Advice on Rain Barrels?
I’m considering diverting water from my roof gutter’s down spout into a rain barrel, since the drain outside my garden door (which is connected to a pipe running under the house to the street and then into the city’s sewer system) regularly overflows (such as during Tuesday’s heavy rain storm), causing flooding in my basement….
I’m considering diverting water from my roof gutter’s down spout into a rain barrel, since the drain outside my garden door (which is connected to a pipe running under the house to the street and then into the city’s sewer system) regularly overflows (such as during Tuesday’s heavy rain storm), causing flooding in my basement.
Has anyone tried this? If so, any tips? Thanks!!
I like the idea of a green roof but would not be thrilled at the idea of hundreds of pounds of weight in water sitting on my roof. And for the OP, obviously it’s far more expensive to rebuild the entire roof to support that than it is to dig a large drywell in the backyard. The ground absorbs the water deep down for the tree roots – it’s not being wasted with a drywell either. We had a huge drywell installed with new cement over it, graded away from the house, and it was the best thing we ever did in our renos. Fully worth the investment and relative to other things really not that expensive. It was completed in 2-3 days. I’d rather have that drywell than the new kitchen we put in if I had to choose. Nothing sucks worse than a flooded basement or a permanently musty stinky house.
Combined sewage overflow is an enormous problem! Green roofs do a lot to mitigate it. Almost 100% of rainwater gets absorbed by a green roof.
Combined sewage overflow is an enormous problem! Green roofs do a lot to mitigate it. Almost 100% of rainwater gets absorbed by a green roof.
Thanks, Serpentor. I think you’re right: the real problem is New York’s antiquated system. The intersection near my house is always a river after a large storm, which shows that the city’s system just can’t handle normal rainfall. Everyone in Park Slope seems to get water in their basements, so there’s only so much we can do.
However, I just read your question more closely: in the kind of rainstorm that floods your basement, a 60 gallon barrel isn’t going to do much.
Fun fact: one of my best friends builds roads in Austin. She was totally puzzled to learn that New York City still has a combined sewage overflow system. In Austin it is either illegal or just not done (I didn’t fact check this) to run your storm water into the sewage system. NYC’s combined sewage overflow system is a big problem.
I love our rainwater tank, but it is 1200 gallons. Honestly, I believe that every bit of diversion helps. Great photos of rainwater harvesting systems at:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/waterresourcesgroup/
My garden is in there somewhere.
My only real advice is to remember about gravity and elevate your barrel a bit. You can’t water anything that is higher than the water level in the tank. If you want to walk around with your hose that means you probably want the bottom of the tank at least knee high, if not hip high.
A gallon is a little over 8 pounds, so do the math when you’re building a platform for it: full, a 60 gallon tank is pushing 500 lbs.
Dave,
Compost tea is kind of bunk, IMO. The microbes in compost depend on aerobic environment. Stagnant water is the definition of anaerobic. By soaking the compost, you are killing the things in it that are so darn good.
You can work around this by making it using a fishtank pump, to keep air circulating in the water.
You can also use other methods, like bokashi composting or spraying a compound of effective microorganisms on plants instead of compost tea.
You guys are out of your mind if you think a rain barrel and diverter will do anything against the force of water coming in at 30-60 gallons per minute.
If its the sewer line – have it fixed, if not spend a few thousand and get a drywell put in. Its nothing more than digging and backfilling with rocks and you wont give up precious backyard space with a chain of multiple barrels or water tanks.
If your goal is a source of water for your plants only, then have at it…
WOW! That downspout diverter is sooooo much more clever, simple and elegant compared to what I created in my head.