Draining a roof valley


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Old 06-19-17, 12:01 PM
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Draining a roof valley

Hi All,

My house is built off grade. I'll reference the attached photos. The satellite photo shows the location of the valley I want to drain (red arrow) and where to drain to (green arrow which is my drive way that slopes to the street). Due to a gas line and other issues creating an underground type of drainage system in the side yard shown in Photo 2 is not doable. The house was built in 1941 and has never had gutters. Clearly it has survived. However, the crawl space is getting musty and the brick wall between the foundation piers, blocked from view in picture by plants is showing signs of compromise. The third photo is just another angle and shows how the water is to drain.

My idea is to remove the plants and build a raised bed that I will line with pond liner. Fill the bed with gravel and direct the drainage to a pipe that exits the bed and drains onto the driveway. I measure flow off the valley in a decent rain and it was running at about 5 gallons per 40 seconds. Is this a stupid idea? Suggestions? Could also do a barrel type of arrangement. The graven is to hide the pipe and cut back on splashing.

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Old 06-19-17, 12:23 PM
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What's wrong with gutters, downspouts and extensions?
 
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Old 06-19-17, 12:31 PM
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Your plan will work... just depends how much work you want to go to.
 
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Old 06-19-17, 12:32 PM
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It occurred to me...

That you might suggest gutters. I do not have a good place to drain them and the amount of pine needles and other debris that accumulate in the valley and thus in the gutters. Just want to avoid them.
 
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Old 06-19-17, 12:40 PM
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There are gutter brands and aftermarket covers you can put on gutters these days to eliminate the needles getting in. Do what you want, it's your house but your plan sounds like a lot of unnecessary work to me.
 
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Old 06-19-17, 02:04 PM
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Thank you. I am all for less work but my doubts... When there is a strong rain the water comes out off that valley at a serious force. Will the valley runoff deflectors really be effective or is there some other way to reduce the run-off force? See picture #2 below. Is ending the gutter that close to the valley a problem?
 
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Old 06-19-17, 02:17 PM
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This could alleviate my concern on the roof valley overshooting.

What do you think? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Fp6wEnlXk
 
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Old 06-19-17, 03:16 PM
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That's normally how it's done. Use 3x4 downspouts and needles will be less of a problem. Cleaning a gutter is not that hard... once or twice a year. A short piece like that might take a minute if you include going to the garage to get the step ladder.
 
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Old 06-20-17, 09:34 AM
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Thanks. So far the consensus seems to be that my original idea would work but is far more trouble than necessary. There certainly is not too much cost and work to try the gutter and downspout with extension route. Guess I just needed to have some you you tell me that.
 
 

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