Square downpipe end cap or plug

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Have a water butt in the garden but previous owners have installed it wrong. The downpipe that feeds the water butt stops 3 feet from the floor with no drain or grid at floor level causing it to overflows leak out of the water butt connection and drips down to the floor (decking) leaving green bacteria, algae etc.

I would like to reposition it to another down pipe with floor drainage or get rid altogether.... The problem....can I cap of existing downpipe? This will leave the pipe constantly full water so is there a better idea...maybe plug it at gutter level.



Thanks
 
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You could:
-leave the existing downpipe but run it straight into the water butt, then run an overflow (hosepipe would do it) from the butt to a drain
-and install a separate downpipe elsewhere on the gutter to take some of the water (you'd probably need to adjust the fall on the gutter)
 
Thanks, I would like to re position as currently it is on decking i am trying to bring back to life and oil.

Your first point makes sense but i would need around a 10m or slightly shorter length of hose for the overflow to nearest drain which gave me a few more questions...

1. Will the butt still fill with a metre piece of hose from downpipe to butt (I can re position it around the corner away from the refurbed decking?
2. Now this will give me a large length of house as stated above.
a. I can use brackets and attach it around an 'L' shaped wall to the drain running down at angle to help water flow....or
b. Run the overflow from the butt to the floor to take a direct route to drain. The hose can then be hidden under a gravel bed I will be doing at a later date.

Option b seems the best asthetically pleasing option but will the overflow have trouble reaching the drain along the floor?

Thanks
 
1. Will the butt still fill with a metre piece of hose from downpipe to butt (I can re position it around the corner away from the refurbed decking?
It would fill slowly, but unless it's a tiny roof, I wouldn't expect the hospipe to have enough capacity to cope, so the downpipe would backup and overflow - and you'd still have the problem of a downpipe full of water hanging off the gutter - not a good idea
2. Now this will give me a large length of house as stated above.
a. I can use brackets and attach it around an 'L' shaped wall to the drain running down at angle to help water flow....or
(as long as the hose doesn't at any point rise above the point where water is going into it, it wouldn't matter about the angle - it could run down to ground and up again, for example, but see my response above)
b. Run the overflow from the butt to the floor to take a direct route to drain. The hose can then be hidden under a gravel bed I will be doing at a later date.
Option b sounds like a good plan to me, if you put the overflow hose in a foot or two below the top of the butt, then there would be spare capacity to cope with any heavy downpours which would overwhelm the hose capacity

...unless you simply go the more orthodox route of putting the butt near the drain and using a standard water butt connector
 
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...unless you simply go the more orthodox route of putting the butt near the drain and using a standard water butt connector

Well yes, that would be my prefered choice as the water butt would be out the way from the main garden....but then i'm left with a downpipe ending 3ft off the floor with no drain. Water pouring all over decking.

Thanks for the advice.
 
...unless you simply go the more orthodox route of putting the butt near the drain and using a standard water butt connector

Well yes, that would be my prefered choice as the water butt would be out the way from the main garden....but then i'm left with a downpipe ending 3ft off the floor with no drain. Water pouring all over decking.

Thanks for the advice.
Yes - back to your original question!
...and I'd probably go with the orthodox solution, which would be to remove that downpipe from the gutter (replace with straight gutter section) and change the gutter fall (if needed) to your new downpipe position.
 

How easy would it be to add a straight section?

As you can see. The downpipe to the right of french doors is from the water butt which has been removed for now.

Behind the junk is another downpipe i want to position the water butt there once junk removed and i have sorted that part of the garden. (Its an extension previous owner had done which is wasted space really as not much sunlight etc so going to probably gravel and use it as storage are. Keter storage units etc).

I dont think the fall would need altering as that is the only downpipe running into a drain so water must fall in that direction already.
So, as you say adding a straight section could solve problem. How easy would this be?
 
I'm thinking aloud - I'm no expert.
I'm talking about removing the piece of gutter which forms the top of the downpipe, replacing it with a short piece of straight gutter.
I guess you'd need brackets under each of the joins. I've only done one guttering job at home here so don't know enough to say how hard it would be for you. You'd need to be safe and comfortable working at that height, apart from anything else.
Another option is to cut the downpipe off a little further up, and add a very gently sloping section of downpipe running round the corner to the butt and/or drain - that would also avoid creating new problems with downpipe capacity, and gutter fall in the wrong direction.
 

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