external drains (roorf, yard) into main drain
I own a three story brownstone and am re-doing the external drain system. I have a flat roof (no gutter) that drains into a pipe that comes down from the back of the roof to the top of an addition on the ground floor. Previously, the owner just had the water move accross the addition…
I own a three story brownstone and am re-doing the external drain system.
I have a flat roof (no gutter) that drains into a pipe that comes down from the back of the roof to the top of an addition on the ground floor. Previously, the owner just had the water move accross the addition roof, into a gutter and then into the backyard. This is a problem since the backyard is sloped toward the house, making leeching almost impossible.
I am trying to solve this two ways. First, I uncovered a pipe that runs from the backyard to the basement at about a foot under ground and connects in a straight line into the main 4″ drain pipe flowing to the street in front of my house. I want to connect the roof and gutter drain into that pipe instead of having the water go into my backyard. Is this risky in terms of getting dirt/debris into my main sewer pipe?
Second, I am building a catchment at the lowpoint of my backyard about ten feet away from the backdoor. Dug a three foot hole, created a 2 ft. by 2ft. concrete box, filled with gravel, with a 2: PVC pipe coming out that will make its way in a trench to the same drain that will go under the house and out to the street. My plan is to put a grate on top of the concrete box and a screen over the 2″ pipe so debris doesn’t get in there from the gravel box. But.. again, should I be concerned about dirt and other debris getting into the pipe?
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to get some advice before my plumber connects the system.
thanks
My roof drain connects into my main sewer. I also have a garden drain that hooks in as well. My neighbors roof drains into their main sewer. I would say that debris can be a problem, as my neighbors drain had clogged up and would overflow in to my yard. However, it did not seem to affect their main sewer line since they cleaned it out due to my complaints. I would guess you could put up some sort of gutter screen to screen out debris.
I’m in one of 3 houses that were built at the same time. Our roof drains connect to the neighbor’s main waste. I put a soak-away (same as your catchment idea) about 15 feet from the back of the house, graded my patio towards that, bonded basement wall & leveled the garden which had a foot slope east-to-west. Cinderblock wall sounds iffy to me – hydro power is relentless. You might consider decreasing-in-size layers of peagrit before you get to the screen so it doesn’t clog.
Your plans sound fine. The roof and gutter drain is a must to do. Your French drain could help but I’ve had limited experience with that. I had similar drainage problems. The largest problem being that I would get lots of water from other peoples yards because we are on a hill. This past Summer I made a cinderblock wall around the whole propety line to keep the extra water out. I already had a roof & gutter drain but I added an extra drain that connects from the yard through the basement.. In addition I resurfaced the back wall of my basement with bonding cement. This was a large job but this is the first year in the last 8 years that I now have a dry basement!