Weekend Downspout Repair Project

Brooke Bowman
by Brooke Bowman
3 Materials
$250
6 Hours
Medium
We remodeled our country cottage about two years ago, and that included finishing off the original concrete basement. We added sheet rock and carpet and boxed in the exposed beams to create a family space that’s an important and integral part of our home. Yet, over time, we realized that if we got a very heavy downpour, a little bit of water would seep into our basement level. We didn’t have the money to sink into totally digging up all around our foundation to waterproof it. Instead, my husband, who is a plumber, took another look around. He noticed that the original clay downspouts were just going directly into the ground, allowing water to pool up and eventually sink down beside the foundation. He worked with a local contractor over the course of a weekend to dig up the original downspouts, install new ones, and redirect them away from the house. We haven’t had an issue with incoming water since.
We decided to run the new pipe along the side of the shed/garage behind our house. This way, the runoff will reach the back field and won't be directly beside our exterior brick.
The project involved a significant amount of digging up and creating new trenches for the newly laid pipe to fit into.
We partnered with a local contractor who had a trench digging machine. This would have been an extremely laborious project to do by hand had we attempted it ourselves.
While the machine took care of a majority of the digging, there were still a few spots that the contractor had to hand-dig with the shovel. These were mainly the spots around the sidewalk. We have two sidewalks around the edge of the house and we had to dig under each of them to properly direct the downspouts. This was a time-consuming task but much easier than going all the way around the house to waterproof it. It was also much cheaper. We had a few estimates for a more thorough waterproofing job, and the prices we received were exorbitant. We weren't in a position to refinance our house to tackle a project like this, so we found a more inexpensive route.
We connected the two different types of pipes at various touchpoints to create an intricate labyrinth of pipework that was more effective at taking the water where it needed to go.
Here is an example of how we dug under our sidewalks. These were newly poured concrete sidewalks no more than 18 months old or so. We could have torn up that patch where we needed to work, but seeing as the surface was so new, we went underneath it instead.
An example of how the pipes interworked and fit together.
The second sidewalk that we had to dig under to route the new trench. These pipes will empty out into the front yard, compared to the ones in the back sidewalk that go to the backyard.
Second view of the front sidewalk trench.
This was what we were working with at first! As soon as my husband determined that the downspouts were the issue, he immediately went to the work truck and grabbed a long piece of PVC piping. It solved the problem, but it was definitely an eyesore, so it had to go!
The very front of the new downspout system. This emits the water into a tiny ditch at the very front of the property line.
Removing the old terracotta piping.
Beginning the process of backfilling the trench with fresh dirt. We eventually planted grass seed over this dirt and now you can hardly tell it was ever dug up.
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Brooke Bowman
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  • William William on Apr 26, 2018

    That was a lot of work. This project can be helpful for a lot of people who have a similar problem. Amazing work.

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