Do You Need Gutters To Use A Rain Barrel

A spigot or hose connector lets you drain the water for use around your landscape.

Do you need gutters to use a rain barrel.

They are fairly simple to install and once you have one set up the environmental protection agency estimates a single 55 gallon rain barrel can save you up to 1 300 gallons of water during the hot summer months. 1 walk around your house during the next rain and observe the water. Many times you can simply direct your gutter downspout into a top opening in the rain barrel. A rain barrel is a container that collects runoff from your home s gutter system connecting to the downspout with a rain diverter or fitting under a modified downspout.

Most homes direct water into the barrel with gutters and downspouts but even homes without gutters can use a rain barrel. Rain barrels collect rainwater from your roof by rerouting a section of your gutter s downpipe into a nearby reservoir. Most sloping roofs can accommodate a rain chain even without a gutter. In order to decide for yourself whether rain gutters are necessary for your home it is best to first weigh the facts.

You can even feed it into another trashcan or rain barrel and double triple quadruple whatever your storage. This causes your carefully sloped landscape to wear down allowing runoff to flow toward your home instead of away from it. If rain flows off your roof because you have no gutters the water causes massive erosion washing away more and more soil each time it rains. Erosion also causes the foundation to settle.

Choose a location for the rain barrel ideally beneath your gutters downspout that s closest to your garden or where you ll need the water. They are generally not required by law on a sloping roof and many modern homes omit them even in instances where they are beneficial. If you are setting up a rainwater collection system you will need a way for the water from your gutter to get into your rain barrel. I find i don t need much more than 30gal at a time and we have relatively frequent rains in our area.

Shorten the gutter if you can easily place the rain barrel underneath where a gutter drains you may need to just place a barrel underneath a short downspout talk to a gutter installation expert about how to shorten a downspout and fit it into a barrel. Make sure that your rain barrel will be on a flat surface that can support the weight of a full barrel which can be up to 300 lbs. You may not need any additional parts or accessories and your project is done. Create new downspout can t fit a rain barrel underneath the downspout.

When it gets near the top the water will drain out of the tube and go where you direct it. Rain barrels provide an alternative to using municipal water or well water for irrigation.