Plumber Tips: Reasons Behind Downspout Issues You Should Know | Atlanta, GA
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Downspouts are critical in protecting your home from the dangers of excessive water, such as outdoor floods and water damage. The downspouts are vertical pipes that direct rainwater to the drains during the rainy season. They come in different shapes, such as square, round, and rectangle.
A plumber can install the downspouts in multi-story buildings or flats to take water to the ground floor when cleaning. While plumbing pipes and fixtures are mostly indoors or underneath the ground, downspouts are outside your home and can be problematic to your yard and the foundation of your building.
Without a downspout in your Atlanta, GA home, water will land close to the perimeters of your house or the foundation, causing multiple issues that can be preventable by a qualified or certified plumbing professional. Here are some of the downspout problems in homes and their causes.
Disconnected or Broken Downspouts
When the spouts are stressed or damaged, you will notice water dripping down around the foundation. A wet foundation is prone to cause sweating walls and severe damages to your basement.
What can make downspouts break? This might be the question in your mind at this moment. Aluminum downspouts can curl, crack, dent, or chip at the edges as time goes by. Galvanized steel downspouts are susceptible to rust and crack, leading to leakages to the ground. You will notice there is a problem when there are leakages whenever it rains, an indication that replacements are necessary as soon as possible by a professional.
Clogged Downspouts
Another problem you might encounter in your home is blocked downspouts that will make rainwater overflow back to them over gutters, pouring down and out to drain in the soil around and under the foundation. The clog is due to debris and dirt in the system. Animal droppings, leaves, twigs, roofing granules, and stones are other examples of things that can obstruct the downspouts system. Large particles can create a clog once they enter the pipe, but smaller ones will accumulate over time to make a noticeable blockage. Without regular maintenance by a skilled plumber from a reputable plumbing company, the clog will be a matter of when and not if it happens. The blockage will prevent water from the gutters from flowing to the drainage system on the ground.
How will you tell that the downspouts are clogged should also be something of interest to you, and they include:
Overflowing Gutters
The overflowing water passing over and not through the round or rectangular downspouts is the first sign of a blockage. If the clog is worse, the water overflows your entire gutter, evidence of a lot of dirt in the system. Having a plumber fix the problem after the rains stop is crucial to saving your foundation, basement, and home from water damage.
Failure to address the overflowing gutter issue by cleaning the downspout to remove the debris, the wood supporting the gutters will rot, leading to more replacement and installation payments to a plumber in Atlanta, GA. The professional might also recommend replacing the soffits, shingles, and fascia.
Weak Runoffs
The second indicator of an obstruction in the downspouts is weak runoff. If you notice a minor trickle in the downspouts when the rains are moderate, there is an obstruction in the system that will need urgent services of a plumbing professional to clear out.
The expert will use state-of-the-art tools, knowledge, and skills to identify the clogged part and remove the dirt or objects causing the obstruction.
Leaking Around the Seams
The third indication of a blocked downspout is leaking near the seams. When the downspouts block, rainwater fails to pass through the drains and starts leaking at the seams. The water stuck in the downspout leads to disconnection at the seams, causing the leakage.
A plumber can fix the seam after unclogging the round, square, or rectangular downspout. The professional might recommend you get seamless downspouts from renowned companies to avert seam leaking problems and protect the wooden structures of the house.
Leaking Gutter Outlet
Another sign to analyze is the leakage from the gutter outlet, which is the meeting point between the downspout and the gutter. A trained plumber installs the outlet by cutting a hole in the gutter for peak performance of the system. So, when you see a leakage at the outlet, it is without a doubt that the downspout has a clog and needs cleaning. The hired plumbing professional clears the obstruction and might suggest you become keen on maintenance.
Insufficient Size
The downspouts a plumber installs in your home should be of an appropriate size to handle any amount of rainwater coming from the gutters. When you have small downspouts in your house, you will have issues of clogs due to leaves and objects washed from the roof and water filling your basement because of overflowing or leaking water. The length of the downspouts also matters because short ones are inefficient in taking water directly to the drains without leakages.
So, get a plumber to install underground downspouts with pop-up units to efficiently direct rainwater to the drains and away from your home’s foundation. They will also prevent soil erosion in your yard, which increases the soil moisture to higher levels, posing a threat to your building.
The best way to protect your foundation will be to make your foundation waterproof during construction. The underground downspouts also prevent water from the basement. The water can enter through the cracks in the wall and the windows in case of a clog.
Here to Address Your Needs!
You should have a gutter system, which consists of the downspouts and gutters, cleaned and maintained at least twice annually by a plumber from the reputable Peach Plumbing & Drain in Atlanta, GA.
We are a locally-owned and operated company offering punctual, prompt, and reliable plumbing services to meet our customer’s needs. Our plumbing technicians are certified and licensed and available all round the clock for emergency issues.