Our downspouts are wearing white socks -- help us!

18 years ago

We recently had gutters added to our house -- yes, inexplicably, most of the house was gutterless. Anyway, Company A put up the gutters and downspouts, and Company B dug the channels and laid the drainpipes.

The house is an old, rather formal looking Mediterranean, sandstone with a red tile roof -- you know the kind. So we sucked it up and splurged on copper gutters for the first floor gutters, but dark brown aluminum for the second story (roof level) gutters, where you can't see it as well. It worked out fine.

The problem is that Company B connected the copper downspouts to the drains with a couple of feet of white PVC pipe. It looks just terrible -- really jumps out at you, all the way from across the street. I'm frankly very surprised that they did this in the first place.

When I called the company (hoping that this was temporary!), the lady was really nice -- she agreed that this was really unacceptable. But today she called back to tell us that they propose just to spray paint the white pipe brown. She agreed that it would probably only last five years or so, though. I told her I really wasn't happy with that solution, and she said she'd look into other solutions.

I'm sick about this. We spent a fortune on those copper gutters to keep the architectural integrity of the house -- and I think that the only thing that would look worse than white PVC pipe would be white PVC pipe with paint chipping off it.

So I came to the experts -- YOU. What other solutions are there? Isn't there dark brown PVC pipe, at least? Would paint really work?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

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Comments (6)

davidandkasie
18 years ago
plant flowers or shrubs around them. this will hide the white PVC.

most every place i have seen just uses the white PVC, though i agree that it looks tacky.

is it possible to extend the down spouts a little further so that the PVC does not stick out of the ground much? you don't want the junction underground unless the PVC is sealed to the downspout, or ground water will get in and cause a back up. but you should be able to have it just barely out of the ground a couple inches.
gellchom
Original Author
18 years ago
I made a mistake in my posts, so in case it matters: the downspouts aren't copper, they are the brown metal.
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Your home is going to be beautiful, threeapples. Your determination to get all the details right will pay big dividends. You are getting such wonderful advice here from lots of experts. I hesitate to chime in, but don't want you to make the same mistake I made. Our home was a Georgian similar to yours. Our brick, a Boral wood mold in 'Fairfield', was almost identical to the brick you selected. Windows, trim, columns, etc were white. Everyone involved in the planning assumed white gutters and downspouts were the best choice. They were wrong. Those white downspouts were the only thing I did not LOVE about our house! IMO, downspouts should do their job, blend in and disappear. The white was so very obvious against the brick. The rear elevation was all brick with brick columns. The only white was trim, French doors, and balcony posts. We used copper downspouts there. Over a few months the copper developed a nice brownish patina and disappeared into the brick. IMO, any option is better than white.
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kudzu9
18 years ago
Do the downspouts reach the ground, as they're supposed to? I had the situation where the downspouts went down to ground level, but there was about 6" of that white plastic drainpipie sticking out of the ground. I just went around with a pair of metal snips and trimmed the plastic back to near the ground. The contractor is trying to get away with the cheapest fix, and one that is not acceptable. You have two options to fix this:
1. If the downspouts are long enough, you can just trim the plastic back to a little above ground level.
2. If the downspouts don't reach all the way down, trim the plastic back anyway and have the contractor install extensions on the downspouts.
Take a stand and get what you deserve. That spray paint idea is just plain sloppy and unprofessional. Particularly after what you must have spent on copper gutters, that's definitely not ok.
bus_driver
18 years ago
PVC painted with exterior acrylic paint is fine. The PVC will last longer because of protection from the Sun and the paint will be as durable on the PVC as on any other surface. I did my own drains and painted the PVC. I know of no better way to do it, from a technical perspective. If the brown downspouts are aluminum, the pipe protects the ends from the acid soil and prolongs the life of the downspouts. Paint it!
atcsgame
18 years ago
They make PCV caps that fit the downspouts in colors to match the downspouts. They are called downspout adapters and are the shape of the downspout on one side and a 4" round on the other. The round pipe is buried in the ground and the adapter is the only thing showing. Spray painting the PCV can be done with the new plasticoat paints. They last a very long time and will fade before they peel.
dumaspup
18 years ago
They also make down spot to drain cuoplers I have only seen them in green.

Our downspouts are wearing white socks -- help us!

Comments (6)

davidandkasie

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Comments (6)

davidandkasie

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