When it rains, water from your gutters should flow through the downspouts and away from your home. This drainage system is critical for a variety of reasons.
For starters, it helps keep your house’s foundation and basement dry, which prevents water damage and mold infestations on your property. Additionally, it prevents the water from pooling around your house, which can erode the soil and damage your lawns.
Ideally, a reliable drainage system should redirect the water at least 4 to 6 feet away from the house, which is where an extended gutter downspout comes into play.
Luckily, you can use a variety of downspout extension ideas to achieve these results, and in this guide, I’ll walk you through the 5 best ones.
1. Installing Downspout Extenders
Let’s start with one of the easiest methods to extend your downspout. The main advantage of this method is that it doesn’t require any digging or costly projects to achieve while providing remarkably decent results.
Besides its easy installation, downspout extensions are usually quite affordable and widely available, which also makes them easy to replace. You can also purchase them from your nearest hardware store or online from various vendors.
Downspout extenders are made from a variety of materials, but the most popular one is aluminum because it’s lightweight, easy to work with, and resists corrosion well.
To apply this method, you need to pick the adequate extender size and length depending on your gutter size and redirection requirements.
Next, you need to attach the extender to the downspout elbow and adjust the angle, then use screws to fix the combination. Some models come pre-crimped to make the attachment easier without any tools.
The main drawback of this method is that it sticks out, so it’s not the perfect choice if aesthetics and practicality are priorities to you.
2. Splash Guards
If you live in an area where it doesn’t rain often and you only want the redirected water to flow naturally into the soil without eroding it, you might want to go for splash guards.
These blocks are designed so that they’re wider on one end and have a slight slope, allowing the flowing water to disperse through the guard before it reaches the soil.
The most common material used for splash guards is concrete, but you can also find commercial ones made from plastic and resin. You only need to place these guards beneath the downspout, and they should redirect the water away from your house right away.
Since you don’t need to attach them to the gutter, they’re also remarkably easy to work with and work well if you don’t want to drill holes in the downspout elbow.
They’re also small in size and have a covert design, so they can easily blend with the lawn if you want to hide them.
However, as you can see, these splash guards are not meant to redirect the water too far. Instead, it’s only designed to prevent pooling near the house foundation in drier areas.
3. Rainwater Collectors
If you’re all about sustainability and follow a zero-waste lifestyle, this one might be exactly what you’re looking for.
As the name suggests, this method, also known as rainwater harvesting, involves using a container to collect rainwater and use it for other outdoor purposes, such as watering your plants and/or cleaning.
To apply this method, you simply need the downspout to pour directly into a barrel or other collecting reservoir. This is a fairly simple technique, but it’s not perfect, as it comes with a few caveats.
For starters, while rainwater harvesting is legal in most states, there are some states that prohibit or regulate it, such as Illinois, Colorado, Arkansas, Nevada, and Utah, so you need to check your local laws to make sure that it’s legal to harvest rainwater where you live.
Additionally, no matter how big the barrel you’re using, it’s not infinite. In other words, you need to monitor the level of water in the barrel and make sure that you empty the barrel through use or disposal.
Lastly, depending on the length of your downspout, you might need to do some modifications to the gutter system. These may include cutting or attaching redirectors.
4. Stealth Flow Pipes
These pipes are typically made of ABS plastic, which is incredibly sturdy and resistant to various elements, including chemicals and sunlight.
After attaching these pipes to the downspout, you can easily adjust them (thanks to their flexible corrugated design) to redirect the water in any direction you like.
The pipes typically have small holes that allow the water to gradually disperse into the soil near the end, which prevents erosion and keeps the water away from the foundation.
The design of the pipes also allows for easy hiding, as you can dig up a small trench so that they lie flat to the ground, and you can easily cover them with shrubs or soil, hence the name.
5. Buried Drain Pipes
Lastly, if you’re looking for a long-term solution and you don’t mind the elbow grease, you should consider using buried drain pipes. It’s also the ideal solution if you want the optimal curb appeal and cover any signs of downspout redirection.
For this project, you’ll need to dig a trench that is a bit deeper than the Stealth Flow Pipes method. The trench should also go deeper as you get away from the downspout.
After that, you’ll install the pipes fit them to the downspout, and make sure that there are no leaks.
At the other end of the pipe, you’ll need to fit it into a dry well with a popup emitter so that the water can be dispensed as far from your house as you like.
Final Thoughts
There you have it! A brief guide that walks you through 5 of the best ways to extend your downspout.
As you can see, these methods vary in terms of simplicity, curb appeal, and budget required, so you can follow what suits you best!