Do I connect downspouts to perforated or solid pipe running along the home's foundation to a discharge area?

Question

The pipe would be buried about 4ft from the edge of the foundation approximately 6 to 12 inches deep.

Answer 1

The downspouts should be run into a cement or plastic distribution onto the top of the ground and away from the foundation. Running them into a perforated pipe will cause a flooding in some cases.

Answer 2

Downspout Drain Pipe

Answer 3

Corrugated Perforated Pipe

Answer 4

No.
Solids such as grit from shingles, leaves, etc could plug up your foundation drains.

Roof downspouts could surcharge your foundation drain pipes and cause seepage into the foundation or basement walls. The perforated pipe is designed to let water drain into the pipe and away from the foundation, not to act like a leach field.

It is best to either drain the downspouts across the top of the soil away from the foundation or into a solid buried pipe that leads away from the house. (Also do not drain into sewers.)

Answer 5

Many water problems are resolved with time. When water is seeping into where it shouldn't be, it is caused by the inability of the soil to store it temporarily until it seeps into the ground. So, if you have high-clay content soil, for example, your ability to solve the water problem is limited.

I have a network of buried pipes that divert water to a large and deep area of inch-an-a-half stone. You probably don't need such an elaborate set-up. But you need to have a device that holds the water harmlessly while it has a change to get into the ground. Sand would come in handy. I have sand a foot below the surface, but because of a great deal of construction, it has been mixed. I have a small gutter-leader that I have dealt with using a buried five gallon pail full of rocks that has worked out well.

Answer 6

Depends upon your area. If you are in a dry climate, you could probably use the perforated drains to add moisture to your surrounding soil and keep your slab from cracking during droughts. If water stands around your ho use, use solid pipe and get the runoff far, far away from your house.

You can have the downspouts just empyting into a pile of gravel, too. That will break the water's flow and not flush away your beds or mulch.

Answer 7

Whenever you are trying to carry water from one discharge point to another, you should always use solid pipe. In your particular case, if you were to use perf pipe, water would leak from the pipe into the soils on the way to it's final discharge point. Those leaks would pick up bits of soil, possibly clogging the pipe (under certain circumstances), and eroding away everything around the pipe. Not to mention, if you have clay soils, every time it rains, you'd have a mushy area where the pipe ran.

Hope that helps.

Answer 8

Use solid pipe that is NOT connected to the house's foundation weeping system.

Connecting a downspout to the weeping tile is even probably against your building code.

A good pipe to use for moving away downspout water is 4" corrugated polyethylene pipe. It's cheap, very tough and flexible.

Answer 9

I would not recommend using perforated pipe. The water will leak out the holes back toward your foundation. It will cause serious problems in the future. It can lead to cracked walls or seepage between the walls and slab(floor). Remember they are poured in two separate pours.

Answer 10

If you are 4 feet away and your foundations, or footings are farily deep, it would likely not cause any problem to use perferated. However, it would be better if you were a few feet further out. You do not want to saturate the area with water. Your footings could sink in places and cause cracks in your footings.