Topic: collecting rainwater without a roof

[gwynnethmary]

It occurs to me that although I won't need a shed on my new plot, some method of rainwater collection would be beneficial.  Has anyone any tried and tested methods to share?

[artichoke]

There are various devices on our site, involving a framework of srong wooden stakes shaped like a shed and a plastic sloping "roof" made of plastic or corrugated iron - gutter along the bottom, butts at each end of the gutter. Very effective indeed.

I made a temporary flimsy one out of 4 poles in a square sloping away from each other, and a piece of plastic tied to each pole with string - hole in the middle, piece of brick to weight it down into a bowl shape, container under the hole. It worked OK until it blew over.....I still stick it up from time to time if we are expecting rain.

[antipodes]

Actually that's an interesting idea - I have two barrels side by side, I have not found a better method to make sure both are full than to fill the second one by hand with the watering can! But next time it rains I might try hoisting up a sheet of plastic to see if I can get some more water into it (I'm no DIY person so rigging up overflow pipes etc is out of my league).

[manicscousers]

Friends of ours on the plot have a long piece of plastic attached to the fence with water butts (old wheelie bins) at the end. The plastic slopes down to the first one and the others are attched so water overflows into them. It works quite well  :)

[nolandyet/nowwedo]

I've seen artichokes idea of 4 stout posts with sloping corrugated sheets used in rainwater harvesting projects. Gutters at the back feed into a centre down pipe and then into a large long water tank of say 1000 liters. The tank sits directly under the corrugated sheets so the overall footprint is minimised.
All the best..

[cambourne7]

You could go out with a shovel in a few weeks and fill them with snow :)

[gwynnethmary]

what about guttering fixed to a fence, sloping slightly, and then fed into a bin at the end of the run?  I think it might be a bit more wind proof than sheeting, as long as the fence doesn't wave about in the wind and spill the rain of course!

[gavinjconway]

what about guttering fixed to a fence, sloping slightly, and then fed into a bin at the end of the run?  I think it might be a bit more wind proof than sheeting, as long as the fence doesn't wave about in the wind and spill the rain of course!

This will not catch much water... try to have roof sheets fitted to 4 poles and dipped one end into a bucket etc..

[gwynnethmary]

what about guttering fixed to a fence, sloping slightly, and then fed into a bin at the end of the run?  I think it might be a bit more wind proof than sheeting, as long as the fence doesn't wave about in the wind and spill the rain of course!

This will not catch much water... try to have roof sheets fitted to 4 poles and (dipped one end into a bucket etc..)

Sorry , I don't understand?

[steve76]

I have seen length's of old gutter with one end on a water butt and the other screwed to a single 2x2 post, done a very good job there was about 6 lengths on the one i see.

[davyw1]

Gwynneyh...Come up and see me sometime, with your little car you may have to come up and see me a few times.

Have you got a GH

[lincsyokel2]

Theres nothing to stop you making a 'roof' on poles, but then it will shade the ground underneath. So you need to either grow plants that like shade under it or make the roof out of transparent roof sheets.  Conversely, whats wrong with digging a shallow hole and lining it with plastic, it'll still collect rainwater the same.

[gavinjconway]

what about guttering fixed to a fence, sloping slightly, and then fed into a bin at the end of the run?  I think it might be a bit more wind proof than sheeting, as long as the fence doesn't wave about in the wind and spill the rain of course!

This will not catch much water... try to have roof sheets fitted to 4 poles and (dipped one end into a bucket etc..)

Sorry , I don't understand?

Hi gwynnethmary - to elaborate about guttering to catch water..

A length of gutter has a very small surface area to collect water - unless it is mega long.. Imagine how many gutter widths will be the equivalent to cover the shed roof.... The roof of a 6' wide shed is about say about 180 cm x the length of the shed is say a 7' shed which is 215cm long.

Guttering is about 10 cm in width..  so to cover the shed roof you will need about 18 pieces x 215 cm to catch the same water as the shed would.. That means you will need about 39 mt of guttering.

I think it's much easier to make a fake roof or something like it.. You need to use a fake roof to collect and then dipped lower one side to go into a big bucket or water butt etc.

[davyw1]

Gwynneth, How high is the fence you plan to put the rain catcher on i may be able to help but you will have to collect.

[gwynnethmary]

Davy, I do have a GH but it's at home, not at the lottie.  I think the fence will be about 6 feet tall, but it may not be very long, depending on which plot I'm allocated.  My OH will be happy to do any fixing that needs doing.  I guess I'm a bit sceptical about having a roof without solid walls- we get some strong winds and I can imagine it sailing away into the distance and landing on one of the graves in the cemetery next door!

[lincsyokel2]

Davy, I do have a GH but it's at home, not at the lottie.  I think the fence will be about 6 feet tall, but it may not be very long, depending on which plot I'm allocated.  My OH will be happy to do any fixing that needs doing.  I guess I'm a bit sceptical about having a roof without solid walls- we get some strong winds and I can imagine it sailing away into the distance and landing on one of the graves in the cemetery next door!

as i suggested earlier, dig a shallow hole  10 foot by 10 foot, and line it with pond liner, it'll do the same thing

[gwynnethmary]

I think I'd rather use 100 square feet for something I can eat!  Although frogs would be an asset I guess!

[Aden Roller]

Davy, I do have a GH but it's at home, not at the lottie.  I think the fence will be about 6 feet tall, but it may not be very long, depending on which plot I'm allocated.  My OH will be happy to do any fixing that needs doing.  I guess I'm a bit sceptical about having a roof without solid walls- we get some strong winds and I can imagine it sailing away into the distance and landing on one of the graves in the cemetery next door!

as i suggested earlier, dig a shallow hole  10 foot by 10 foot, and line it with pond liner, it'll do the same thing

Evaporation rates might be increased if the surface area is quite large.

[lincsyokel2]

Davy, I do have a GH but it's at home, not at the lottie.  I think the fence will be about 6 feet tall, but it may not be very long, depending on which plot I'm allocated.  My OH will be happy to do any fixing that needs doing.  I guess I'm a bit sceptical about having a roof without solid walls- we get some strong winds and I can imagine it sailing away into the distance and landing on one of the graves in the cemetery next door!

as i suggested earlier, dig a shallow hole  10 foot by 10 foot, and line it with pond liner, it'll do the same thing

Evaporation rates might be increased if the surface area is quite large.

possibly, but ofc the larger the area the better the collection rate.  The strategy, if you can be bothered, is to sink a barrel in the ground  first and use the plastic to funnel the water.  Some allotment sites wont let you have a pond, but frogs eat slugs!!

Theres only two basic ways to do this: you either have a plane in the air collecting it (like a shed roof, or a roof on legs) and the water runs into a barrel, or you have a plane on the ground (like a sheet of plastic), but then you either have to pump the water up into a barrel or collect it and manually move it into a barrel, or you sink the barrel into the ground lower than the collecting plane.

Unless you could invent a water powered lift, so that some of the collected water from the ground plane goes into powering a mechanism that lifts and dumps it into a barrel.  I can think of a way to do that, with some plastic and mecanno , but id have to experiment first.

[Aden Roller]

I have no idea whether this would work or not but.......

Water naturally flows down hill & fabric / natural fibre string absorbs water so would a large number of strings all tied together at the lowest point over a barrel yet radiating out and upward at the other ends (perhaps tied to the tops of a circle of canes) act as a rain catcher?

Just a daft thought perhaps and I've no time to experiment... came to mind thinking about wicking and old canvas tents.  ::)