Drainage pipe to nowhere

draindrainagedrainspipe

For the last year, one of my gutter is constantly clogged and overflow. The gutter is almost impossible to reach so I had to hire someone to clean the gutter. Last weekend I decided this was enough and started digging around the downspout to see if the drain was clogged. To my surprise I found no drain (see picture). It’s just a T-shape PVC pipe. Both side of the pipe are open. This explain why the gutter would overflow when we get heavy rain.

Is this allowed in the building code? From my point of view someone clearly took a shortcut. I live in the Seattle, WA area (King County). The house was built in 2007.

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Best Answer

In most areas I'm familiar with, gutters don't drain into the sewage or storm drain systems. This looks like a flow diverter, but a very poor one. Are there any holes in the PVC pipe? The ones I've seen are much longer and have holes so they act like a French Drain but they usually head away from the house and not along side of it. You can just add a 90 degree bend to your downspout and direct the rain water away from your house.