Last week we had the gutters and catchment fill system installed, and none too soon because we were beginning to get erosion and gullying from all the water falling off the roof.
These guys are from Hawaii Island Rain Gutters. We decided to go with continuous metal gutters rather than the PVC ones. Some folks try to do the PVC themselves, but my experience has been that they always leak. Here is the machine that forms the gutter from rolls of coated aluminum...you can choose from several colors.
In this photo you can see how one continuous length is formed and cut...these are almost 40 feet long.
The corners are attached, and then the lengths are raised.
We designed the catchment system to have two downspouts which feed into the horizontal 3-inch PVC pipe. We wanted to keep everything up high to avoid having stagnant water in the feed pipe.
This shows the fill pipe going to a U-shaped loop which then goes over the tank edge. The vertical pipe and the pipe on the ground are the "first-flush" system that diverts about ten gallons of potentially dirty water before clean water starts flowing into the tank. Check out the free booklet "Rainwater Catchment Systems for Hawaii" available online from http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/ for more details.
This is water flowing out of the overflow pipe about three days after the gutters and catchment were installed. That's how long it took to collect 5,000 gallons (20,000 litres) with all the rain we have had! Our cup runneth over!
8 comments:
Thanks for the update. It is always exciting to hear how you are doing. I was browsing the web today, looking at houses and property and there was a property with the cesspool hole already dug and "just waiting to be capped!" I thought of you two and wondered who might have dug the hole. You guys are trailblazers for me. Thanks! Sharlee
Just found your blog. We are trying to build on Big Island too, but on the West Side. We may have to abandon that idea though and join the Punatics instead. Love your posts and all the great info you are providing. Where did you get your plans from? P.S. we also enjoyed visiting PEI and Green Gables years ago (before the bridge). Mele Kalikimaka.
Aloha Kohalakat,
Mahalo for the kudos! If you end up in Puna, so be it...I actually love it here, but also love Waimea area and Hawi, too....but they're all within driving range, so it's all good! Our plans were homemade....David has an old software program that he used to design the house. It's a very small house, but I think we've got it tweaked just right for us - lots of lanai space, only one bedroom, one bath, and lots of room under the house for storing the wheelbarrow, etc. If you are really interested, David might be able to help you design your home. We took our plans to someone who ran them thru the hoops for us (it was well worth the $1000, based on square footage) including the architect and building permit process. Ask questions and we'll be happy to give whatever information we have. It's been a fun process, for sure.
Are you on Punaweb? If not, please do so at www.punaweb.org because there's a real wealth of info there on the east side of the island. How did you find our blog? We've let folks on Konaweb know about it as well as on Punaweb.
Best wishes on finding your own piece of Paradise, whether it be on Kona-side or Hilo-side. If we can be of assistance, let us know.
Katie and David
K&D, just back from family xmas visit, hope you had a good one. We are able to design our home, but definitely will need help finding good subcontractors on the West side. I research a lot on line and met Rob Tucker at Castleblock in Pahoa who runs the Punaweb forum. I found your website off of Punaweb. I see you are posting business cards of subs. That's great. I am recommending your site to a friend who inherited a lot in Volcano and wants to build. She's running into septic design issues which sounds like par for the course. I would like to get the name of the person who handled the permit process for you. Also, what is your opinion about building a spec home for sale in your area? Someone told me he thought you could invest about $100k building a new spec home in Nanawale and make $100k. Do you see that as possible? Just curious. Happy New Year.
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