Gutters and downspouts waste many gallons of water every year.
In these days of rising utility costs, it pays to save every ounce of water you can get. If you've got a common gutter system installed on your roof, all the rain and melted snow eventually drains down the pipes and onto the ground. This wastes potentially hundreds of gallons of water every year. Install a simple system of flexible hose and a rain barrel underneath your eaves. You'll have free water for your flowers and vegetables all year long. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Put on protective eyewear. Use a drill with a screwdriver attachment or an electric screwdriver to remove the screws holding the downspout to the wall. Take off all the metal downspout until the point where it first bends and touches the wall.
2. Place two cinder blocks underneath the downspout to form a flat platform. If the ground underneath the downspout isn't level, dig out the soil until you can form a flat surface with the top of the blocks.
3. Place the rain barrel on top of the cinder block platform. Orient the spout so that it aims away from the building.
4. Attach a downspout redirector to the bottom of the downspout. This tool is basically a rectangular funnel that diverts rain water from the gutters into flexible hose.
5. Attach a flexible plastic hose to the bottom of the downspout redirector. Use the hardware enclosed with the redirector package, or hold them all together with layers of waterproof duct tape.
6. Position the end of the flexible hose over the rain barrel. Rain will pour down the spout and into your barrel, ready for you to use to water your plants.
Tags: flexible hose, rain barrel, bottom downspout, downspout redirector, every year, form flat