Basement water: Moving downspout water away from house to sistern

[Thomas G. Marshall]

I was following the advice in the home depot outdoor projects book about moving the water from my gutter down-spout to someplace farther away.

But I'm confused on one point.

Should I be using the PVC pipe with holes in it (at 4 and 8 o'clock) such that the water disperses along 10' of it and the rest ends in a sistern, or should I be transporting part of the way in solid PVC to keep even small seepage away from the house?

The only problem is that the non-hole PVC doesn't fit the adapters needed to connect the downspountPVC. A silly thing really, looks like a conflict in inner vs. outter diameter specs.

So should it be this:

*Downspout-->Adapter-->(connected somehow)10' Solid PVC-->Sistern*

or

*Downspout-->Adapter-->(connected somehow)4' Solid PVC-->10' drainage PVC-->Sistern*

or just the easiest

*Downspout-->Adapter--->(connects redily)10' drainage PVC-->Sistern.*

And *HOW BIG* should the sistern be? The ground fill is highly rocky (good) but this downspout manages all the water for half the main roof, half the baywindow roof, and the porch roof.

[Jay Stootzmann]

The point is to get the water away from the house. I use solid pipe which is actually just an extension of my AL downspout -- depending on the grade of the lawn I've gone either 5' or 10'. My extension is solid and gets all of the water away from the house. I don't use a drywell or sistern. The grade of the lawn carries the water off. Works for me.

[Thomas G. Marshall]

I tried that, but I just cannot keep my lawn cutters from squashing the thing with their tractor.

We have a fast draining lot. It slopes in the back, and is extremely rocky. Even digging a hole for a very small tree (2' diameter was a chore in fieldstone removal.

Jay Stootzmann said something like:

[trader4]

Most houses have landscaping around the perimeter. If possible, you could consider a 5 ft wide landscape bed in the area of the downspout. The corrigated pipe then stops at the edge of the bed. They even have flexible pipe like that with ends that fit over the downspout pipe. The bed can be attractive and add value to the house.

[Thomas G. Marshall]

[e-mail] said something like:

There is already 4' landscaping there. What I had previously was this:

downspout --> Flex pipe --> gutter pipe to edge

(that would dump the water onto the grass just past the rocks that line the mulch.)

But it only 1/2 worked. The water flow just wasn't enough away from the house. So I added some gutter pipe (about 1' long) to dump water a foot past the rock and it improved things considerably, but not enough to keep the flood out of the corner of the basement. That and the landscaping grunts squash the thing flat every time.

*So perhaps I should resculpt the lawn a little* ? I could make it so that the "pipe to edge of rocks" idea results in water continuing to flow away from the house (but over the grass). Like a mini grass covered trench, or swale, or whatever, but barely indented enough to allow the water to gravity feed away?

[Thomas G. Marshall]

[e-mail] said something like:

...[snip]...

Ok, a neighbor pointed out a far more obvious solution.

I am going to run a pipe (drain pipe even, since it need not be structurally supportive of ground over it) along the edge of the foundation following the natural grade out to the back. Then onto a brick for dispersal, like the rest of my downspouts.

I may paint the thing brown to match the ground and mulch and half burried it. Or find something brown (like perhaps the brown flex pipe, which I don't like the looks of), or half-bury brown PVC. But in any case, the problem is pretty much solved.

Thanks all!!! PARTICULAR thanks to those of you talking me OUT of a dry-well!!!!!!!!