Gutter Drain

[Brian Houghtby]

I am getting ready to trench in some solid 4" tile for gutter drains, How deep should I go with this tile? Central Ohio.

[tbasc]

Below frost line and above footing. Local building department or construction related folk should know local frost level. TB

[Glenn]

[S.t.e.v.e.]

I ran 4" PVC underground away from my house in Virginia. It averages about

6" below surface. Frost heaving is not a worry because the pipe has enough flexibility. If it were installed any deeper I would not have been able to have the water exit. It worked well with the 12" of rain we had a few weekends ago.

[Shredder]

Thanks to all

[CALS]

I would go at least 4 feet below grade. Where I live in Canada, we get some major cold weather for amny months and 4 feet seems to get below the frost line. You could always just run it around the footings.

Cheers Marc

[Glenn]

Unless you are going to dump it into a cistern or well, I assume it has to daylight someplace and that end will freeze anyway so why bury it so deep? Why not let it spill onto a splash and go across the lawn where it can do some good during the summer months? You sit high enough for a deep line like that to drain?

[HerHusband]

We installed gutter drains last year (Washington state). We used inexpensive plastic drain pipes, the straight rigid kind, not the corrugated type.

I used premade catch basins I got from Lowes, so I set the farthest basin so the top grate was even with the ground. This put the pipe about 6 inches below the ground. I sloped the pipe 1/4" per foot, so the pipe ended up about two feet under the ground at it's deepest point (before the yard starts to slope down the hill again). I had to use risers for the other basins to bring the grate up to ground level.

Our drains end at the hillside at the edge of our yard. I installed rock and gravel where the drains discharge, and put a grated cap over the pipe end to keep out "critters".

I have to clean pine needles and other small debris from the discharge end once or twice a year, but otherwise the system works great.

Anthony