Heavy rain?

[sunseekers]

We heard that there had been some very heavy rain last night and also that the power went out, does anyone know if if the rain was heavier than it was in the second week of October, we had a deluge then that resulted in the storm drain not coping in the galleria and water coming in the flat through the patio doors, am really hoping it wasn't as heavy as that.
Hazel

[gaveteran]

In my opinion much heavier, maybe twice as bad...and for longer. No water in my under-build in October, a large puddle this time. My drains were clear, it was simply "too much for too long". Sorry!

[sunseekers]

Thanks for telling me, nothing I can do about it now as if it's happened it's happened but I would rather know what to expect and will have to try to figure out what will best protect our little place when we are not there.
Hazel

[Spurs]

I think you need to look at any roofs feeding the area can you put gutters up to take away this flow this could be a cheaper option

[sunseekers]

Unfortunately Spurs this isn't something possible to us, we are in a ground floor flat and so upstairs is not something under our control but wouldn't really do anything even if it was as the upstairs flats are bordered by walls around their roof terraces which have their own run off drains, these run offs don't come anywhere near the galleria so that is good. the flats are back to back and all have a small galleria with an equally small drain. This is fine until there's an absolute deluge then the rain can't get away quickly enough and builds up.

[denandrose]

Hi Sunseekers, are you on Altomar II by any chance?
Our friends had a similar problem and it was a blockage in the underground pipe I won't go into details as to what blocked it !. The pipe usually runs out onto the pavement.
We are in an upstairs apartment and our roof drain goes down underneath the building joining the outlet to the one below, and comes out onto the pavement in a bungalow behind us.
Our friend had Gestifinc the Administrators arrange to have the pipe cleared and have not had a problem since.
Hope this helps.

[sunseekers]

Hi den and rose, yes as a matter of fact we are on Altomar 2, but, great news, my friend went to check on it today and the flat is as dry as a bone.  When it flooded in before, it was all clean rainwater and had popped off a cover that was on what looked like an inner pipe inside the drain, at the time I didn't know whether to put this back on or leave it off but thought if no rainwater was going down it because of the cover (it looked like an upturned cup type cover and seemed like a lid on the inner pipe), that this must reduce the possibility of it draining away, so I left it off.  Much to my surprise this seems to have helped as the flat is dry, so it will be staying off.  (Or maybe if there had been any kind of blockage, this deluge shifted it, either way I am a happy bunny and thank you all for all suggestions)

[DaveG]

Hi Sunseekers,
I have a similar drain and the cover is to stop debris clogging up the main down pipe. It sits over the inner part of the pipe in a circular "sump" and when water fills the sump it then overflows down the pipe. Any debris then gets caught in the sump.
It will seem to work better without the cover as the water has a larger diameter hole to escape through with the cover off.
Will anybody be able to catch their foot in it with the cover off or can you replace it when the property is occupied.
Regards
Dave

[sunseekers]

No, it won't be a risk to anyone catching their foot in it, there is another grid type cover which goes over the top of the drain regardless of whether that other one is in place so that's not a problem, and the galleria is just used as a small storage area where we have a shed so no debris should ever go down the 'inner pipe' either.  Hopefully that is the problem sorted. Thanks for the explanation of how it works, at least I understand why it looks like that now. Apart from that small glitch we are loving our little place in Spain and can't wait to get back to it again.