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Last Updated: , Created: Sunday, January 14th, 2001

Improving balcony drainage

Margaret has a balcony over a porch and has had some house movement. The water no longer flows off over the edge, but pools back near the house. She is looking for some way to solve the problem without having to rebuild the balcony.

Years ago a company on the west coast made an outdoor carpet that was designed specifically to solve this problem by drawing the water off a backward sloped balcony with a siphon action. But, alas, they didn't sell enough to stay in business.

But I did come up with another idea that, although not the most elegant, would allow Margaret to avoid having to totally rebuild the balcony to get the right slope. Simply cut a hole in the floor of the balcony at the lowest spot, where all the water collects. Put a drain pipe through to the porch below and then run it along the ceiling of the porch to one of the support posts and down to the landscaping. This will make a bit of a strange pipe on the ceiling of the porch below, but will keep the balcony dry.

 


Keywords: Decks, Drainage, Rain Gutters, Eaves Troughs, Water

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