Rain Chains have probably had the most recent interest between the class and the Home & Garden Show in Omaha last weekend. (Hence no post last week) They are really grabbing a lot of attention recently and I was wanting to address them in this post.
Rain Chains are ancient (a few hundred years old at least) Japanese down spouts. These are very beautiful downspouts that are links alone or with baskets/cups in between the links. Commonly made of copper, but not mandatory. If you're a regular HGTV or other home show watcher you've probably at least seen them once before.
The main thing I wanted to touch on with these items is that they are not fully contained down spouts. Depending on how your landscape works they are an excellent to "a little work necessary" accessory to you house/landscape. Since they are not completely enclosed there are some considerations to take into account.
They will splash and you will need to consider some type of diversion for the water. The point of downspouts is to get the water away from the house, so with an open design they don't really accomplish the main purpose. This isn't necessarily a problem. If you already, or are considering, rain water capturing this isn't a major issue. A large barrel can catch a large amount, at least on a one story setup. If you do not have a rain barrel, I'd consider doing a rain garden or bog in the immediate area. A little liner and you can create a moist area for capturing and filtering the water from the roof. Also if you are more concerned about diversion, you can still slope the area into a drain tile and direct it away from the foundation.
The other option is using one as a fountain. This does take some thought also, and will need a wide basin or lined area so you don't have to be refilling constantly. I'll be working on setting one up in the courtyard when it warms up so I hope to have pictures to better describe the process soon.
I really like the possibilities with the rainchains and am going to be working with other ways to utilize them. I will also be looking into what type of alteration it would need to make pottery into a functional rain barrel. Hopefully not much, but I want to research before I start giving out ideas.
(Pictures from Rainchains.com)
3 comments:
Hi. I was just reading your post and wanted to address the "open system" issue. There will be splashing to some extent with all rain chains, but it does vary depending on the style that is in question. I sell rain chains at my website (www.rainchainsdirect.com) and some styles do quite well when it comes to containing splashing. To show you what I mean, here is a video of one of the styles that really contains water well (it's the first one in the video). Hope this helps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t8rYnARZuI
I also have a tutorial on the site about how to make your own rain chain!
Scott
Thanks for the additional information. I am not an expert on these features, although I am researching the topic recently.
The experience I have had with owners of rainchains is a concern over the splash and containment. And with the recent awareness of storm water usage these features as well as rain gardens and rain barrels are of particular interest.
I'd welcome any additional info if you wish to add more. Thanks.
Rain chain
Rain chains
Rain chains are typically either a series of metal cups, linked together with a hole in the bottom of each, or chain links that span vertically
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