I've got a downspout at the front corner of my house, right over the garage, that empties into a narrow flower bed squeezed between the garage and the concrete walkway leading to the front door. I assumed the builder would have thought ahead and run an extension underneath the walkway before the concrete went down, but since my house was built in 2007, that's not an option. I've looked at a few solutions but haven't found a perfect fit. For instance, the roll-up extensions I found are only 4 feet long, but I need about 6 feet to reach the grass on the other side of the concrete. While there are catch basins with extenders, they would leave a rigid hose across the walkway, which is a dealbreaker for me in that spot. The best fix seems to be to run an auger under the concrete, install a rigid pipe, and then fill it in with concrete to avoid cracking, but that sounds pricey. Am I missing something? I currently have a splash block that just dumps water onto the walkway, which I think could erode the concrete or the earth underneath. The home inspector mentioned spalling, probably from the water damage. Any good solutions out there?
2 Answers
It's actually not too late to fix this! It can be easier than you'd think to route a pipe under that walkway. You might even get away with using just a strong jet of water to make it happen!
If the soil is soft enough, you can bore a hole under the concrete. A 4" S&D pipe is great for this; it leads to a pop-up emitter, so you won't have to worry much about cracking. You can totally do this yourself!
I don’t know what an S&D pipe is or a pop-up emitter. Is there a specific tool I’d need to bore under that concrete? I’m worried about it cracking.