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Enlarged downspouts

This blury picture shows how downspouts can be improved.

There are four parts to an enlarged downspout. They are the: funnel, elbows or offsets, main stick of downspout, leaftrap (if going into an underground drain) and square to round converte (interface from downspout to round drain pipe). If you are running the water into the landscape, then you don't need the leaf trap, nor the square to round, but you do need an elbow near the base and anywhere from 2 to 6 feet of downspout to get the water away from the foundation.

The funnel is modified using tin snips to interface to the gutter. An enlarged whole is cut in the gutter which opens the downspout top hole size from (previous 2 - 4.25 sq inches) to the new size of 2 inchs by 6 inches (12 square inches). Which is about 300% larger. This makes a big difference. I've never seen one of my improved enlarged downspouts actually plug up.

Attached to the gutter at the top is a funnel which provides for an enlarged downpout opening that prevents plugging. The pine needles and other plant debris travel down the large shallow angle/elbow/offset pieces and fall through the long downspout where they hit the leaf trap (about 2 feet off the ground).

The leaf trap has a galvanized mesh that washes out the plant debris and lets the water go down the drain. The leaf trap allows plant matter to go down the downspout but prevents it from plugging the drain because the debris washes out the leaf trap and only water and very fine material goes into the drain. This saves future expense of having someone come out and unplug an underground drain.

Improving downspouts is a great option when you cannot install gutter filters and the your downspouts plug frequently.

When gutters slope towards the downspout, it causes unimproved downspouts to plug quickly because leaves and other debris wash over the downspout openings soon. So this type of gutter and downspout situation benefits most from improved enlarged downspouts.

Older folks with basements also benefit from improved downspouts since they are not able to clean out downspouts in the middle of the pouring rain to keep their basements from flooding.

If your downspouts spill water from your roof onto the ground by the foundation, then your foundation may rot or crack as the ground becomes wet and settles disportionately.

For a list of available colors of sheet metal for downspouts or downspout strainers, click on colors. Sorry about the flash and poor quality for now. Hope to get better picture soon.

This is a single story enlarged downspout with a double opening at the top. The top opening catches water from the top short gutter and funnels it into the lower funnel to go down the downspout. This keeps both sections of gutter from overflowing. The lower front gutter empties directly out the end into the funnel. You can imagine how messy this was before when water would shoot down the valley of the roof into a plugged gutter and cascade over the edge.