overflows!

billbond4

elchanco wrote: »

cheers for the reply..
I was informed that putting the downpipe into the rising sewer pipe was illegal but the guy who had a look at it last week had no problem doing it!!

Was the trap for the dishwasher/kitchen on the corner of the house! The trap for my kitchen is on the middle of the house which makes it awkward. Its the end which constantly overflows!

That trap for the dishwasher/kitchen is in the middle of the house, so I do have the down pipe going down the back of the house, it doesnt look too bad.
But my back gutter is one of the few back gutters in the row houses free from weeds!! so that a +ive

elchanco

When I cleaned my gutters... that’s when the problems started! The other houses never clean there gutters & the rainwater just flowed into my clean gutters!

I might say to the "gutter man" if he can put a downpipe into the kitchen trap! I don’t really want to start messing with the sewage pipe!

The idiots who originally put up the gutters put a dip in the gutter for where a downpipe "should" be... eventually this problem was going to occur!

elchanco

Got quoted 50euro yesterday for the same job as the 300euro guy!:rolleyes:

billbond4

Yeah I think thats the only way to go.
Heres a picture of the back of my house.
Theres a bend behind the bbq thats covered over that leads the pipe into the kitchen trap.

elchanco

cheers for the pic..

That looks like a nice job! My only problem is the gutter is tilted at the end so i might have to zig zag the pipe across to the centre of the house! It wont look as good as yours:rolleyes:

Il see what the gutter guy says when he comes to fit it!