Most of the downspouts on my house (built in 1951) are routed into the foundation, like this:
My questions about this situation:
- Why on earth did someone do this? (I just bought the damn thing and now I have to deal with it.)
- How big a deal is it to fix? Unless otherwise advised, I would cut away the lower foot or so of downspout with a hacksaw and mate it with new stuff from Home Depot that drains to the outside of the house. Will that do, or should I replace the whole thing?
- I assume I need to stop up the pipe at the bottom of the photo. Do I need to use cement or something, or can I just cap it somehow?