downpipw from roof gutter - straight into sewer?

[AL_z]

The house I bought needs some guttering; it's a job the previous owner never bothered to complete. Half of the guttering has been installed. However, where the downpipe is supposed to be (at the lowest part of the run), there is, at present, nowhere for a down-pipe to drain away into. However, there is a horizontal 4" drain pipe coming from a WC directly underneath the guttering, at ground level (patially buried). Is it OK to cut a 3" hole in the top of that and run the 3" downpipe into that?

The alternative possibility is to run the down pipe into the side of the

4" vertical drain pipe going down the outside of the house, coming from an upstairs loo. The v ertical drain is about ten feet from where the roof- gutter's down-pipe should be.

Which one is the best option? Are there special T-junction (or Y-junction) sections for 4" drainpipe, to take a 3" downpipe?

Thanks,

Al

[Andrew Gabriel]

First, you have to find out if you're allowed to run surface/rain water into foul drains. In some dense urban areas you are. In most other places, you aren't (because they don't want the sewers to flood during heavy rain), but even then you can ask permission, and it might be granted.

Even if it is allowed, you will need proper pipe connectors.

Same as above - assume you can't run rain water into the sewer until you find out for sure that you are allowed to.

Normally, you have to dig a soakaway in the ground for rainwater, but there may be other options depending on local circumstances. You might also want to factor including a water butt if you think you might have a use for rainwater. I use it for washing the car, and watering front garden during dry periods. (Managed to keep my front lawn green when just about everyone else's died earlier this year. Finally emptied the water butt about 3 days before the dought broke, and completely filled it again.)

[dom]

Good advice. Not only do you need permission, you will be charged for it through your water rates.

My property is rural, but has almost no land with it - certainly not enough for soakaways.

Before I had a water meter, they based this charge on my council tax band (plausible I suppose, big property = higher band)

Then I got a water meter - and now they calculate my *surface* drainage based on my metered water consumption.

Clearly the less water I let out of taps, the fewer raindrops that fall upon my roof.

[AL_z]

[e-mail] (Andrew Gabriel) wrote in news:i5j3ee$811$ [e-mail]:

Thank you for the info. Yes, I too, was thinking about using a water butt; not only would it solve the problem, but we also don't get much rainfall here, and I have a fairly large garden to water. I just wish they didn;t cost so much... My neighbour was lucky; he picked up a very large galvanised steel tank, buckshee.

Al

[Another John]

My question is: how big's your butt? (!) I have three, two 250lt and one that's about 350lt .... I never seem to have enough water though: it goes down very fast, once we have a dry spell.

John

[AL_z]

Another John wrote in news:lalaw44- [e-mail]:

Hi John, That's a good point! We get about the least rainfall of any part of the UK. must find out how many inches of rain we get. I may only need a small butt. I'll probably have to buy two: one for each side of the house. I'm thinking of raising them up somehow, so I can use the water to water the garden via a hose.

Al

[Scott M]

Cost? What, money? Sorry, I don't get this... People *buy* waterbutts? How bizarre!

;-)

I put a wanted ad up on Freecycle t'other summer and got two offered me; one 'proper' one and one of those blue drums about the same size often seen on farms, etc.

[Dave Liquorice]

It will fill remarkably quickly and then you still need to deal with the water. Half a normal sort of pitched roof say 20m^2 and a 200l butt is 10l of water/m^2 or just 10mm of rain to fill it from empty, unless you use it a lot it will never be empty.

You may be allowed to put the over flow into the foul water system but I expect you will have to pay your water company for that priviledge. Providing you have reasonable depth of soil and it's not clay a soakaway should be able to cope.

Maybe the reason that the previous owners didn't finish the guttering is because they cocked up where the down pipe was going to be. Does it have to be where they thought it should go?

[AL_z]

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Thanks for that; I was wondering how on earth to calculate it - so that's very useful info.

I'm not quite sure what I've got. The sil (if you can even call it that) near the house is more like limestone hardcore, with about one inch of topsooil, whuch seems to be pretty absorbent. However, it's so full of rocks that digging a soakaway might be a problem. About 20 metres from the house, my land startys sloping away from the house. I could possibly form a long gully leading to that.

That looks like a distinct possibility!

No, provided the fascia board is level, (I haven't climbed up there to check it yet) because then I can fix new guttering with its gradient going the other way! I need to have it going to the garden-end of the wing. He put the guttering's downpipe outlets at the end of the wing that has nowhere for it to drain away. At least at the garden end of the wing, I can channel it to a soakaway, a rainwater butt, or even the sewer.

I don't have a water meter, cos it doesn't pay to have one here, unless there is more than people living at the house. So perhaps I should just go ahead and channel it into the sewer. What do you think?

I can see why he never bothered to sort it out... even in wet weather with the rainwater pissing out of the hole in the guttering, on each side of the wing, the insede of the house never gets any damp issues. I want to get it sorted though, as I want to sell the house, when I've licked it into shape.

Cheers,

Al

[Dave Liquorice]

1 m^3 = 1000l therefore 1mm on 1m^2 is 1l.

They may well still charge you for the surafce water, water meter fitted or not. Only having water supply here, no meter and no mains drainage I'm not sure of the details of the charges other than what has been posted recently in this thread. It did strike me as remarkedly odd that one Water Co. based the surface water handling charge on how much metered water you used, seems very unfair. Big house, low water use - small surface charge. Small house, high water use - big surface charge. Which actaully dumps more surface water into the system...

[Andy Dingley]

Two waterbutts is usually easier than arranging the guttering to feed both sides of a roof into one.

I buy mine (these days, since Dad retired), but I buy them from the guy who deals in S/H mango pickle barrels, not garden centre prices.

(It is a truth universally acknowledged that all recycled plastic barrels will be labelled for either "mango pickle" or something unfeasible toxic.)

[geoff]

AKA mango pickle ...

[AL_z]

Scott M wrote in news:i5ltgq$blp$ [e-mail]:

Blue drums, often seen on farms? Can you give me more of a clue; any idea what these originally contained? Are they made of polypropylene or similar, like the typical garden centre water butts? Can you provide a link to a photo? Thanks..

Al

[Cicero]

Downpipes don't have to go straight down so you might be able to use a dog-leg or other similar arrangement to get from the existing outlets to a more suitable disposal point. It might not look too good but at least it will be better than having rainwater splashing all over your walls.

Cic.

[Part timer]

The RAF use the same ones full of distilled water. Described as Water Thrust Augmentation in the supply chain (distilled water to you and me). Other use was for operating department sterilisers to prevent limescale. There's a camp in a hot and dusty country full of the empties. At least metal drums can be cut down to make BBQs. A pain to manhandle off pallets when full since they deform when you try rolling them on the edge of their base.