Rain Gutter Downspout Sprinkler

Well i built a flower bed and wanted to use rain water to help water it. So i connected the downspout with some pvc pipe and a garden hose. Now the water is but to better use and distributed far enough from the house to prevent any basement leaking or wall damage.
 I made this form stuff i had layign aroudn the house.
 garden hose
1 inch pvc pipe
3 inch pvc pipe
some odds and ends pipe / hose fittings
3 inch end cap for pvc pipe
drill
saw
heat gun

Step 1: STEP ONE: Downspout Fitting

ok i had a piece of 3 inch pipe  and a end cap for it, so glued on the cap with some pvc glue. and drilled a hole into the middle of the cap.
Now i attached this old faucet part i just needed a 90 Degree bend it has a knob to open and close but i just leave it open. 

Step 2: STEP TWO: Attaching the Hose

The so i took a old garden hose and use it to start. it just screws into the brass faucet part and on the other end i added a female garden hose replacement end and that just screwed into the pvc pipe, i did glued it too.

Step 3: STEP THREE: Adding the PVC Pipe

Ok now to join the pvc pipes together, i used a heat gun to melt the end a little and twisted them together.  Then i drilled holes into the pipe about a foot apart. And sealed the other end with some plastic and a zip tie.

 And there you go when it rains the water is diverted and used for better things




OK FOOT NOTE  after the fact abotu 2 day s of rain it completely clogged up with pine needles at the base of first pipe, i added a metal mesh screen in the pipe and its working great.  But defiantly add some screen around the bottom of the hole and it was very easy to clean out.

Comments

[zacker]

Nice..let me see if i have this right.
You take the bottom elbow off the gutter downspout pipe.

then take a short piece of 3 or 4 inch, schedual 40 (white) PVC pipe or white DWV (Drain, waste, vent) pipe about what 10 inches long or so.

Glue a 3 or 4" pvc cap to one end.

Get a 3/4, hose thread valve (Boiler drain or sill cock) and drill a hole in the pvc cap roughly the same size as the brass valve. (make sure its a thread on type and not a solder on type)

The brass valve should twist (thread) into the hole right?

Then you connect a piece of garden hose to the brass valve( the valve is meant to have a garden hose threaded to it) and cut the hose so its the correct length you need.

Then on the other end (cut end) of the hose, you attach that to a piece of smaller diameter (1" or 3/4"?) PVC pipe by useing a Hose repair fitting.. a female one. (you could also buy an adapther that you can glue to the end of the pvc that has threads on one end for a female pipe fitting to be screwed onto, a female hose repair end would thread on it with a little effort.

(one thought, cant you eliminate the whole "hose to pvc" just by making holes in the hose for the water to drip out of and plugging up the cut end?)


Then cut the pvc pipe to what ever length you need it to be,drill your drain holes in the pvc pipe for the water to drip out of and into your garden. id also say to plug the open end of this pipe with either a glue on cap, a bunch of rubber stuffed into it or some duct tape and plastic baggies.

[Bubbler]

I'm a little concerned that a major downpour is going to back up to the gutters and overflow, and that your garden bed may get flooded right out. A 200 litre barrel with the drain hose fitted to the bottom, and an overflow downpipe out of the top would give you a safegaurd against that. All the same, water wise ideas are great.

[LoganMackey]

The 3 inch downspout pipe is not sealed around the metal downspout it jsut fits around it there is a slight gap around it so it couldn't back up into the gutters,
and we just had abotu 3 days of rain (Ohio) and the garden is fine.