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I am trying to keep the gutters working at two houses. My daughters place needs cleaning once a month because the lots on all three sides, left, right, and in back, are pretty overgrown. Due to as some health problems, it's not so easy. I did hers about a week ago, and she said, during a heavy rain, the water is running over the side of the gutter. I'm wondering, if we all get some of this in the gully washers we get here in Puna . What say others? Do your gutters overflowing heavy rains, even when cleaned? if
Jon in Keaau/HPP
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Once my catchment is full I remove the valve cover at ground level just before the the water goes up the pipe and into the catchment. If I don't, we get a waterfall. With the valve open, no problem.
Certainty will be the death of us.
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11-24-2020, 04:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-25-2020, 11:32 PM by birdmove.)
I don't have one at my house. My daughters place does. I think it's a "knockout plug"? Like a cap with a large square in the center for a wrench.
Jon in Keaau/HPP
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That's the one. You can install one if the overflowing gutters are a problem. Get a tee pipe and the plug and glue it into the line. They have them at ACE. I don't even use a wrench to take off the cap. Screwing it in hand tight works fine.
Certainty will be the death of us.
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We have a doughboy catchment. And our gutters are always clear (no trees near the house) and yes they do overflow when it rains heavily for long periods of time. We had the pool cleaner drill a large hole on the side of our catchment up close to the top and attached pvc piping so the water would travel away from the catchment before ever getting near the top. I have little faith in those vacuum pvc overflow pipes.
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One side of our roof has a single downspout in the center. The other side of the house has one on each corner. When it rains heavy, the single downspout side will overflow over the gutter if the heavy rain lasts more than a few minutes, regardless of how clean the gutters are.
I've never thought about disconnecting the valve cover.
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I tried leaving the cap off the end of the section that serves as my first flush device when I took a trip to the mainland and didn't need the water. Also since there was no longer any water exiting the overflow it no longer got periodically flushed. When I next checked the system I was horrified to discover that my entire catchment piping system had become a superhighway for slugs. After cleaning and sterilizing everything as best I could I put the cap back on the first flush section and tie-wrapped window screen over the outlet of the overflow so slugs could not enter.
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Oh my. That's good to know. I take the cap off during a big rain and put it back on when it's over. Actually, I'm going to go out and put it back on right now!
Certainty will be the death of us.
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Went over to daughters place tests day, and, sure enough, though the gutters weren't too bad, the metal mesh bulbs is hat go into the gutters at each downspout were covered. Looked like albezia leaves, which are quite small. Cleaned both bulbs again.
Jon in Keaau/HPP
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I've never tried them, but they seem like they would work. I have found that the other types of gutter guards still need to be cleaned.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/GutterBrush-.../308837764
