Advice Needed: How to Move Rainwater Away from This Small Building???

Geekomatic on 04/05/2015 - 00:46

I am currently renting a house & the granny flat behind it for my work. On the same property as the flat, is a sizeable "studio" which would suit me better. The owner is fine with me leasing out the flat & fencing around the studio for my own use. The flat's property is also higher than the house's- with the studio floor actually a small step below grade.

The issue has been water seeping in last winter (I'm in WA). The owner came to "fix" the roof & flashing by raising the pitch & sealing the trims- & it seems that the water from the original leaking has stopped. (The water was getting under the flashing, falling between the brick cavity, & then seeping inside where the walls meet the cement pad).

Now, I have no good way I can think of to route the roof's water away from this building. The roof pitches front to back where there's a gutter & single downspout to a small barrel. But, the water runs in faster than the single hose can let it out (I have it going towards the centre of the lawn/mulch area).

The location of the building is what has me thwarted: large trees around it, some cut but the old roots will still be there…was thinking of buying & burying a perforated cement tank to hold the water but figure I'd need TNT to do it. In addition to that, there's only a small area between this building & the neighbours fence. It's an area that never gets much sun & I'm afraid of rising damp if the water is let to over-flow the barrel every other day.

I've uploaded a drawing so you get a better idea of the problem. The owner is a good guy- & yes, you'd think he'd be at least as interested in this as his tenant is, but he lives 80 KM away & works 6-7 days a week. I think he'd help if I could come up with some sort of plan. I'm just out of my depth here…

Any contractors/plumbers/civil engineers here??

Really bad "plan" drawing here:

http://imgur.com/GXqwUTW

Ta in advance. :)

Home & Garden

Comments

  • moksha on 04/05/2015 - 11:39

    Could this stuff help?

    http://www.bunnings.com.au/grunt-155mm-x-25m-100-gauge-tempo…

  • Geekomatic on 04/05/2015 - 13:58

    I'm trying to find a way to route the water once it's down the pipe…It doesn't show in the drawing I uploaded, but the rear corner of the studio gutter is about 3 meters from the main house gutter. I was thinking if I could somehow route over to there, I could move at least "some" of the water to the existing drainage system here, to take the load off of the hose/barrel.

    I'm totally grasping at straws, I know. I've tried ringing multiple ads in the paper (who all say "no job too small"), but they either never ring back or just don't ever show up (job is actually too small?).

    Hoping I'm not the first person with such an issue here?

    Thanks for the reply!!

  • Geewhizz on 05/05/2015 - 06:32

    How wide is the area beside the shed? Enough to comfortably walk behind there?

    If so, and if the ground is level, or sloped downward in the direction that your hose goes, you could bury 90mm pvc pipe to take the water away. It could either be attached to your current downpipe if it is also PVC, or by using a stormwater pit. I guess in theory you could probably get an adaptor that would fit it to your current barrel if you wanted to keep that instead of using a pit.

    Edit: Is that the main house on the other side of the purple fence? If so, would the owner be open to the idea of putting in another downpipe at that end of the studio, with a view to taking it the 3 m to the gutter you've mentioned?

    • Geekomatic on 05/05/2015 - 17:17

      The area is about six feet to the fence & yes, the main (my) house is just on the other side of the fence. There's only about eight feet between my house & the fence. The main house has a path running from the left-hand carport up & around to the back. So, with a panel removed from the current colourbond, you could simply walk through, turn right, turn left & enter the studio. I'm undecided how to erect a decent, cheapish temoporary fence— which is mainly going up to give myself & the occupant of the flat (once I let it out) some privacy.

      Current downpipe is rectangular metal. I have no idea where my main house's water is actually routed? I know I hear the water running down during rain, but as to the location— how can I find this out? Is there a way? I'm sure the owner wouldn't know, as he doesn't know a lot of things. I believe he simply bought it as investment & that was it.

      I'm thinking that I need to move the water away, but not with enough force to flood anything out. It may work with perforated pipe, assuming I don't hit continuous tree roots…

      Thanks for the ideas- very appreciated. On the other side of the coin, I'm also considering moving to a home that has an extra room at the entry for use as my office…still tossing up whether it's worth the money to do so at this point.

      Ta

  • outlander on 18/05/2015 - 13:12

    AG pipe
    cheap, long, will blend in. Connect it to down pipe, run it along the side of the house and discharge behind it. If its a lot of water, maybe connect the end to some buried perforated pipe. I wouldn't be going to too much effort for someone elses property.

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