Downspout repair and buried drain lines in Gainesville, GA
The gutter is half the system. The other half runs down the wall and, on most houses built here since the nineties, under the yard in a pipe nobody has looked at since the sod went down. When that pipe closes, the gutter above it overflows no matter how clean it is. The pros we send clear it, repair it, or replace it with something that can be cleaned next time.
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How to tell a buried downspout line is clogged
- Water wells up where the downspout meets the ground and runs along the foundation.
- One stretch of gutter overflows while the rest runs fine. It is the stretch above that downspout.
- The pop-up outlet in the yard never lifts, even in a hard rain.
- A soft, sunken strip of lawn follows a line away from the house.
- The joint at the bottom of the downspout has been pulled apart so the water can get out. Someone before you gave up on the pipe.
There is a five-minute hose test for this in what a backed-up downspout is telling you.
Why buried drain lines clog in Hall County
Three reasons, usually together. The pipe is thin corrugated plastic, and every ridge inside it catches grit. What washes off a roof here is shingle sand and pine straw, and red clay gets in at each loose joint and packs hard. Then the roots arrive. River birches and red maples planted near the foundation will follow a damp pipe to the first gap.
The other common finding is a pipe that never had an outlet. It runs ten feet from the house and stops, still underground, because that was quick to build.
Underground downspout drain cleaning
Clearing a line starts at the house. With the downspout lifted off, a hose bladder or a jetter pushes water through the pipe while someone watches the far end. Clay and straw come out as a slurry. A hand auger breaks up roots, and on a long run a small camera goes in to find the spot.
Some lines cannot be saved. Corrugated pipe that has been crushed by a truck or pulled apart by roots gets replaced with smooth-wall pipe, a cleanout at the house and a pop-up outlet at the low end of the yard. Smooth pipe stays clear longer, and with a cleanout the next flush takes minutes.
On a lake lot the line should end on your side of the Corps of Engineers boundary, and it should not dump straight down the bank. Water concentrated on a slope cuts a gully quickly. The installer will walk the yard with you and show where it can go.
Downspout repair
Above ground the failures are simpler. The bottom elbow gets crushed by a mower or a bumper and chokes the pipe to half its size. Straps pull out of the mortar. A section slips off the one above it and sprays the wall. An elbow at the top packs with straw where nobody can see it.
Each is a short job with matching parts, and worth doing before the wall behind it stays wet for a season.
Downspout installation, when a house needs one more
A long gutter with a downspout at only one end has to carry all its water the whole length, and in a hard storm it cannot. A fair rule is one downspout for every 30 to 40 feet of gutter, and more under a valley.
Adding one means cutting a new outlet, re-pitching the run so it drains both ways from a high point, and giving the new downspout somewhere to discharge. Going up a size helps as much as adding. A 3-by-4 downspout moves about twice the water of a 2-by-3.
Where the water should end up
Several feet from the foundation, on ground that falls away from the house, and not on the neighbor's side of the line. On a flat lot a splash block or a hinged extension is enough. On Hall County's sloped lots the usual answer is a buried line that comes to daylight lower in the yard.
If a crawl space smells damp or a basement wall weeps on the uphill side, the downspouts on that side are the first thing to check. When the gutters themselves are the problem, that is gutter repair.
Downspout and drain questions
Do buried downspouts get clogged?
Sooner or later, nearly all of them. Corrugated lines in clay soil under pines can close within a few years. Smooth pipe with a cleanout lasts much longer and can be flushed in minutes.
Who do you call for a clogged underground downspout?
A gutter company that carries a jetter and an auger. A plumber can clear one too, usually at a higher rate. Whoever comes should also look at why it clogged, which is often straw from the gutter above. Gutter cleaning in Gainesville.
What does it cost to clear a buried drain line?
A flush during a cleaning is the small number. Clearing a hard clog costs more, and replacing a crushed line is priced by the foot. Prices for flushing and replacing drain lines.