How Does A Flat Roof Drain Water

The scuppers are the openings in the outside walls specifically designed to allow water but not debris to wash off your roof.

How does a flat roof drain water.

The first thing to say about how flat roofs drain water away is that they re not actually totally flat. Water is caught as it rolls off of the edge of the roof and is then diverted to the proper downspout and out the drainage system. These drains are like the drain at the bottom of your shower except that the roof drain has a larger strainer to protect it from debris. Flat roofing does not drain naturally like sloped roofs that can rely on the force of gravity to remove water.

A low slope roof tilts slightly downhill from its center or from one side so water rolls off to parapet scuppers and down the hopper downspout. The angle is not significant enough to prevent water from pooling on the surface. If this is the case then the easiest fix is to fit an internal drainage system. How do flat roofs drain rainwater.

Still the function of the two drains is the same. The flat roof itself might ve actually been made too level meaning water can t run off the side. A flat roof may use interior drains to collect water from the centre of the roof. Normal gutters the things we all hate to clean.

The roof slopes toward the center drain where pipes in your building channel the water into the sewage. For flat roof drainage where you place your drains scuppers and the final material of the roofing is more important. Internal drains are often placed in low slope roofs when the roof span does not make a single slope practical. These are located in the central points of the roof and transport rainwater underneath the membrane to a nearby sewer.

Increasing the angle of a flat roof will always increase the speed of water movement across the surface. After the slope on most flat roof designs the water heads to guttering in order to control its descent into.