Plastic bucket under gutter downspout

downspoutdrainagegutters

I am doing some work around my gutter downspouts and found that underneath the ones at the front of my house, someone had buried 2-gallon plastic potting containers (upside down). There was a piece of fabric barrier above them too. There is nothing underneath the plastic bucket. Just curious if anyone has seen this before and if there is a purpose for them being there.

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Best Answer

It's a strange method (to me, anyway) but my guess is someone put it there to prevent erosion. If you have water running from the downspout, without anything there it will basically pound a hole into the ground, as well as drain into your foundation, which can cause various problems including flooding of your basement, and cracked foundations.

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I guess it's the cheap equivalent of one of these:

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It's best though to have an extension and get it far away from your house, so that water is running downhill/away from your foundation.

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