Gutters-Rainwater catch ideas welcome

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by jodirumph, Jul 1, 2020.


  1. jodirumph

    jodirumph Monkey

    First I live in Texas so water is a need. I am lucky to live on the top of the hill next to a river so even the 100 year floods aren't an issue but there is year around water close. That being said who wants to walk all the way down the hill :). Any advice on gutter systems? I am finishing a reroof project and this would be a good time to figure this out. I was thinking gutters to a rain barrel to use for garden irrigation most of the time or supplementing water supply if things ever get interesting in the burbs. We do have an HOA so we have to keep it discrete, but they approved the solar panels so they aren't totally unreasonable. If you have an idea or system you like let me know. I am looking for ideas better than mine so the bar is low.
     
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  2. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    is the river on your property? If so, you might want to investigate a ram pump to have the river move the water up to the top of the hill.
     
  3. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    Visual Trac beat me to it ,, so I have nothing else to add,, other than if you could get others to let you cross their land with the pipe,, buried shallow in the ground.
     
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  4. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    I live up near Amarillo where rain is about as common as democrats.

    It's since been taken down or I'd go take a pic (was planning to reconfigure a bit but been busy), but for a time we had a gutter running off the side of the garage that drained into 2, 275 gallon IBC totes. The downspout came to a homemade filter I cobbled together out of a 5 gallon bucket that basically dumped into the bucket, then as the level rose up it hit an overflow pipe that drained into the totes, which were daisy chained together. The bucket was to collect any leaves or whatnot that came off the gutter. There's better designs online but I was lazy, and it worked.

    The length of gutter was about 30 ft and it didn't take but a few spring rains to fill both totes. Used the water for the garden. I daisy chained the totes by using 2 Uniseals, one on each one, then shoved a 2" pvc pipe through them to connect the two so when the first one filled to that level, it spilled through to the second tank.

    I keep thinking of things to add here. Those IBC totes come with a couple different kinds of drains at the bottom. The butterfly flap ones are bad for cracking the drain pipe after a while. All of my butterfly flap totes have now been sealed off from the inside using Gorilla waterproof tape and a whole lot of silicone sealer. The ball valve ones are awesome so if you plan to use that bottom line to water with, look for the ball valve or else get a connection on there with it's own shutoff so you can just leave the butterfly flap open all the time.
     
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  5. Tempstar

    Tempstar Monkey+++

    Built one for my dad once. I cut his downspout about eye level and put the 45 degree bottom on at the cut, then built an angled 12" square frame with screen wire to keep out leaves and placed on top of a 55 gallon plastic barrel. I installed a hose bib at the bottom and with the bottom of the barrel being about 2 feet off the ground he could connect a garden hose and water anywhere around the house.
    We also found that a heavy dew would put around 2 gallons in the barrel.
     
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  6. You could bury a cistern tank in the back yard and connect the gutter downspouts to pipe to the cistern. Gutter guards on the actual dyed would keep most debris out of your cistern, it's out of sight so the HOA won't complain too much after the grass regrows. Just a suggestion.
     
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  7. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    There are thin tanks for putting along walls and fences for catchment. They can be painted to look like the wall or a fence.

    the downspouts and pre-filter are easy to disguise as rain chains with the filtration in the ground or a normal down spout with a y split. to channel water to whatever container you want.

    I saw a fmily do an entire yard fence as those thin water takes to hold run off from the room. They did have to manage for algae because the tanks are in the sun and the temperature swings were conducive to algae growth.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2020
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  8. jodirumph

    jodirumph Monkey

    These are some great ideas. So leaf guard the gutters to lesson leaves/ debris burying the water tank would both keep it cool to eliminate some of the evaporation and make the HOA happy. sure I'd need to pump it up. I also like the idea of painting the tanks the same collar as the fence and wall. I think to much land between me and straight shot to river for now so ram pump not an option unless the zombies do invade and take out some neighbors (lol). I also like keeping the water barrel up though so I could gravity feed for the garden. I'll send pictures once I figure it out. Thank you for all the great ideas.
     
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