Waterbutt diverter question

[cristalfiona]

Hi all,

I tried to connect my water butt up earlier, but discovered that it won't work with a standard diverter as they are all designed to connect two parts of a drainage pipe. My pipe is attached to the guttering on my garage and stops about 1ft below it - water would just flow out of the bottom as it does at the moment, but with a useless diverter attached the the bottom end. Does anyone know if I would be able to get a diverter with a base so that water would automatically go into the water butt?

I've tried to find one online but as the pictures all just show the diverters side-on it's impossible to see if they're what I want.

[Bigmallly]

Ho Fiona, let me get the picture first. You want to divert water from your garage roof into a water butt. Your current drainpipe is about a foot long. If so what you need to do is:
a) Mark a line from your inlet on your water butt & project the line onto the garage, that's the height at which your diverter fits.
b) Run a length of drainpipe to the diverter from the gutter, fit the diverter then run another length from the diverter down to the outlet.
It does not matter about the hole in the bottom of the drainpipe as water will only run out of it when your water butt is full, so whilst ever you have room in your water butt, water will not run out of the bottom of the pipe. I hope that makes sense.

[Chippy Minton]

You could put the water butt so the downpipe goes directly into it, no need for a diverter?

[Bigmallly]

You could put the water butt so the downpipe goes directly into it, no need for a diverter?

Yep, then just run an overflow pipe out of some hosepipe.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I collect rainwater from a 12ft x 8ft pent shed using solvent weld over flow pipe which works well enough. If your worried about over flow from the butt you could always fit another pipe to carry away the excess water,

[Chippy Minton]

I love that last picture ^^^^^ That's UK weather that is....

[spamvindaloo]

I'm not sure if I've got this right, but your downpipe is only 1' long?

I'd just buy a full length of downpipe (not expensive) and cut it where you want the diverter to go. That's what I did when I fitted the guttering to my shed and it's kept the water butt filled up and any excess then goes down the lower section of downpipe.

[cristalfiona]

Yes - I think the guttering was fitted by the DIY genius who lived in my house before me. Water just flows out of the bottom of the short length of drainpipe and floods that part of the garden. My aim eventually is to knock down the whole garage and get a proper one built, but that's a few years down the line. The concrete flooring there means I can't really do much with it in the meantime.

Putting the waterbutt directly underneath the downpipe would unfortunately block the window (DIY genius again), so it ideally needs to sit off to one side. I think based on the above my best option is to get a longer length of downpipe and treat it as if it was a normal one. My next question is, barring a lucky skip find in the near future, where from? I though B&Q but their website hasn't yielded any results.

[Potstubsdustbins]

If its cast iron forget it, it is available but you will need a bank loan.

If its plastic your local plumbers merchant should be able to help, they will need the diameter of the RWP.

[Bigmallly]

Depending on the diameter of your current fittings:


Page 3 | Search results | DIY at B&Q

[spamvindaloo]

I got mine from Wickes:

Wickes Black Roundline Downpipe Length 2000mm | Wickes.co.uk

They have other sizes

[Potstubsdustbins]

It all depends on diameter Wickes B&Q etc only keep metric sizes if it's imperial that's no good.

[cristalfiona]

Thank you, not sure why that didn't come up on my search. I'll measure it and find out if what they have matches what's already there. And it's plastic - I didn't realise there were other options!!

[Potstubsdustbins]

Normal diameter for domestic use is 68mm but there are other sizes.

You might consider sticking a 'shoe' on the bottom of the pipe to save damaging the garage wall.