Rainwater Systems Guide

Rainwater guttering systems are designed to channel water away from a buildings base to protect its foundation. They also help to reduce erosion, prevent leaks in basements and crawlspaces, protect painted surfaces by reducing exposure to water, and provide a means to collect rainwater for later use.

Popular materials for guttering systems include metal, GRP, copper, zinc, plastic and timber.

Rainwater gutters collect water from the roof and drain it down a leader pipe to the bottom of the building where it is collected or directed to a drainage system. A barrel may be used to collect water from the guttering system.

Rainwater Systems are made up of the following components:

Gutters - the horizontal pipe that sits on the roof edge and collects the water as it drains off the tiles. Many different finishes and shapes are available in a guttering systems. The shapes are referred to as profiles.

Pipes - used to drain the water from the roof level to the ground. The down pipes needs to follow the contours of the building so are made up of sections connected by a series of joints.

Hoppers – down pipes from different areas of the roof line can meet at a junction called a hopper where they are joined into a single pipe.

Accessories - brackets, clips, ends and outlets are used to connect the rainwater system together and to secure it to the building.

Rain gutters can be equipped with gutter screens, louvers or solid hoods to allow water from the roof to flow through, while reducing passage of roof debris into the gutter.

Most modern guttering requires no maintenance other than periodical cleaning out. Water can leak down the side of the building if the gutters become blocked or clogged up. Blocked gutters can also lead to stagnant water build up which allows grasses and weeds to grow in the gutter.

Save Money and Go Green Too

Go Green In Your Home - And Save Money Too

If you have the wish to Go Green in your home environment , and save money at the same time,it has probably never been easier. As the planet faces an uncertain future of global warming, which is believed to be the result of us all burning fossil fuels indiscriminately, we all have a duty to do the best we can to redress the balance. Here are some vital tips and useful information to help you get started…

Your home is usually where most of your income is spent, so it makes real sense to be spending it as efficiently as you possibly can. You could start to Go Green in your home by insulating the whole house. Loft insulation, wall cavity insulation, double or even triple glazing - it will all make a tremendous difference. Yes, there is an investment to consider, but you will save in the long term, and save a lot too.

We all tend to use far too much water. Go Green in the home by cutting back as much as you can. We could all, collectively, save over one billion gallons of water a year by simply changing our old flush toilet cisterns. The old ones use three and a half gallons per flush and the new high-efficiency ones use just over one and a quarter gallon. It makes a vast difference! If you did only this one thing to Go Green in the home you would be saving 20,000 gallons of water every single year, and be paying a lot less in water bills.

The standard light bulbs that most homes have are very inefficient. Compact fluorescent light bulbs burn approximately 5% of the old bulbs and they also last 10 times longer. They may cost you slightly more to purchase initially, but this is one very obvious way to Go Green in the home and save a lot of money in the long run. But you can do even better, The new LED lights are almost twice as efficient as even the compact fluorescent light bulbs, and they will last even longer too.

Heat leaks out of a house in winter and into the house in summer. More efficient insulation all round is a perfect way to Go Green in the home. Take a look at your loft, your wall cavities and your windows and even doors. Sort out all of these and you can Go Green in the home and really save too.

Home utilities are a drain on energy. Did you know that modern washing powders are so good that they don’t really need hot water? your washing machine uses most of its energy heating the water, so wash your clothes cold. They will be clean really great while you are going green in the home. You may likely think your dishwasher is also an energy drain, but strangely, it isn’t. If you use it fully filled it uses less resources than if you wash by hand. Once you know these little tips and tricks, it’s easy to Go Green in the home.

Author and Publisher Rob Watson
Rob Watson Publishes about-global-warming.com
dedicated to promoting issues associated with
Going Green and Global Warming

You have permission to copy, reproduce this
article provided the authors credits are retained

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