Heath Robinson Water Butt

[diynoob]

The previous owner installed this bodge of a water butt. It's very annoying as the overflow often gets blocked and water floods onto the driveway. Also, I have fitted 2 water butts at the rear of the house near the garden so I don't need this one.

The overflow water travels several metres down a concrete gully into a drain like this:

Anyway, before I can do anything with the water butt I need to decide where to route the rain water. Is it permissible to just connect the rainwater downpipe to the grey wastewater pipe in the picture? I have a septic tank for waste water so perhaps that could end up flooding the septic tank or forcing me to have the septic tank emptied regularly?

Or I could fit a rainwater downpipe that runs to the concrete gully. It would still look a bit naff but would work more reliably than the current overflow.

Other ideas welcome. I'm struggling to understand why the builder didn't provision a rainwater down pipe when the roof was built.

 

[StephenStephen]

The easiest fix would likely be to replace the overflow with a larger pipe, but I can see why you may not want to have a large pile lying around...

 

[robinbanks]

You ought to install a soakaway, or take surface and foul water separately to the boundary of the property (if there isn't already a split sewer system available) before they are combined

A new downpipe may have been installed to feed that butt, on a gutter that will adequately drain to another downpipe it has elsewhere (you could remove the downpipe and clear the gutter), or the butt may have been installed over the top of the drain servicing the downpipe.

Do some more investigation and send us pictures that show more context; how far is that manhole from the downpipe, what does the entire gutter system look like etc

 

[Odds]

Is there an adaptor pipe you can fit to the downpipe and put into the barrel through a hole drilled in the side?

 

[robinbanks]

OP wants to remove the butt:

I don't need this [water butt].

 

[Odds]

 

[diynoob]

You ought to install a soakaway, or take surface and foul water separately to the boundary of the property (if there isn't already a split sewer system available) before they are combined

The setup around the rest of the house is fine, there are separate waste water and rainwater systems in place. As shown in the OP there are thick grey down pipes for waste that lead to a septic tank. For rainwater there are concrete gullies that lead to drains and in turn feed the rainwater to a nearby stream. There are 5 rainwater down pipes around the house that also feed into the steam. None of this is anywhere near the problematic water butt though.

So after removing the water butt, my options seem to be:

1. Connect the rainwater pipe to the grey waste water pipe. This is probably a bad idea as it may flood the septic tank.
2. Connect the down pipe to the concrete gully using proper down pipes rather than the white overflow pipe. This will still look a bit naff but at least it will look better and avoid the constant problems with the water butt flooding the drive.
3. Remove all the down pipe and guttering from this area. The rainwater will then run onto the concrete area and most of it should find it’s way to the gully and drain.

 

[Old Salt]

Remove the down pipe and replace that section of guttering so the water moves to one of the other down pipes.

 

[diynoob]

Remove the down pipe and replace that section of guttering so the water moves to one of the other down pipes.

Here’s some of the other rainwater downpipes. They all send water to the stream. They look professional and not done by the same person that bodged the water butt.



The gutter above the water butt is 7 feet high. The nearest rainwater down pipe is 31 feet away so it’s not going to work and/or will look silly trying to connect the two. Also there’s a greenhouse in the way.

 

[diynoob]

I'm thinking of removing the drainpipe, butt and overflow and adding a downpipe (grey lines) and extending the concrete gully (yellow lines). This will look neater and avoid the trip hazard and will direct the rain water to the nearby rainwater drain.



It's baffling that someone fitted 5 downpipes around the house that look great and flow into the stream, but in this section they fitted a gutter that doesn't lead anywhere. I'm suspicious about what was done when the butt was fitted. Perhaps there's a rainwater drain under the stone plinth that the butt is sat on?

 

[robinbanks]

Perhaps there's a rainwater drain under the stone plinth that the butt is sat on?

the butt may have been installed over the top of the drain servicing the downpipe.

 

[diynoob]

It does seem the most likely explanation @robinbanks I can’t see why someone would install guttering on that section of roof if there was nowhere for the water to go. It would have been better to just let the water run off the roof onto the concrete and down the gully. So (like you) I suspect the gutter and down pipe were correct and then some idiot tried to fit a water butt, but completely misunderstood how rainwater diverters work and bricked over the drain!