Clearing downpipe/gutters

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I live in a relatively new house (about 12 years old) and i think the gutters and/or downpipes are at least partially blocked. Owned the house for 3 years so can honstly say I havent been near them in this timescale.

We also have tall trees near our house so think its pretty likely we do have issues.

I think they are partly flowing but restricted as when there is really heavy rain I often notice "stuff" around the downpipes, but with light rain nothing.

I took a quick look at the downpipe thinking I would take it out for a look, but unlike previous ones I have owned it seems to go below ground level as a solid piece. Is this a thing now? If so then the only option I guess is to unblock from above. Doesnt sound fun.

I have noticed you can get inspection pieces now for downpipes and wonder if this is a result of the hastle?

Any thoughts or anything?

Oh last thing I stumbled across a biological unblocker that looks interesting. Says throw them on the roof and they will do their thing. Sounds a bit like snake oil but could be worth a punt? Anyone seen/used similar?

https://www.houseofbath.co.uk/shop/....ds#colour:,size:&CAWELAID=120121180001470579

 

[DXP55]

Sounds like a ladder job to me -- Does your roof suffer from Moss - if so that could also be a problem - I have unblocked gutters that have been full of the bloody stuff - right PITA. -If the gutters and pipe are blocked don't let it go on as overflowing gutters and pipes lead to bigger problems.

 

[PikeyPriest]

We had a local company that used a telescopic water jet to clear the gutter. Hard to know if it was the downpipes that were causing issues or not, but much better after. We have a town house and I didn’t fancy using a ladder.

 

[psd99]

get on top of a ladder and get a rod to push through the downpipe once you've opened it somewhere with a bit of force.
perhaps open it at the top somewhere and before it goes into the ground so that you've cleared that part of the downpipe.

be prepared for a very messy job
wear gloves if you can, they'll be all sorts of debris in there like moss, leaves, mud, dirt etc

what material is it?

probably plastic I hope, it goes through the ground? maybe you got a drain for rainwater underneath? Or it could just be a soakaway.

 

[peterwalkley]

my house is similar age to yours. The pipes butt down to the ground at the bottom, but not into the ground itself. They seem to sit on drain filter covers. You could try loosening the clips a bit to see if you have have wiggle room to check for muck at the bottom.

If that doesn't work its definitely a ladders job. I tend to wuss out as I don't have ladders and don't fancy doing it either. I wave extra money at my window cleaner since I trust the guy and its always cheaper than getting someone out.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Great thanks guys. In 30 years of houses i have never got to the point of needing to do gutters, just lucky I guess.

I don't own any ladders, so would either need to buy or hire. I can hire for £1 as have access to a staff discount on hire company but they dont like supplying ladders, they prefer towers and thats hastle as ground is uneven in part. Maybe i could force the ladders angle but I think they want to avoid any risk of bad press so tend to reject requests for ladders.

I am pretty sure i will need to do this so I guess maybe I should just buy a set. I am not massively against heights, so considering the trees near us are big, and they shade the front from April-Oct approx I would be very surprised if we dont have moss issues, along with leaves etc. The birds clear the gutters at times, looking for grubs i suppose, but suspect this loosening up they do may have meant that after a decent rainstorm it all washed to the downpipe in a big pile and blocked it partially.

Yes its a plastic pipe. It definately goes below surface level. I will try digging down a little, it has to join something somewhere I guess. The front one is surrounded by shingle thats moved a bit due to I believe the water escaping around the top join and running down the outside of the pipe, this is probably 2-3 inches deep and the pipe continues past this depth.

 

[AKAK]

It may only be blocked at the top as mine was. Got a 3 way fold ladder from Lidl which is pretty handy but not long enough to reach from the ground level.

 

[balls]

Recently did mine while we had scaffolding up at the front. Downpipes all had what looked like scourers acting as a filter to stop them getting blocked. Scraped as much sludge/moss out to start with and then ran water from a hose to flush through the remainder.