How to stop gutter overflow in heavy rain?

Missskybird

Whenever we have heavy rain of any sort our awning gutter overflows and creates a huge mess under our awning.

We do regularly clean it but it seems to make little difference.

I think the problem is;

- the width of the pipe is too small to cope with the volume of water

- the length of pipe before the bend that leads to the down pipe is too short

Any advice as to how to remedy the situation would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

EricL

Hello @Missskybird

Thank you for sharing your question about how to stop the gutter overflow. Has it been happening often or has this only recently occurred? There are a number of reasons you get gutter overflow. One of them is the gutter drains are blocked by leaves and debris. It's great that you've been regularly cleaning your gutters, so we can rule that cause out. The other reason is that the leaves have flowed down the gutter pipe and are now blocking or slowing down the water. When the water slows down you get a water build-up in the gutter. Water is still being drained but at a much slower rate. 

One method of clearing your downpipe is to push your garden hose down the downpipe itself. I recommend removing any and all fittings at the end of the hose. Your goal is to clear out the pipe and make sure you have good fast drainage. Push and pull the garden hose while it's on to make sure that all the debris is cleared out of the downpipe.

However, if you still get overflow issues, your only other option is to add another drain point in your gutter. I suggest using a larger pipe diameter say 100mm instead of 90mm to get maximum drainage. 

If you have any other questions we can help with, please don't hesitate to post them. 

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric