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Just purchased my first home, it's on a slab and isn't on a flood/water tile of any sort. I've noticed that area's around the Gutter Drains where the Rain Slant thingies (im not sure what they are actually called, I believe they are called a downspout?)

Anyways, my house has around 4 of them, the back 2 towards the rear of the house have soil thats been worn away near them (where the rain has gotten around the downspout I presume). So needless to say I probably should find a solutions to this since I don't want a lot of water getting near the slab of the house (the house is only 2-3 years old.....so hopefully this hasn't caused any damage). Im in Ky so it's not like it rains a TON here. The erosion around the gutters isn't "bad" but it's probably worth filling them in regardless.

Anyways what should I do about filling the soil around these gutter/downspouts around the house, where erosion has occured. Just any old soil?

As far as dispersing the water away from the house. I've looked into those invisaflow systems and those seem pretty nice, however im not really sure "where" to direct the water? The home needs some Outdoor Garden makeovers for sure, so I thought perhaps making the water direct to a very soil heavy/raised plant bed might work? (with high drainage?) Maybe some sort of "Rain Garden" (although im not sure what plants would work ahha). But we have a Slope of ground that goes down towards the rear of the house (so more water collection anyways).

I figured that'd be a good place to place some sort of garden). I would however not like to dig a TON into the ground (Our HOA is a PITA). I also looked at rain barrels...but eh, they are kinda rather unsightly

Any ideas?

P.S. Since the house is only 2-3 years old and I haven't seen any water puddles or anything forming near the rear of the house (where the slight slope is) do you think much damage has occured? the only place I see soil erosion is where the downspouts are.

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    So, is the erosion occurring where the water exits the downspout, or is there erosion along the back of the house beneath the gutters? There are different solutions for each of these scenarios. I've read your ? Twice and I'm having trouble figuring out what u mean. And yes, the "rain slant thingies" are downspouts, which are vertical pieces that extend from your gutters to the ground and are usually angled away from the house.
    – Jax
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 3:53
  • The erosion is where the water exits the downspouts.
    – user30116
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 19:01

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Your eavestroughs (or gutters, in some parts of the world) collect the rain from your roof and direct it through a downspout to the ground level. It sounds like you have concrete splash blocks below your downspouts - like this:

enter image description here

Image source

(Besides preventing soil erosion, the splash blocks keep the dirt from splashing up on your house.)

Drainage is easy - water goes downhill. Just make sure you have a constant downhill path for the water to flow and you're golden. It won't go uphill into a raised planter, unless you have some special capillary mat or plans with long roots. Plantings are good to slow down the flow of water and also absorb it.

You could put any old soil in to fill in the erosion. If you don't have a splashblock, then you should get some -- flat rocks will work also and are often more aesthetically pleasing.

I agree that rain barrels are unsightly, so don't really like them myself. I once put in a french drain, but that was a lot of work. (Dug a trench, put in geotextile, then some gravel on top of the fabric, then 4" weeping tile, then some more gravel, covered the geotextile over top, then backfilled. The geotextile fabric is to prevent dirt from washing into the gravel and eventually blocking it from working effectively for drainage.)

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You can try some of these:

enter image description here

The idea being that they roll up out of the way when it's not raining, and run the water away from the house when it is.

Being an inexpensive solution, it might be worth a try.

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  • Do these roll up on their own when it stops raining? Is there a minimum height for the downspout they're attached to?
    – Tester101
    Commented Apr 16, 2015 at 15:17
  • They do roll up. I assume you need a certain amount of head for it to unroll. You probably need to take it off once a year and clean out leaves.
    – Chris Cudmore
    Commented Apr 17, 2015 at 12:11

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