Help to Prevent Clogged Drainage

By Michael Martin

Poor rain water drainage can significantly damage your home or property. Identifying and correcting problems with your drainage system can keep your home protected from structural harm.

A good gutter system is designed to push water away from your home’s foundation and out to the street or other drainage area. But, gutters get clogged with leaves and other debris and become totally ineffective. Adding screens on gutters is the first step in preventing clogs, but debris still tends to enter the gutters, and over a period of time can still congest the drainage.

Investing in a good drainage system not only protects your house, but adds value to it. Also, some insurance companies give discounts on properly protected homes. Adding screens on gutters is a good step in the right direction, but it stops short of the total drainage system plan.

Removable downspouts and connections help to prevent clogged drainage, and can be added to any gutter drainage system. Rain water pushes debris towards the drain spout and a trap catches any debris. When the debris trap is full, simply remove the spout and flush it out. Because the spout is removable, it can be taken away from the house for cleaning without leaving a mess nearby.

If you have a two or three story house, removable downspouts can be handled from the ground, without the danger of climbing a ladder to clean the gutters. Simply detach the downspout from the wall mount at ground level, and pull it away from the gutter. After cleaning, push it back onto the gutter channel, and attach it back to the wall mount.

There are hundreds of systems designed to keep gutters from clogging, but none of them are perfect. The best solution is a combination of two systems: A screen covered gutter system, and removable downspouts. By combining these two methods, water flows freely through the gutter and any excess debris is caught and cleaned from the drainage spout, giving you overall rain drainage solution.