Pool deck drain question

[Michelle30276]

We are having our deck poured next week. There will be concrete decking continued to pool from existing slab. We are trying to figure out the best way to address the downspouts on our home that face the pool. I believe they are 12 feet away. Our PB is suggesting a deck drain to run across to prevent water from coming towards the house. We are trying to decide if this drain would be suffice to handle the water from the two downspouts. I am attaching a photo, with a (sad) sketch of the proposed drain location.

 

[Nectarologist]

The best thing would be to run it underground and terminate in a pop-up head somewhere (looks like the side yard would be an option in the photo). Use the NDS website to calculate what you need for a channel drain. You need to run the channel drain somewhere too so why not just run the gutter into the ground and away, right? This way you don't have a channel drain to repair down the road. Resources Do it right the first time. It won't cost much if any more to do it right. The calculator on the website will let you know what's needed.

Sorry, just saw the downspout to the rear. Do a small channel drain there (assuming you don't want to dig up the concrete and tie it to the downspout that would run into the ground (far one in picture). My feeling is the less channel drain the better. For looks, needing to clear debris out of crevice edges and repair at a later date.

 

[Brentr]

OP I urge you to get your builder to put in interior deck drains. These are dedicated lines designed to move water away from the house underground. The channell drains are not designed to move lots of water. Please have him put those in also. I am posting pics of my interior dec drains so you can show it to your PB. Hope this helps

 

[chrisntam]

Yes, tie the downspouts into 4 inch underground drain. You may have to pop a hole in the patio deck to get the foreground downspout to the underground drain. Also suggest deck drains.

 

[shanebo]

I agree that dedicated underground/underdeck drains would be best to handle runoff from the downspouts. But it looks like you might need a channel drain anyway -- from your pic, it looks like your existing deck slopes away from your house, while your yard and new deck will slope toward it, creating a "V" right at the joint. Might be best to listen to your PB on this one ... just get a larger channel drain and tie the rear downspout directly into it.

 

[Dirk]

As others have suggested, that downspout in the background should dump into a drain line that moves the water away from your decking, out into your yard, away from the house and foundation. The channel drain could tie into that.

Depending on the roof configuration, you might be able to re-route the water that is coming down the foreground spout to the roof that is draining to the background downspout. You could then eliminate the foreground downspout and solve for that one that way. If you can't "combine" the roofs that way, you might be able to re-route the downspout itself, up above or under the eves, etc, to connect to the other downspout. Not ideal, but might be better than running that water across the deck and into a channel drain...

Just another way, for you to consider...

 

[jimim]

i also would be tieing those 2 into underground 4 inch pipe and then also tie in deck drains to those. i would rip that concrete pad out to get them undergound if i had to.

 

[Dirk]

If my "overhead idea" can't work...

I just snuck a 2" PVC pipe under a 4' sidewalk. With a little creativity, I bet you could cut out (drill out?) the concrete just under that foreground spout, and then get at that hole by tunneling under the slab and pushing through a 2.5" or 3" PVC pipe. Then run the spout into that. I'd try that first before ripping out the slab. If the slab is laying on sand, it's actually pretty easy to do. Not sure how easy it would be to punch that hole though the slab, though, so close to the wall.

I can describe the process better if you need, and want to go that route...

 

[PoolguyinCT]

You also want roof run off away from that liner pool & any grades that will let it go under the decking.