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Motivation: There were
several reasons for this project:
- I have wanted to have a rainbarrel for a long time.
- I am a bit crunchy and by having rainbarrels I can help (in a very small way) reduce the storm surge which causes so many problems in our waterways.
- Also along the crunchy line, I can use the water from the barrels
to water my plants, wash my car, etc.
- This project is part of a holistic approach to eliminate any chance of flooding in my basement.
Background:
When my house was built the downspout was directed to the city
sewer which, like many older sewer systems, was (maybe still
is) a combination sewer that handles sewage and storm water.
At some point in the past the downspout was disconnected from
the sewer and directed into the backyard. The plastic drain pipe
intended to direct the water away from the house was pretty ineffective,
butt ugly and a not very elegant solution. Additionally, when
we get serious downpours a lot of the water was ending up at
the base of the basement stairwell and flooding the basement.
Everything
I know about flood control and have researched talks of multi-pronged
approaches kind of like the Dutch with their
sets of three dikes (watcher, keeper, sleeper). I am using
this philosophy on my house. First thing I did was buy about
30 paving bricks and built up the lip to the basement stairwell
(no mortar). This alone seems to have solved the problem but
why stop there? Placing bricks around a stairwell isn't much
fun!.
Not content with merely directing the water away from the foundation
I built the rainbarrels to collect the storm surge. Next year
I will also excavate around the foundation and reparge/waterproof
the wall. The house is close to 70 years old, it's ready for
some TLC.
The "science" behind a rain
barrel is pretty simple. The water that falls on my roof when
it rains is collected in a gutter then to a downspout. The
downspout leads to a first flush device and then to the barrels
themselves.
The barrels have a hole in the top for water to enter, a hole
near the top for overflow and a hole at the bottom for a spigot.
Because I have the barrels elevated off the ground, there is
a small amount of head pressure - enough to water plants, wash
the car, etc.
Good project management involves a logical work breakdown. For
this project I figured the logical breakdown was four stages
- the downspout diversion, the first flush device, the barrel
stand and the barrel plumbing. Like most home improvement projects,
I spent WAY more money and it took a lot more time than I anticipated
but I had loads of fun along the way.
Manual:
I have developed a manual which is (currently)
more in depth than what is on these pages. If you are interested,
you can download
it. It is a PDF document and is about 341K.
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