Paging PigletJohn...paging PigletJohn.... the revenge of the flooded kitchen!

[Cattermole]

So over the summer people were very helpful on the matter of one of my neighbours having their downspout turned towards my kitchen wall, and the water coming up through my kitchen floor when it rains. (It's coming off their roof at about 10l an hour currently - we have a jam pan under it just to try and stem the flow....)

We've had two builders in to look and both are agreed the water ingress is due to the downspout and that we need a French drain along the side of the house. Unfortunately neither can do it till January.

Next door's landlord is being an arse about changing their waste water arrangements so I'm not holding out any hope about them dealing with the problem any time soon.

DH is considering putting a length of flexible hose from their downspout along the path to the surface water drain about 2m away.

Would that work as a stopgap for a couple of weeks?

I think my DH would do more than that. He would probably stop it up! Divert the water entirely. The owner would also be hearing from our solicitor. You seriously run the risk of soil being washed away and your foundations being compromised let alone damp appearing.

Do what you need to do. The landlord probably will not notice and obviously does not care. However I would take immediate action.

Yes that would do the trick I think until a permanent solution is found.

I used to work with an old boy when I was an apprentice and he always used to say “ there are no problems, only solutions “ and it’s stuck with me all my life. If it was my house and the landlord next door wasn’t interested I’d just crack on and get it done 👍. Good luck .

Can you speak to your home insurance legal cover and get them to take it up with the landlord on a legal basis?

Thanks all.
Insurers are sending someone round tomorrow to have a look at it, if they agree that the water ingress is being caused by rainwater being directed straight at our kitchen from next door then we're going to look at legal proceedings from there.
Normally, when we haven't got rain of Biblical proportions, it' s fine: just that we're forecast for more heavy rain tonight and tbh I can do without coming in from Cubs to an inch of standing water in the kitchen, so if I can head it off at the pass I'll put something in as a temporary flood defence!

Without having seen your previous threads I don't know what yoir dloor and wal construction are. I am hoping solid floor and solid wall, and that wateey has not affect ed any cavities, supended floors, plasterboard etc. If any of those have got wet, you would need the damage investigates and some bits replacing. Make sure rhe sureyor comes in and has a good look at your floors etc, too.

I'm wondering also how a house could take all that flow? I'd be inclined to find a bit of spare downpipe or something and kind of temporarily "extend" the neighbours' outlet in some way?

Aaarghh my typing, sorry!!!!

Solid granite walls, solid floor construction @candycane222 it's an old cottage with bits bolted on so that's all good...
I'm just really mad that their attitude is haha well it's only a bit of water just put a water butt under it if you're bothered (the only water butts that would fit are the tall thin ones and given 10l an hour when it's really coming down not sure how that will work....)

Grrrr. I hope the insurers sort it out properly for you!

You cannot just discharge surface water into someone else’s property. The down pipe just shouldn’t be there at all. It should be discharging into a surface water drain or recycling butt. I wouldn’t accept a French drain either in this situation.

I don’t really see what your insurers can do. They cannot force your neighbour to alter the down pipe. This is not a natural phenomenon like a river over flowing or subsidence. It’s deliberate poor building. Building regs might be able to help. Not sure.

What you need is a solid barrier between the two properties. If you have room for a drain, divert the water away from your house. It’s a substantial amount of water if the kitchen is flooding! Good luck anyway but stand your ground!

Quite! I think the fact that we're halfway down a hill but at right angles to the other houses doesn't help but it only seems to be a thing since they had some work done and some fake decking put in. We've bodged it for the night (hopefully) with a length of spare pipe and it looks awful but.... I may ask DH to replace tomorrow with some black pipe rather than the dirty olf white we've put in but tbh this is all stopgap.

@PresentingPercy like I say, we can get 10litres of runoff in less than half an hour if it's really tipping down: it's a 10litre maslin pan.
We're also downhill from them...and indeed a further terrace of houses....but when you see that damnable downpipe discharging across the concrete like the waves of the sea.... GRRRRRRR.

I lived in a large Victorian terrace once , and the water off the whole front on the house came down and out of a hole in the front wall on to the pavement ( all six houses did the same ) in winter it used to turn into a skating ring . Old houses had some strange building methods and I don’t think they took much interest in safety, damp, insulation etc.

Can you post a picture and maybe someone could suggest a solution ?

yes, a photo would help.

I'd be thinking about a barrier at the boundary, such as a sheet of roofing plastic that can take the impact of the water and let it run down. Spaced off the wall so air can circulate.

you sometimes see a piece of slate against the wall to protect against splash from a downpipe or gulley.

I don't understand where the boundary is or who owns the land where the pipe is discharging. In some cases I might build a wall. Or dig a drainage trench. If the pipe was intruding onto my property I might block it or cut it off.

Aco drain on your property and piped into your own drains would divert any surface water from the down pipe and further up the hill away from your house. They work great for surface water.

That solution would depend on whether the surface water drain on the OP’s property is anywhere near the neighbours’ down pipe. Probably not. It’s best to try and keep the neighbours roof outfall on their property and in their drains.

Well looking at the op’s first post it looks to be about 2m away .

Need pictures really to make any suggestions op ?

Ah yes. 2m of piping someone else’s water run off into your drain. I wouldn’t do it. The pipe is on top of concrete? And it’s on your land? No to that.

@PresentingPercy photos later on when insurance chap has looked at it (in case we need to disassemble stopgap arrangements!) but for the time being -
There is no surface water drain on the outside of their property. It literally discharges straght onto the concrete.
This doesn't bother them either.

I think legal intervention will be necessary in the future but tbh it's about stopping the water getting in for the time being, because whatever we do they're not going to respond to it quickly.

OK update, we have had another small dribble in but nothing that a towel couldn't fix this time. So photos.
My kitchen is the blue windowsill so our kitchen floor is below surface level.
TBH I'm not expecting the insurers to be willing to fix it - if I need to put sandbags round the outside of the house till January when we get a French drain put in I don't care - just to be able to say "this is what it is and this is how it can be fixed".
The bugger's muddle drainpipe is what we've put onto the downspout, just to divert the water.

Who owns the path?

Who owns the concrete?

Who owns the gate?

A sketch plan would be useful to put the photos into context

An update from the surveyor, who has pretty much answered all the questions I had for you guys, so I won't take up any more of anyone's time!

House is structurally fine, no damage is being caused. The issue is that we are the run-off for four different properties AND at the bottom of a hill and that is what it is, unfortunately, given the recent weather conditions.
Chappie opposite the kitchen window with the downspout needs to pack that in. This will be in the surveyor's letter and we are welcome to quote it as a precursor to legal action.
Next door is putting a drainage system in in January for her home office in the garden (this sounds much posher than what it is) which will be going down the concrete path. - which is hers. When that's being put in we need to paint slurry tanking on the exposed part of the wall (ie below ground level) while the trench is open. The eco drain can go in the same trench against the wall.
Regrout the kitchen with waterproof grouting.
Run a dehumidifier for a couple of weeks to dry out the solid floor - much of the water coming up is seepage because it's saturated already. This needs to be done after the work has been done on the drains though.

Get the Water Board to check the main external outlet - not on our property but surveyor thought it was worth reporting.

Insurance won't cover any of it, of course, but given the actual cost of the work as quoted to us, it wouldn't be worth doing it through them anyway....

So all is sorted, or rather all is now a matter of hanging tight till January with overnight dehumidfying and flood defences, but nothing is being harmed or damaged by it other than possibly the grouting and that can be replaced....

good work, love the drainpipe extension!