How Many Downspouts?

[Brad Bruce]

I will be moving into a different house soon, and I noticed a few "extra" downspouts. In my opinion they are extra. I will have a two car garage. One downspout comes down the outside corner and drains into the yard. A second one comes down the other side of the garage and drains right accross the walkway to the front door and driveway. (Extra in my opinion)

Another "extra" downspout drains accross a flower bed, when there is another downspout about 7 feet away.

If I repitch the gutters do you think I really need so many downspouts? Would a larger downspout be required?

Brad

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Depends on the size of the roof and how much rain you get. Draining across a walk and driveway is a potential problem if you live in a cold climate. You don't give enough information for a really good answer.

[Brad Bruce]

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:cMN8f.3525$ [e-mail]:

I'm in New Jersey. The house is a ranch style house with the garage and living room sticking out the front by a few feet. The living room has 2 downspouts and the garage has 2.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words... A picture of the house is at

yellow arrows point to the downspouts. There's a third downspout around the corner on the left as well.

Thanks Brad

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Does the rear have a similar setup?

My house has about the same size roof. Two in front, two in back, plenty adequate. I can see freezing issues with the one over the walk.

You can try plugging the two center ones to see if the gutter functions properly and later remove them if it does. The pitch of the gutter will help determine that.

The picture is a big help. Ed

[Brad Bruce]

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:%k39f.5006$ [e-mail]:

I'll try plugging the spouts from the top before it gets too cold.

The rear has a downspout on each end.

Brad

[Mark]

You may also want to consider the slope of the ground and have the downspouts located so that the water will drain away fom your house.

Mark

[anoldfart2]

The more downspouts the better. The idea is to get the water out of the gutter. What's the problem? I'd be much more concerned about too few downspouts....

[Edwin Pawlowski]

You'd be right if the downspout did not run across the front walk. Rain tonight, frozen walk tomorrow. Not very safe.

[Brad Bruce]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

High velocity runnoff into the flower bed.

ANY runnoff accross a sidewalk and driveway in freezing weather.

Brad

[Stephen King]

You need 35 downspouts per house.

[anoldfart2]

Agreed !!!

I would suggest that you get some 4" PVC pipe (sewer pipe), and run it across the sidewalks during freezing weather. Yes, you got to step over it, but it sure beats the ice. You may want to look into some sort of underground drain in the future.

You can also run a downspout horizontally across part of a building and let it drop elsewhere. THis can be ugly, but solves problems.

[Goedjn]