On Mar 13, 12:48*pm, RicodJour wrote:
On Mar 13, 11:58*am, "Alt.Home.Repair" wrote

I'm going to install plastic piping to route the water from the gutter down
spouts out to the street, to stop errosion problems.

How deep do I need to bury these pipes? I live on Long Island in NY so we do
freeze in the winter. Do I need to get below the frost line?


Some of the answer depends on slope. We have three buried drains at
our two year old house: one installed by gutter contractor and the
others by me. Installation method and pipe size depend on the length
of the run.

The gutter contractor basically routed one under a sidewalk. It is
about 10' long, it is buried about 18" deep and comes back up to the
surface with a pop-up. it uses standard 4" PVC drain pipe (lighter
than residential plumbing). On the end with the popup, the contractor
dug out about a 2' radius around and beneath the elbow (beneath the
popup). This area was filled with clean, 1" and larger gravel, and he
drilled three 3/8" holes in the bottom of the pipe. The grade between
the drain entry and popup end is very slight but it seems to work
well. The only issue has been getting grass growing around the popup
and I finally ringed the fitting with slab sandstone and seeded around
and between the stones. For information, we live in SE Kansas where
winter sub-freezing is common and sub-zero does happen. We also live
in a small, rural community without municipal drain restrictions.

The north side of our lot drops 7 feet in about 80 feet so we fought
rutting. We had problems getting grass going near the house so I
buried the two drains on that side of the house. Both are about 20'
long and they slope about 12" which provides good flow. Each of these
drains serve 4" x 3" downspouts. Since I had to pull a travel trailer
across one run, I used heavier 4" residential PVC. The runs couldn't
be more simple. At the downspout I used a standard 4" coupler which
allows the pipe to enter easily. At the foundation I buried about 12"
- 15" deep and installed an elbow, and then dug the trench to allow
the 18" slope (not a lot of digging because of the slope). With this
slope, I have no freezing concerns and I can easily poke a hose in the
open end if it ever gets plugged up (it hasn't yet). Also, on the
open end, I buried a standard concrete downspout slash block.... the
kind that is open on one end and ridged at the other end. I buried i
just below the pipe outlet WITH THE RIDGE FARTHEST FROM THE OUTLET.
This allows water to flow out of the pipe and sheet around the ridge,
reducing erosion. Yes you will have water standing in the splash
block but it evaporates. I also buried the splash block so the top is
at grade and I can drive the mower across it without problem. If you
have longer runs, you might want to consider larger pipe.

Worked for me. Your case might be different. And yes it does rain
here. We get 40+" per year and it is not unheard of to get 10% of
that in 1-2 hours of spring or fall rain.

RonB