Downspouts & Extensions · Kitchener
Downspout Installation and Extensions in Kitchener
A downspout is where everything the eavestrough collected becomes someone's problem. The whole point of the design is to make sure that someone is not your basement or your neighbour.
Most eavestrough complaints in Kitchener are really downspout complaints. A trough that overflows in heavy rain usually has too few outlets, not too small a trough. A wet basement corner usually has a downspout discharging at the foundation. A dispute with the neighbour usually has an elbow pointed at their side yard. The trough collects; the downspout decides.
Where the water is allowed to go
The City of Kitchener's guidance is plain: ideally two metres of open space below the downspout, discharging onto grass or garden, and not toward neighbouring properties, walkways or parks. The Region of Waterloo's Sewer Use By-law 21-036 prohibits roof and storm water in the sanitary sewer. And Ontario's guidance on surface water makes clear that water you have collected in a trough carries an obligation to release it without harming the property downhill. Put together, that is the design brief for every downspout on the house: your lot, your lawn, well out from the wall.
Placement on a real lot
- Narrow side yards. On the close-set postwar lots in Stanley Park and Forest Heights a side-yard downspout has nowhere to discharge that is not within a metre of the neighbour. The usual answer is to run the trough to the back corner, or to carry the downspout horizontally along the wall to a point where the yard opens up.
- Corner lots and front walks. A downspout discharging across the front walk makes ice in winter. It gets moved or extended to the lawn side.
- Driveways. Roof water onto a driveway runs straight to the street carrying whatever is on the pavement. The City asks for grass or garden instead, and a short extension usually achieves it.
- New-build grading. In Doon South and Huron Park the lot was graded by the builder with swales between houses to carry water to the street or a rear catch basin. A downspout should release onto that grading, not into a low spot that was never meant to hold water.
Outlets, sizes and extensions
A 5-inch trough normally takes 2-by-3-inch downspouts; a 6-inch trough takes 3-by-4-inch. A run longer than roughly 12 metres (40 feet) usually wants a downspout at each end rather than one in the middle. At the bottom, a hinged extension lets the lawn be mowed and flips back down; a buried extension to a pop-up emitter gets the outlet right out into the yard where a surface extension would be in the way. If a rain barrel is planned — and Kitchener's residential stormwater credit rewards captured roof water — the downspout is cut and positioned so the barrel sits level and its overflow runs to grass, not back to the foundation.
The pipe into the ground
Where an existing downspout disappears into a standpipe at grade on an older house, that pipe is traced before anything is reconnected to it. If it leads to the foundation drain or the house sewer, the right move is to cap it and discharge above grade. If it is a dedicated storm lead to the street, it may be sound to keep, and a quick test with a hose tells us whether it still flows.
Frequently asked questions
Can you just add a downspout to my existing eavestrough?
Yes, if the trough is sound. An outlet is cut into the trough at the low point, a drop and downspout are fitted, and the pitch of the run is checked so water actually reaches it. It is one of the most effective small jobs there is for a trough that overflows.
Is a buried downspout extension a good idea in Kitchener?
It can be, on a lot with room to run the pipe to a lawn area and daylight it at a pop-up emitter. It needs enough fall to drain and to be clearable, and in clay it should not end in a soakaway pit that fills and stays full. A locate is requested before any digging.
My neighbour's downspout drains onto my property. What can I do?
Start with a conversation, since the fix is often a short extension. Ontario's guidance treats collected roof water directed onto a neighbour differently from natural runoff, and the City's advice is explicit that downspouts should not be aimed at neighbouring properties. Kitchener's by-law enforcement office is the route if talking does not work.
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