I have 2 down spouts from the gutter system that drain into my lawn. I hear this should be 6' from the house, but there is no practicle and visibly pleasing way to accomplish this AFAIK?
I was thinking to bury a pipe along the perimeter of my house to grab the water from these 2 downspouts and pipe it to where the other 2 and the sump pump are piped.
Is this acceptable? Anything I should be worried about like water sitting in the pipe? Any special type of PVC should be used if its to be buried in dirt?
also The A/C fan is about 1 foot from my house. Is it ok to run the pipe under ground between the a/c fan which is sitting on a block of cement and the house?
It's a fine way to do it. Make sure there's at least an 1/8" slope per foot along the entire length. Don't use the perforated corrugated plastic stuff - that just invites roots to block it...unless you use filter fabric or a "sock".
Cut the downspout a foot shorter, scrape up the sod and topsoil, and then get a load of fill top build the area up so that it slopes away from the house (if work a large are, the slope won't be particularly obvious. Cover with an inch of clay-heavy soil, then replace your topsoil and sod.
Foundation drain pipe, and you'll want to make sure it's pitched well, surrounded by gravel and, ideally surrounded by filter fabric: this will prevent soil from filling up the pipe. Of coursse, if you do this, you'll likely end up building up the soil around your home and creating the angle that I was talking about above so that the water naturally runs away from the foundation.
Don't just pipe your roof drins around the house: if they clog with sticks or debris the water could well be forced directly into your basement.
Correcting the grade is IMO, the best way to go. For more info, see:
I dont have a grade problem. Its graded quite nicely. Its just the fact that all recommendations say I need to let the water hit the grass no closer than ~6' from my foundation. And I don't want to run a long gutter pipe over the grass like they always show in the diagrams, lol.
Thanks, sounds like something I can do. Also where my yard meets the neighbors yard is at the bottom of the pitch and often the grass holds the water right on the surface. Hopefully this will reduce that issue as well.
I've seen gizmos you attach to your gutter downspout, they supposedly uncoil when the water is flowing to direct the water out to your yard. Then they coil back up when it stops raining. They look like a cheap gimic to me, and I doubt they would work very well anyway. :)
We just finished installing a similar system at our house. I used "solid" PVC drainpipe (the thinner stuff is for landscape drainage, the thicker stuff is for sewage systems. Either will work, but the thin stuff is cheaper.) and plastic catch basins under the gutters. Mine are made by NDS and were available at both Lowes and Home Depot. Other than hand digging
200' of trenches, they were very easy to install.
Our system takes the water from the gutters, and reroutes it about 80' across the yard so it can drain out over the hill. So far, it has been working great.
I used catch basins w/grates instead of tying the downspouts directly into the piping system. I figured they would be easier to clean out when needed, and will also help for any standing water that builds up in the yard during heavy downpours.
I have a SEPARATE drainage system that uses perforated pipe that runs around the perimeter of our house along the footings. It's covered with landscape fabric and gravel for drainage. This is then connected to a drain line that runs off over the hill too.
On the outlet ends of the pipes, I installed some small grates that are actually meant as inlets in flower beds. But, they should work well for keeping "critters" from crawling into the pipe.
We've had some really rainy weather lately and I've been real happy with the way the system works.
The majority of gutter leaders in homes in the US don't have the means to directly carry the water 6' or more away from the house. This is a nice recommendation and would be a good thing, but I wouldn't get obsessed with it. Most home leaders end with a splash bloock that is maybe 3 ft long. The most important thing is that the landscape is graded away from the house so that water can flow away from it. If you have splash blocks and good grading and don't have any problems in the basement, I'd leave it alone.
Trying to pipe the rain water around the house and tieing the rain water into the sump pump system should be a last resort, only if absolutely necessary. As someone pointed out, you now have the possibility of the pipe becoming clogged. You also have the possibility of a sump pump failure, increased electric cost, and the certainty that at some point there will be a severe storm that will knock out power. Depending on where the water goes for it to be collected before being pumped, that could be a disaster in a few minutes of lost power.
In my case, our house and garage is backed up against a hill. I had sloped the yard away from the house, but this just resulted in a small lake between the house and the hillside when it rained. After installing our drainage system, we haven't had any more lakes. :)
The 4" drainage pipe is much less likely to clog than the gutter downspout, but it is something you have to check every once in a while to make sure it's still flowing well.
Yep, if at all possible, try to route the drainage line by gravity so you do not need a pump. In our case, we routed the water from the back of the house and out over the edge of the hill.
Only meant to tie it in with the sumps emptying pipe, not pipe the water into the sump itself. Sump works hard enouogh already :) If I wanted the water to get to the sump I basically could leave it like it is now as I think thats where it eventually goes. Also the sump pipe is sort of open. If it clogged, it would just spill out onto the lawn, and it should still be able to empty the pit. Hard to explain.
But in truth my land is strongly graded away from my house. Its probably not a problem, I just dont like the way it looks too much.
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