Gutter drains

I find it interesting that all of the water from the roof of the house is allowed to run away. Here, because of our dry climate and extreme shortage of water, most houses have rain water tanks and it is now a requirement for every new house to have a tank installed. Our state is also on a piped water scheme which is pumped from the River Murray, but because of a series of dry years with little flow from the catchments and over allocation of the water for the irrigation of rice, cotton, vines etc, the whole river system which runs through four states, is in dire straights. More and more is now being done to conserve water, using de-salination, storm water retention and all of the irrigators have had their water licencences cut to about 18% of their original allocation. Shortage of water is obviously not a problem where you are, but with none being retained, where does the domestic supply of water for the houses come from?

Rn'R.

Thats a good idea Rocksn'Roses running the roof water to a water tank or cistern.My geat uncle is still set up that way.We have had rural water "water main" out hear in the bush for about 8 years now .In my area we are blessed with sping water coming out of the limestone bluffs in the hills.We did not hook up to the water main. My home has a 1000 gal. cistern set up at the spring catching the water and its gravity fed to the home ,I have a pump in the basement to boost the pressure.My grandmothers home is set up the same way only she has a 1900 gal. cistern and a pump house at the spring because it is below the home.On the job site that I was installing the gutter drains they are hooked up on the rural water main.In my area all the older homes were built after the water source was found.If you run on to an old homested ruin in my area,there is either a spring or well nearby.

yes we run perf pipe in the beds just like a septic, only difference is we use #4's instead of #57's

all of the water that hits the site must be put back in the ground with a lot of municipalities around here, that particular house i posted the picture of had 2 catch basins as well

but nothing beats the over sized stone pit as this one....no roof gutters going into it...just (6) 8" green plastic catch basins...it is drainage for a courtyard at a very, lets say, famous persons house


or the next ones, biggest pit i ever dug...funny thing is this oversized hole was just to catch the water from the front of the houses roof...the rear of the house had a smaller pit

Those drain pits are unreal! I can't even imagine the costs.But we are in the hills and not too many people build in the the low spots. Grading the property and away from the house are our only concerns!

Thats pretty neet dirt digger.Your subsoil looks like The same type of red clay we have in most areas.But for some reason the job that I posted on this thread has some of the toughest most compacted red clay that I have ever worked in.It's on a hilltop and when I get further away from the hilltop it digs alot easyer.A machine could not pack the dirt this tight.On the sidewalls of the trench ,I can only get my pocket knife blade to stick in about 3/8 of an inch pushing on it hard and we have had alot of rain lately.I started calling it dinosaur dirt because I could not think of any thing else that would have compacted it this tight.

Well, I finished the gutter drain system today.The dirt was alot better on the east side of the home.It dug nice and I did not have any trouble using it as backfill around the pipe.I did call the power company to kill the electricity as I had to cross a 7,200 volt primary line running to the transformer for the home.

Well here in good ole Eire alot of people are putting in grey water systems now to be green ,this water is used for toilets washing machines etc, well for all non potable uses,as well as that we are facing the introduction of water charges at some time in the future so it becomes a cost saving issue.


Stock

Stock I thing that could be a good nitch market for ditch diggers in the future. Rainwater harvesting for non-potable and irrigation uses on individual homes will be something we will see more of in the future. It make sense to capture your rainwater and re-use it for a beneficial purpose. The economic payback and geographic location of the system will determine it's utlimate popularity though.

dayexco said:

$2.11 a ft. for 8" sdr 35.......79 cents for 4", times 3 =$2.37, 8" would have been cheaper, and easier than 3 lines, plus 1-8" pipe holds 2.61 gals per l.f....where as 1- 4 " pipe holds .65 gals per l.f....times 3, =1.95 gals per l.f.....8" would have been a better bang for the buck, and quicker

Click to expand...

dayexco,you need to share your pipe supplier with all of us.8" sdr 35 is over 4.00 dollars a foot in Indiana.

Dang...that's enough difference to cover freight easy!