The other is a basin, weight, or bucket for the bottom of the chain. It is a drop in flange and short tube that helps ensure that rain flows directly out of your gutter and into the chain. Rain chain vendors also offer two accessories worth considering. Brass, enameled, and aluminum cups are other choices in metals. Copper is popular material and a natural one for an architectural element. The standard length is about eight feet, and some can be lengthened at a "per added foot" price. Rain chains are sold on the internet, of course, and you may see them at high end garden centers*.
Vincent Longo Custom Builders explains ( click here for video) how a rain chain was a much more aesthetically pleasing choice than a downspout on a stone house with copper gutters. In either case, a rain chain is certainly more interesting than a basic, boring downspout.
But rain chains can fill a rain barrel too. Like a downspout, a rain chain can end over a standard splash block that directs water away from the house foundation. On modern Western homes, a rain chain may replace the standard utilitarian downspout that we usually try to hide (with little success) or blend in (poorly) to the house trim and siding. Chains can simply hang free, or may be attached in place at the bottom to a container, stone, or drain. The catchment at the bottom of a rain chain can serve to either collect and hold, or drain away, the flow. The cups hang one under another, each a few inches wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, so that water flows from the bottom of one cup into the mouth of the one under it. Cup shapes, like the one shown here, can be made to resemble flowers, tiny buckets, deep cups or other pretty shapes. The surface tension of the water cause it to grab the rings and cling to them as it flows to the ground. Rain chains consist of a string of rings or cup shapes. Heavier rain gushes and gurgles like a temporary waterfall.
Light rain trickles down and ripples the surface of a barrel or basin full of water. The kusari-doi turns the rain and the collection area into aesthetic garden elements while the chain serves a practical purpose. From the edge of a Japanese roof, the "kusari-doi" directs rainwater into a barrel, drain, or basin, or onto a stone slab. Now that you’ve got it down, sounds like a great DIY gift for friends and family that would like to conserve water in their sustainable garden.Rain chains are a traditional element in southern and western Japan. You’ve now made your own rain chain simply and inexpensively. Use the 2 center bolts to keep the chain in the center of the crossbar. Continue making the rest of the crossbars with remaining nuts and bolts. Then, thread the bolt through the left-side hole of the funnel rim and tighten end with remaining nut (#3). Thread the bolt through a link in the chain and add another nut (#2). Thread a bolt through the hole in the right edge of the funnel, then screw on a nut (#1). Now you are going to create the crossbars, which take 1 bolt and 3 nuts. Drill two holes on opposite sides of each of the 10 funnels. Use that to mark where to drill on the funnel so it hangs straight. Trace the funnel and find its center point on the paper.
They can be purchased and are sometimes rather ornate and expensive, but with just a few materials, you can make your own rain chain. Rain chains are widely used in Japan and combine form and function. This is basically a storage container or whiskey barrel that stores water from your houses gutters.īut how do you get the water from the gutter into the rain barrel? There are a couple of methods, but by far the most attractive are rain chains. Perhaps the most widely used method for trapping rainwater for use in the garden is by virtue of a rain barrel. There are a number of ways to re-channel rainwater for use in the garden. An easy resource to utilize is rainwater. The idea behind sustainable gardening is to work with nature’s resources, not against them.