rainwater harvesting off the 1 1/2 story cottage roof?

Started by tesa, January 08, 2009, 07:09:43 PM

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tesa

is that pitch good for our needs? my original idea was to build something with a shed roof, so we could get maximum
water off my roof

husband seems to think that roof pitch won't offer us the best pitch for catching water

thoughts?

tesa
"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing

diyfrank

Home is where you make it


MountainDon

Rain water can be collected off any slope. I believe that a roof with a steeper slope has some advantages over roofs with shallow slopes. My reasoning is based on the first water off the roof, after a dry spell, having a lot of undesirable stuff in it; leaves, needles, dust, pollen, bird droppings and so on. A steeper roof will likely be able to wash more crud free with a smaller volume of water. At least that's my theory.   :-\

There are devices, some you can build yourself, that allow diversion of a set amount of first water before collecting begins.

The only possible advantage I see in a shed roof vs gable style roof for rain water collection is you only need one evestrough. But that may mean that in a heavy rain the single gutter may not have enough capacity to catch and carry the flow.  ???   Maybe someone can find fault with that logic.   ???
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

tesa

thanks, i wasn't sure and before we make any purchases, i wanted to confirm we would still be ok

my research shows folks are catching rainwater off all sorts of styles of roofs, and we get areound 32 inches a year, so i'm
thinking we'll be alright, its just something to consider

will be offline most of today, as friday is my errand/laundry day (boo hoo)

have a great weekend!

tesa
"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing

John Raabe

If you are interested in a loft and a shed roof you can combine them in some interesting ways.

http://www.countryplans.com/sheds/shedroof.html - this has some general ideas.

Here is a link to a project built be a forum member: http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=5034.0

Unfortunately, there are not detailed working drawing plans for either of these designs.

Of course the 1-1/2 story 20' wide plan has a large loft and would be great for rainwater collection. A gable roof shape will usually give you the most usable loft space.

None of us are as smart as all of us.


tesa

i love it! its sort of like something we first saw in a book on pole construction

which, btw, we've all but given up on

i spoke to a company in houston that sells the poles, but the cost to set those poles, 20 footers, would be
several thousand dollars

i guess i'm trying to justify it 'cause i spent the better part of a year, reading and sketching on napkins

but i do like the 1 1/2 cottage, the girls have their hearts set on a loft, but i think daniel (husband) feel
un certain about working on such a pitched roof, and we had heard the shed roof was so easy to build/work on

i'm gonna take a few days, gather my thoughts, and work on the property, and maby start fresh on monday

i just don't know enough to change the plans to what we really want, i know i can change the floor plan and
doors, and windows with the software, but changing the roofline, way out of my league

well, like i said, i'm gonna take a day off from stressing over plans, pop open a beer, and NOT think about it,
and start fresh on monday

john, thanks so much for posting the links, i really like his house,

maby the fella that origianlly built it has working plans, my luck he just sketched it on a nakpin..LOL

tesa
"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing

John_C

Sometime back a member who was going to build in Hawaii posted a liink to a very good PDF file on rainwater catchment and treatment.  I couldn't find the post but I believe this is the link

www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/RM-12.pdf

My house in the FL keys had a large cistern that was the sole water supply.  It is still working just fine 24 years later.  You can have almost any configuration of roof, some are easier to provide gutters. More important is the roof surface.  Concrete or metal being the obvious choices and shingles are not suitable if it will potable water collection.