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Poor Design Leads To Poor Results
Apr. 16th, 2012 10:21 amJust after midnight Sunday, it rained in Chicago. Around 1 AM, it started to rain in my bedroom. By 4 AM, the drywall ceiling had collapsed. I called in Servpro, and they've been removing damaged drywall and flooring ever since. The reason for all of this? A poorly-designed roof drain.
Consider the picture below:
The problems are obvious to me. First, because of the elbow, the drain will clog. In a light rain, leafs and twigs will be washed into the scupper (the box, upper left) and drain down. But water will move slowly in the elbows, allowing some stuff to get hung up. Second, because of that bend, clearing the drain manually requires a flexible rod and considerable time.
Drains fail. My neighbor had a situation where the scupper rusted out. (Galvanized steel does rust, just more slowly.) However, if this were a straight line, it would clog less. If it were over the eaves instead of the bedroom, water flow from failures would be more likely to be kept on the exterior.
Poor design leads to poor results.
Consider the picture below:
The problems are obvious to me. First, because of the elbow, the drain will clog. In a light rain, leafs and twigs will be washed into the scupper (the box, upper left) and drain down. But water will move slowly in the elbows, allowing some stuff to get hung up. Second, because of that bend, clearing the drain manually requires a flexible rod and considerable time.
Drains fail. My neighbor had a situation where the scupper rusted out. (Galvanized steel does rust, just more slowly.) However, if this were a straight line, it would clog less. If it were over the eaves instead of the bedroom, water flow from failures would be more likely to be kept on the exterior.
Poor design leads to poor results.
