Rain Diverting From a Distance

[Simeon]

I have a double garage and the front and rear downpipes are on the left, yet there is an ideal space on the right of the garage to place a water butt. Ideally I don't want to have pipes running along the garage walls at half height which is the height of my water butt but I'm not agianst running it along the soffits. Does anybody have a solution?

[buildersmate]

A more elegant solution would be to redrill the brackets that hold the gutter to slope the other way, and reposition the downpipes on the other side? Set the guttering slope to 1:200 (or more). Get the support brackets aligned right by fixing the ends ones using the 1:200 rule, then and run a taut length of string between the two ends. That helps find the right position for the intermediate brackets to ensure the slope of the gutter is uniform all the way along. HTH.

[Simeon]

The garage downpipes go into the main drain system so by moving the downpipes they would drain onto the ground. I have seen on american web sites where the rainwater can be diverted using a manual valve which fits inline into the downpipe. When the water butt requires a top up the valve can be switched over and once full can be switched back to drain as normal. Are they available here?

[WendyS]

Yes, you can buy rainwater diverter devices here in the UK which will divert water to your water butt until full and then divert it back into the pipe & to drain away. My husband recently bought one over the internet, not sure where from, but you could try the Sankey website (they make water butts) or try Googling "rainwater downpipe diverter kits". Alternatively a good builders merchants or B & Q may be able to supply what you're looking for.