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It turns out people have consumed rainwater for millions of years. So there's some precedent. This is very well covered online, so grab a search engine and get reading. Here's a summary of concerns. In the US, it may be illegal (look up "water rights") but for individual home use, that is usually ignored. You'll get a lot of water from your roof really ...

Here is a pretty quick explanation. Starting from where the water will enter the drain and ending where the water will flow out, dig a ditch that's about 10 inches deep and 6 inches wide. Keep in mind that you will need to dig deeper if your starting point slopes upward. Lay about 2 inches of rock into the trench before placing the pipe lengthwise ...

I think you need to increase the angle of the vertical piece just slightly so the drips can't fall the entire length of the spout and then hit the angle portion at the bottom; instead they will silently wet themselves to the side of the spout and then roll down. Detach the bottom end from the house and play with the angle while you have a slow trickling ...

Your catchment and cistern (the part that's open to air and thus to contamination by insects/bacteria) should be as small as it can be while still providing enough capacity to take in the rain as it falls. Once rain enters the cistern from the catchment, it should then be pumped into a holding tank which is air- and water-tight, and from which you draw your ...

All PVC is subject to UV light degradation. PVC without UV protection will eventually suffer a loss of impact resistance. Your pipe will be whole, until impact at which it will shatter or crack instead of flex. Some PVC (PVC UVR) is UV resistant. The sunlight still damages the PVC pipe, but it is in a matrix of other chemicals that compete for the UV ...

You are trying to solve the wrong problem. The problem is not the water coming down, the problem is the sound. Stuffing stuff inside the downspout will only clog it one day anyway. So my solution is to kill the sound! The downspout makes a sound when water drips down inside. But it is the sound that is the problem. Take any drum. Bang on it with a ...

Here's another article about a French / Trench drain: Basically the same idea, except he doesn't recommend lining the ditch with fabric or putting a sock on the pipe. He does recommend using rigid perforated pipe instead of the corrugated pipe with slits in it.

Often over doorways, we install a simple 90 degree folded 6 inch flashing. You can slide a piece of this under the shingle tabs, two or three courses above the drip edge, secure it with a few shingle nails. I like to install them in the shape of an inverted "V". You can also use a piece of gable end drip edge to do the same thing. look in the section of the ...

A good example is the roofs in Bermuda. If you search for 'rain collecting in Bermuda' you'll find lots of examples. Here's one: http://www.momcentral.com/blogs/mom-central-goes-green/harvesting-rain-bermuda-life-and-law

Sounds like either the gutters aren't secured tight enough, or you don't have a drip-edge flashing between the roof and gutter. The drip edge deflects water out and away from the house trim and into the gutter. You install it under the shingles, pulled out slightly from the trim, and secured with roofing cement.

You could try the gray colored Schedule 80 PVC pipe. This is a much heavier duty material that will stand up to being outdoors. It is recommended by manufacturers. such as U.S. Plastic Corp, that PVC pipe and fittings be painted after installation with a coat of white water based latex paint to provide for UV resistance. The UV light is what is part of the ...

As I mentioned in a comment to Jay's post, rainwater collecting may be illegal, dependent on your State. Western states, which get less rain, generally employ the doctrine of "prior appropriation"; an entity can claim the rights to water that will enter a waterway even if it hasn't arrived there yet. This means that by collecting rainwater into a cistern, ...

Alright, so assuming it is not illegal for you to collect rainwater (and even if it is...) and assuming you have a gutter system, why not just redirect your gutter system in a catchment system, or even a few catchment systems. This guy has done something similar here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Need-Free-Water%3f--Build-a-Rain-Barrel/ Next you have to ...

Yep, that's perfectly plausible. You're saying that there's only wire mesh in the soffits -- not actual metal soffit vents? That would be the first thing I'd fix. The louvers on the soffit vents make it much harder for rain to blow up and into the attic structure. The second thing you might consider is then putting soffit baffles in ... they may make it ...

Put in one of these. It's a French Drain, it is also on this sites FAQ. How to build a french drain? The need for a French Drain arises from a few problems, but usually from standing water in or around your home. This is caused by poor drainage, usually from clay rich soil or overly compacted soil. A French Drain will relocate the water very efficently. ...

I recently installed the third gutter system on my house in 40 years. The dripping sound was maddening! Having had two others, I knew that it was this particular downspout. When I filled the gutter with water, I found a leak at the top of the downspout, where the water starts down from the gutter . The water was leaking out there and dripping down on the ...

Is there some particular reason not to put new holes in the bricks? My first inclination is to just drill new holes, and secure the spouts properly - after all, they did come off during a snow storm. Do you have pictures of the existing mounts? Perhaps there is a way to retrofit something onto the existing hooks but still use a modern downspout.