Recently had a roofing company install a scupper box + downspout. 3rd floor roof, downspout goes from the box to our 2nd floor porch roof drain. $2600 job. I’m interested in hearing what others think of the completed job. Is this how it should have been done? Should the area around the scupper box been left in that condition, all exposed like that? Seems like more care could have been taken with the cuts.
They had to come back a couple times to adjust the downspout where it meets the 2nd floor roof; originally they left the pipe hanging straight above the drain hole, about a foot of separation. This caused water to shoot out and splash against the membrane and brick. So they first came back to add an elbow, then another time to cut/crimp the bottom in order to restrict the amount of water that could come out at once.
Having trouble attaching images so here is a Google share containing them:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10Kb6IW7NVoFDgIgBSRcDXc9RhqvTqG6c
How many SQ FT of roof is that draining? Location of the property? Was the pitch or drop size changed with the reroof?
Main roof is 600sqft; that’s what is draining into the scupper. We’re the last house on the block; big open intersection so we catch a lot of wind and leaves. Yes, main roof pitch was changed during this job by the same company to address previous drainage issues. Old roof was about 10 years old, poorly designed/pitched and didn’t allow water to exit the roof properly. Previous drain opening was 3" and clogged easily. We have been struggling with leaking issues for a while on that roof and went with these guys whose job scope seemed to address all of the potential problem areas. Theirs was the most expensive estimate we received out of many, but again, their proposal seemed to cover all the bases.
They tore off the main 3rd floor flat roof down to the deck and installed EPDM, rebuilt the chimney from the roofline up, tapered the front part of the roof to properly channel water to the drain, which they retrofitted to a 4" drain opening. They also tore off and replaced the small (~200sqft) flat porch roof that the downspout drains into and installed new step + counter flashing. They retrofitted that roof’s drain to 4" to accommodate the new 4" downspout from the main roof.
Here is the scupper box part of the estimate:
Scupper Box Install/ Drain Retrofit/ 4" Round Downspout
- New scupper box will be installed on rear right side of front porch roof to handle the water flow from main roof drainage and porch drainage.
- Crew will retro fit main roof and front porch roof to a 4" opening during EPDM Roof Install.
- New scupper box will be installed on right rear of front porch roof to properly channel water from main roof and porch.
- New 4" Round Aluminum Downspout will be installed on front right-hand side of home.
This bit is a little confusing to me now that I’ve read it a few times:
“New scupper box will be installed on rear right side of front porch roof to handle the water flow from main roof drainage and porch drainage”
Wasn’t it just installed under the main roof to handle that roof’s drainage? That’s the only scupper box I see.
Sometimes not being there to see the conditions they worked under makes it difficult to complain about the install. It took looking at the photo to understand they put a scupper in with a drain integrated into it. I have to say, ive never seen that in my area, but with leaves and debris, it should work fine. We use open scuppers as secondary drains and sometimes they are piped down the side of a building, but allowed to overflow in case of obstruction. I have a feeling this installer listened to your previous issues and decided this was the solution they felt most comfortable with.
The exit point can be a problem. I normally try to put a bend to prevent water reaching terminal velocity on a long run. The details around the hole could be cleaned up with some wood trim and paint. The cured cover tape is pretty wrinkled, but sometimes it can be a fight with tape primer and sealant. As the sun heats up ive had to go back and work on areas of parapet that the yellow glue stuck, but the bonding adhesive on the flats pulled. Number one is it seems to have solved the leak issue.
Thanks for the feedback. The tape does look wrinkled, even pretty loose in some places but I didn’t complain about that. Should the inside of the scupper box look like this? I had another set of roofer eyes on this and they said the fasteners inside the box will cause problems, also said the “horizontal termination bar is a no no.”
Unfortunately we are still getting high moisture readings on this inside corner (15-18%) so something’s still up somewhere (not saying it’s from this job).
