How To Make A Swan Neck For Standard Guttering

Watch our video to learn how to make a swan neck for a rainwater downpipe using two offset bends and small piece of downpipe.

A swan neck is a term given to the piece of downpipe or the two bends that return from the running outlet back into the wall around your soffit board and back to the wall to join up to your downpipe.

  1. Firstly, with the outlet fixed in position, drop the plumb line down the outlet or straight edge to check that it is centred. (The plumb line can just be a piece of string with a weight tied to it).
  2. Next, offer up your down pipe so you know exactly where it’s going to be on the wall and how far out it’s going to be.
  3. Measure the distance between the centre of the downpipe to the plum line as that is the centre of your running outlet. This measurement is what you’ll have to cover from the outlet to the downpipe.
  4. The next stage is to cut the piece of pipe.
  5. Knowing your measurement from the two pieces of pipe, the next thing to do is to ascertain how long a piece a point you need to cut to go between the two offset bends.
  6. There are two ways of doing this- one way is to take a piece of paper and draw 2 lines the required measurement apart.
  7. Next, line up your two bends, on the centre of one line, and one on the centre of the other, exactly as they would be on the position of your swan neck.
  8. Measure the difference between the end of the spigot on the first bend and the end of the socket on the second bend.
  9. Cut a piece of pipe to the required measurement using a hacksaw.
  10. To assemble the swan neck, take the two offset bends and insert the spigot onto the downpipe aligned with the wall. Never glue or weld the pipes together.
  11. Take a small piece of rainwater pipe and attach it to the upper offset, then attach the other bend to it.
  12. Take the piece of pipe you previously measured and insert it so it fits in both bends.
  13. Attach a clip to the rainwater downpipe to secure it in place.

If you require any further information about how to make a swan neck for standard guttering, or can’t find what you’re looking for on our website, do not hesitate to give us a call.