No drain for gutter downpipe

peejay1986

Hey. Hoping someone can give some guidance on this please.

We bought and renovated a 1930s end terrace house recently. Our garden sits to the side of the house, in between our house and a garage.

The garage or garden were not part of the renovation and we have since noticed that there is a missing downpipe - and no drain - for the guttering along the garden length of the garage.

My question is - is it acceptable to add a downpipe to the end of (likely new) guttering and funnel the rain water into a flower bed in our garden? We wouldn't be able to add a drain without significant disruption as the garden is mostly paved.

What are the issues if we opted for this…solution?

10-10-20

Hi, it's done in other locations such as the US where rain is funneled away from the house (over beds or grass) and the overspill then ends up in a communal ditch, etc. In a situation like Ireland the risks are that the drain could erode the soil sand and binding of the foundations and cause undermining over an extended period. So no, not a great idea other than in a case where ot can be drained to a suitable soak-away or appropriately sized French drain. Hope it helps.

Mellor

Am I reading it correctly that there is a gutter but no down pipe?

Where does the water in the gutter go?

peejay1986

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122236254#Comment_122236254

Correct. The outlet for the down pipe is there but I'm assuming the down pipe broke off at some point and was never replaced.

Currently, the rain just escapes the gutters via that outlet and pours freely on to our lawn from that height. Which, as you can imagine, isn't doing the lawn any favours.

Technophobe

A (possibly temporary) option would be to funnel it into a water tank maybe (large one) and use for watering, car washing etc ?