Downspout Drainage & Tie-Ins

Roof water is the largest single volume most properties have to manage and the cheapest to get wrong. A significant rain event sheds a large volume off a typical roof, all of it concentrated at a handful of downspout outlets.

Released at the foundation on clay soil, that water saturates the backfill zone — the loosest, most permeable ground on the property, sitting directly against the structure. Moving it is generally the highest-value work available.

Solid pipe, not perforated — a carrier must not leak along its length, or it recreates the problem underground where it cannot be seen. Consistent fall, because a line with a sag holds water and a line holding water in December freezes and backs up. Rigid smooth-wall pipe rather than corrugated flexible tubing, whose interior traps sediment and which is very easy to lay with unintended dips.

And sized for peak flow rather than average. A line that cannot pass a summer downpour backs up at the downspout and overflows at the foundation — failing precisely during the events that matter.