Rain Water Catchment System

[Shellyann36]

We really want to put gutters on the house. We are in a rental property but the owner is pretty cool about making improvements and taking it off of the rent monthly. We would love to put gutters on the house for a rain catchment system to store water to use on our garden and to water our animals.


Has anyone else ever tackled this project?

 

[headfullofbees]

Tell him that a lack of guttering will damage the foundations of his property.

 

[firelily99]

That sounds like a good idea. In terms of the guttering it really depends on how much of a system that you want and how much that you want to spend.

 

[gata montes]

Well if your landlord is willing to pay for the guttering and take the cost off your weekly rent - I would go for it - as apart from being fairly expensive if paying for it yourself - the water you collect can be a bonus in helping to keep your plants watered and for free too - and as Chuck has already mentioned - it will go a long way towards helping to avoid foundation and damp problems.

As gutters are not the norm where I live - if you want them - you normally have to put them up yourself - which is what we did - as the rain water splashing up against the side of the house was not only causing severe inside damp problems but also ruined the look of the outside of the house and although the main house was done with regular guttering - we chose a more cost effective way of doing the barn - which is where the water storage systems are and instead of using regular guttering we used 3 - 4 inch PVC drainage pipe cut in two - which from a distance looks exactly the same as regular guttering and works in exactly the same way - but for half the price of what it would have cost otherwise

 

[headfullofbees]

CHUCK?
DO I LOOK LIKE THAT ELDERLY CURMUDGEON???

 

[Annabell]

I'm genuinely surprised your property doesn't already have guttering. Isn't that just standard? Any time I've helped a friend to build their house, guttering is always put on. It's not even a 'Do you want these or not?' issue. It's a 'Which kind do you want? And do you want them to be hidden?'

Anyway, yes you should definitely try and tackle this issue. Not sure I'd say do it by yourself mind, but you should definitely talk to your landlord about this. It'll save him costs in the future, so try and get him to either pay for it, or cut the rent a bit.

 

[gata montes]

CHUCK?
DO I LOOK LIKE THAT ELDERLY CURMUDGEON???

apologies - seem to be having another one of my all too regular mental blocks which are clearly getting considerably worse - as now I seem to be getting totally confused over who is who - or is it just that I forgot to put my glasses on

 

[headfullofbees]

apologies - seem to be having another one of my all too regular mental blocks which are clearly getting considerably worse - as now I seem to be getting totally confused over who is who - or is it just that I forgot to put my glasses on

Don't worry, I'm only playing.

 

[gata montes]

Don't worry, I'm only playing.

I know you were and so was I - apart from wanting to apologize for calling you " Chuck " instead of " headfullof bees "
or was it the other way round

 

[Philphine]

I collect quite a bit of what comes off both my garage and house roofs (rooves?) some of the gutters drain into corrugated pipe that runs under my deck and pour into my pond. the others pour into some big tanks I have to top off the pond between rains. usually I just dip my watering can into the pond and water my plants, then top off the pond if it doesn't rain after a few days. I don't have any animals to know if the water would be alright for them (sometimes it gets that brackish smell if I've had it a while), but when we get a dry spell I get a lot of birds showing up and splashing in the pond.

along with the big tanks, I found a couple of the 60gal rain harvest tanks that look like big pots. the nicer looking one is in front of my house amoung the flower/plant pots. the other sits on an upper deck so I don't have to carry water up. I only let that one fill half way until I'm more sure the deck can hold the weight.

it all works out pretty well. I want to work out a couple more options (need a couple of hose manifolds to direct water better) , but unless I have to have fresh water or the tanks are empty (usually 'cause I left the spigot open than just running out), I hardly ever turn on the hose.

 

[happyflowerlady]

When I lived in Idaho, I had a friend who lived out in the country, and she did not have any running water, so she had gutters that drained into a large underground tank. She was an older lady (late 60's), so obviously, she did not do all the physical labor herself, but she did hire a fellow that helped her with those kinds of things, and he put them up for her.
Pat had gutters on both the house and the garage/shop and then a connecting one that ran to the underground tank. It worked really well for her, and she only had to haul water when it was really dry in the summer.

 

[Shellyann36]

@headfullofbees @firelily99 I pitched the idea to the realtor yesterday. We shall see what the owner says.

@Annabell this house was built in the early 70's so I guess it was not so standard back then.

@gata montes What a great idea! I must tell hubby about it today. We will have to figure out a way to keep the leaves out as well. We have a huge oak that canopies over the top of the house.

@Philphine your system sounds great. I hope that we can set something up similar.

@happyflowerlady I have heard of this as well in older homes. I am sure she had a great set up.

 

[gata montes]

What a great idea! I must tell hubby about it today. We will have to figure out a way to keep the leaves out as well. We have a huge oak that canopies over the top of the house.

To be honest I'm not sure that there actually is a way of keeping leaves out of guttering - as even with the use of chicken wire or some kind of netting to help stop the build up of leaves - it is inevitable that at some stage or another during the course of the year gutters normally have to be cleared of debris and unfortunately - especially so in your case - with huge oak tree that canopies over the roof of your house.

 

[Annabell]

@Annabell this house was built in the early 70's so I guess it was not so standard back then.

Well that of course makes more sense I suppose. Yes, I'd still advise getting right on this, and talking to your lanlord about maybe getting some money back/rent off if you pay for it yourself.

 

[Shellyann36]

To be honest I'm not sure that there actually is a way of keeping leaves out of guttering - as even with the use of chicken wire or some kind of netting to help stop the build up of leaves - it is inevitable that at some stage or another during the course of the year gutters normally have to be cleared of debris and unfortunately - especially so in your case - with huge oak tree that canopies over the roof of your house.

They make these fancy gutters with leaf guards on them here but I am not sure how well they work. We would have to clean ours often.