Blocked Gutter Downpipe

[john curzon]

On the first floor of a house the gutter downpipe is blocked up.

The first thought is to try to push a garden hose up from the bottom. The internal diameter of the pipe is 6cm. The length of the metal screws they have used to join the pipes and on the wall brackets is 4cm.

This leaves a narrow passage way of only 2cm past the screw in the pipe, to try to clear a way.

We could try to borrow a neighbour's fairly standard domestic jet washer, but is this likely to be effective? Bearing in mind the blockage of leaves etc is most likely at the height of the ceiling of the first floor where one of the long screws in the wall bracket is not helping the flow down ? Any suggestions very welcome.

[Tim+]

6cm gutter down pipe? Doesn’t sound like one. Way too small for adequate flow and liable to block. Are you sure you’re dealing with the right pipe?

Tim

[Animal]

probably easier to just take the lower bit of downpipe off the wall, if it's plastic.

[Brian]

Generally they get blocked either in the gutter, where the hole to the pipe is, or in the z bend between there and the down pipe.

You would need to get a good seal to get enough pressure to ‘blow’ the muck out. Not impossible but near enough.

Get a ladder, ask a window cleaner, or get someone in.

[Chris Hogg]

If sections of down pipe have been joined with screws, and they project into the pipe as you say, and are causing leaves etc to build up at that point, unscrew the screws and stick a hose into the top of the pipe where it connects to the gutter. Replace the screws with shorter stubs.

[charles]

6cm is the standard downpipe size on my house.

But, you shouldn't need to screw sections togther.

[Robin]

common 68mm /outside/ diameter downpipe has an /internal/ diameter of about 64mm.

[SteveW]

63mm guttering and downpipe is a common size - often used for sheds, porches and bay windows and the like.

I'd be more concerned about the screws. I'm presuming that the OP means that someone has screwed long screws directly into the pipes at the joints/brackets, which would tend to form a catch point for leaves and the like and block easily. I'd look at replacing those ones with ones just long enough for the job.

[Robin]

I've never seen a pipe support that needs a screw /through/ the pipe. Can you put a photo somewhere (eg on Google Photos) and share a link here?

Or has someone used a bracket like this without relaising you are /not/ supposed to screw it to the wall through the pipe?

[Brian Gaff]

Hang on, who screws directly into a pipe to fix it.Is that not what wall brackets with a ring the same size as the OD are sold for. If you screw to the pip it generally leaks and or cracks the pipe. Brian

[SteveW]

Sections of one of my downpipes have screws through the joints (not the brackets). Without them one section disconnects from the hopper and slips down in the brackets over time or the shoe comes off. They can't be permanently joined (solvent welded) as they need to be removable during future house maintence. However, there is only one screw at each joint and it is less than 1cm long.

[Brian Gaff]

Sounds like a bodge up to me. I think a proper downpipe with proper mountings is called for here, be interested to know how they joined it to the gutter, assuming that is what it does, or is it one of those with a hopper at the top for the bath and sink pipes to trickle into? Brian

[Tim+]

Doh! You’re right. Just from eyeballing it I assumed it was nearer 10cm. Clearly my eyeballing skills are poor.

Tim

[Martin Brown]

They shouldn't be putting *any* screws through the walls of the pipe. The typical pipe joint is outside on the top and inside on the bottom. Wall brackets hold the pipe in place - sometimes combined with joints.

| | | pipe | || || || || coupler - a bit like a funnel wider at the top. \ / || || || || | | | pipe |

Most likely the thing is blocked at the top where the pipe bends back from the gutter to against the wall. That is where most junk collects. The water that gets past there is in free fall and has some force.

There is a really annoying sedum album that colonises roofs and gutters round here. It is remarkably prolific and drought tolerant :(

My favourite for only lightly blocked gutters is a steel hook on a long reach pole which is just long enough to reach the bottom of the vertical section of pipe under the gutter. Wait until the gutter is full after a big rainstorm and jiggle it about a bit. Once you make an initial path for the water through the gunge it will do the rest.

I have made various fittings for my Gardena 3m long reach pole for sorting such things out at a distance. Wolf also make one.

[Robin]

Don't worry about it: most women will tell you that men have a genetic inability to assess accurately the size of such things.

[me9]

60 mm, 68mm is usual size. I'd just stick a hosepipe up from the bottom.

[John J]

Lidl were selling a pipe clearing/jetting tool a while back. It consisted of a length of hose with a clearing nozzle at the business end and a connector to join on to a pressure washer at the other. My mate bought one and successfully cleared a blocked drain for me a while ago. A plug of detergent crud had formed at a buried elbow and the jet broke it up so it could be flushed away for Yorkshire Water to deal with downstream. It should do a decent job up a downpipe. Middle of lidl stuff comes round again cyclically.