I think a gutter downpipe on my house is blocked. When only a small amount of water is fed into the gutter (garden hose on a ~very~ long pole), water spews out of the elbow just beneath the gutter and hardly any comes down the pipe at the bottom.
So I reckon moss or maybe a dead bird has lodged in the downpipe, probably in the elbow itself, or just below.
I don't have a long ladder. So I wonder whether I could push a spiral drain unblocker, the sort with the handle to turn, UP the downpipe from below. The distance from the ground to the underside of the gutter is 4m.
Or would the spiral wire just collapse back on itself due to gravity and weight?
The two spiral unblockers I have my eye on are the Screwfix one for £22.99 or the much cheaper Silverline for around £8.
By the way, my downpipes are round white plastic 68mm in diameter.
You can probably get the hose up up the downpipe by feeding from the bottom - the downpipe will stop the hose folding back on itself.
If you have room at the bottom of the downpipe a bare end of a hose may be sufficient to clear a blockage but ideally a nozzle set to the narrowest higher pressure jet will work a lot better. Feed the hose up before turning on the water.
You don't say if the downpipe has push-fit or solvent welded fittings. If the former you may be able to take off an angled shoe at the bottom of the downpipe to give you more room.
If you have moss on the roof the blockage is probably that. If so just clearing the downpipe may not be a long time cure as the moss in the gutter will migrate to the downpipe again in heavy rainfall.
The downpipes on these fairly new houses (2004) don't end at the bottom over a drain grille, but are fed just below the surface of the ground and into a plastic drain connector like this:
formatting link
I bought a rainwater diverter:
formatting link
This requires the downpipe to be cut, thus also allowing me access to the pipe from about 4 feet up from the ground, so I can poke suitable tools up there.
I'd already thought of using my garden hose. I have two types of hose, the original one, a standard green garden plastic hose, and a much thinner one from Wilko, which is less bulky, but still delivers plenty of water to, say, wash the car or water the garden.
So it's a toss up between the standard, less flexible one and the other, thinner one. I also have guide rods for feeding e.g. Ethernet or other cables through walls. These rods are much thinner than drain rods, but are fairly stiff. Too stiff to negotiate the elbow at the top of the pipe, but I might strike lucky and find a blockage half-way up which even these thin rods - or either of the hoses - will dislodge.
And then, finally, I have the option of getting one of those spiral unblockers.
The one thing I am loathe to do is buy a long ladder, as I have never liked heights and while I'm okay on a fairly high step ladder (mine is a six footer) or even the loft ladder, I'd need a very long one to reach the gutter.
So as soon as it gets light outside I'm going to try sticking things up the pipe. First the standard hose, then the thinner one. Or (thinks...) maybe I'll try those feeder rods first.
By the way, I do also have a Karcher pressure washer and Karcher do an accessory kit consisting of 20m of high pressure hose and a gutter sled, but now we're talking big bucks here. Around £64 from Screwfix or Amazon I believe. But it would almost certainly blast out any blockage.
Buy or borrow a ladder and dismantle the down pipe to clear it. Re-fit and put a wire cage into the top of the down pipe where it exits the gutter.
You are going to need that ladder in the future for gutter maintenance anyway, they are a long term investment - I've only just replaced the one I bought when we were first married, and that was 44 years ago !
To be fair to Turnip for once, I don't think he's suggesting it is. What he's implying is that any technique capable of shifting impacted turds and sanitary towels from a soil pipe should be equally capable of shifting whatever it is that's blocking your down pipe.
Poor Turnip.
One of the few times he's spoken from actual experience and really knows what he's talking about, you all just throw it back in his face.
Not IMHO. I've been using them for upwards of 10 years without problem. I've never had one block and need cleaning out. BUT I do use gutter guards (). These do keep a lot of rubbish out, particularly leaves and moss.
When I inspect the gutters what I find is not just small amounts of vegetable matter, but what could be sand or other mineral material. Is it possible that concrete tiles weather and the surface slowly wears away? These tiles are just over 50 years old.
Depending on what is causing the blockage, just clearing the top of the pipe may be a very short term fix.
One of the more unpleasant jobs I have to do every few years is unblock the downpipe from the guttering at the front of the house.
By the time the elbow is blocked, the complete run of guttering is full of mainly moss (those green slug shaped things) off the roof. The moss effectively creates its own fine soi so there is a combination of moss and fine soil.
Eventually enough accumulates to spill over into the downpipe enough to block it.
At that point just clearing the down pipe is a very short term fix. It very quickly blocks again because all of the guttering is silted up.
You have posted that you are considering spending £20(ish) and see £60(ish) for an add on to your Karcher as very expensive. I think you need to review your budget.
I know this is a DIY forum but if you don't want to do ladders then one alternative is to hire a handyman who has his own ladder to clear out your guttering. £60-£100 could well cover that. Some window cleaners also clean gutters (they tend to have ladders and stuff) so worth an ask.
formatting link
This gives a nice picture of what your gutter may look like!
If you really want to DIY it the next option is to hire a scaffolding tower which is suitable for people who are not happy on ladders.
formatting link
for an example.
I have used towers in the past and they are easy to put up and I feel much safer inside one than I do on a ladder.
So - hire a man or a scaffolding tower.
Or buy the wonder blaster from Karcher is you only want a short term fix.
Made worse by having established moss which retains a large amount of water which can freeze. The freezing results in shallow pits in the tiles which in turn provide the ideal conditions for moss growth. More moss = larger pits = more moss. Not helped if colonies of pigeons use local roofs as their daytime perching waiting for neighbours to throw out food waste.
No, I've only just bought it. I got it because I had to cut the downpipe in order to push something up it. I could have used a pipe socket to rejoin the pipe, but since I've had a water butt for four years, I thought why not kill two birds with one stone.
SEE MY LATEST POST FOR THE COMPLETE SUCCESS STORY!
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.