Rainwater Harvesting Questions Checklist

List the uses you actually have in mind for collected water and put them in order of what matters most to you.

An ordered list survives the conversation intact, whereas a general wish to save water tends to be interpreted by whoever hears it.

Note whether the intended use is spread evenly through the seasons or concentrated in the driest part of them.

Collection follows the weather rather than your plans, and demand and supply frequently peak at opposite times.

Decide what you would do during a long dry spell when the container is empty, since that is precisely when the water is wanted.

Owners who have thought this through are far less disappointed by an arrangement that behaves exactly as it should.

Rule out drinking, food preparation, washing and filling anything people sit in, unless a suitably qualified professional has advised otherwise.

Writing the ruled-out uses down protects everybody in the household from a decision taken casually later on.

What stored roof water is fit for is a matter for a suitably qualified professional and for local confirmation, never an owner assumption.

Note who in the household would be drawing water off, and whether children or anybody vulnerable would have access to it.

Where stored water is accessible to children or animals, ask a qualified professional what safety measures the arrangement needs.

Treat any idea of using collected water inside the property as an entirely separate question needing professional advice and local confirmation.

Anything connecting stored rainwater to a property involves other requirements; confirm locally and involve suitably qualified professionals.

Note which roof slopes feed the downpipe you have in mind, and whether that includes an extension, a garage or only part of the house.

Owners regularly assume a downpipe serves the whole roof when it takes water from one slope of it.

Record what the roof covering is in ordinary terms and describe its visible condition, including moss, debris and anything loose.

What the surface sheds matters to anybody advising, and it is visible from the ground with nothing more than patience.

Note any tree overhanging the roof and what it drops onto it through the seasons, since all of that reaches the gutter.

Leaf fall and blossom are the usual reason a collection arrangement needs far more attention than expected.

Watch the gutter during heavy rain and note where it overflows, drips, holds water afterwards or appears to be blocked.

Gutters are judged from the ground on dry occasions, which is when they all look much the same.

Establish whether the gutter or downpipe you have in mind serves any part of a neighbouring property as well as your own.

Shared rainwater arrangements involve other parties; ask the relevant authority and, where appropriate, take legal advice before altering anything.

Check whether anything else discharges into that downpipe, including an overflow pipe, a second roof or a pipe you cannot account for.

Anything discharging into a rainwater pipe that you cannot identify should be looked at by a qualified drainage professional.

Write down plainly that any collection arrangement overflows once full, and treat where that water goes as the main question from the outset.

Owners who raise overflow first get a useful conversation, while those who raise it last are often told the whole idea has to change.

Where overflow water may be directed is a drainage matter for a qualified professional and for the relevant authority or drainage undertaker.

Record where the roof water currently goes at the foot of the downpipe, described exactly as you can see it rather than as you assume it works.

Many downpipes end in something nobody has examined, and the assumption about it is usually inherited from a previous owner.

Note what the ground does where an overflow would discharge, including whether it already stands wet or soft after rain.

Whether that ground could take more water is a judgement for a qualified drainage professional and cannot be settled by watching it.

Note what sits near the position you have in mind, including walls, boundaries, ground belonging to a neighbour, a vent, a chamber cover and anything below ground level.

Proximity to a building or a boundary changes the question entirely; put it to a qualified professional before going further.

Do not disconnect, divert or alter the existing downpipe arrangement on the strength of your own reasoning about where water should go.

Altering roof drainage is work for a qualified professional, with local confirmation of what applies to the property.

Ask a qualified drainage professional what the overflow question involves here, and ask the local authority or drainage undertaker what has to be confirmed.

Two different bodies answer two different halves of this, and owners commonly ask only one of them.

Note what the ground or surface is where a container might stand, and whether it is level, made up, recently laid or covering something.

The surface beneath is the part nobody examines until something has settled or tipped.

Write down that stored water is heavy once a container is full, and ask what the ground or structure beneath would need to be able to take.

Full containers are far heavier than people picture, and the surface beneath is usually chosen for looks rather than for what it carries.

Anything supporting the weight of stored water raises a structural question for a suitably qualified professional to answer.

Consider whether the position sits tight against a wall, and note that keeping a wall face permanently damp or hidden raises a separate question.

Anything placed against a building may affect it; ask a qualified professional before settling on a position tight to a wall.

Think through how you would actually take water off, whether a watering can fits beneath the outlet, and how far it would then have to be carried.

Arrangements that are awkward to use quietly stop being used, and the container becomes a stagnant fixture instead.

Note how much sun the position gets and how visible it is from the house, a path or a window belonging to a neighbour.

Warmth and light affect what happens inside a container, and visibility affects whether you will tolerate the thing at all.

Note what the container would sit in front of or on top of, including a vent, a gully, a chamber cover, a path or the swing of a gate.

Obstruction happens quietly, because the thing being covered was working fine and nobody was looking at it.

Avoid any position that would obstruct a vent, gully or chamber cover, and ask a qualified professional where anything may stand near them.

Ask what keeps a container securely covered, since open stored water raises safety questions wherever children or animals have access.

This question is easier to settle before a position is chosen than to retrofit once something is standing there.

Safety arrangements around stored water should be settled with a qualified professional rather than improvised afterwards.

Ask what keeps stored water from stagnating or breeding insects, and what condition it typically ends up in when standing for a long stretch.

Stagnation is the most common reason a collection arrangement is abandoned, and it is entirely predictable.

Ask what cleaning the arrangement needs and who would realistically do it, since material off the roof collects at the bottom of anything storing water.

Maintenance that nobody has agreed to do is maintenance that will not happen, whatever anybody intends at the start.

Ask what should happen to stored water in freezing conditions and whether the arrangement needs attention before cold weather arrives.

Freezing conditions are the point at which neglected arrangements tend to fail, and they arrive on schedule every time.

What an arrangement needs in freezing conditions depends on how it is built; ask the professional advising on it.

Decide how the outlet will be identified so that nobody in the household or visiting mistakes stored roof water for a drinking supply.

How stored non-drinking water should be identified is something to confirm locally and with a suitably qualified professional.

Consider honestly what would happen if the arrangement were left unattended for a long stretch, and whether you would keep up with it.

An arrangement nobody maintains becomes a problem sitting against the house rather than a saving of anything.

Note where the roof water currently ends up and what would happen there once some of it is being held back instead.

Anything that has been receiving that water, including planting and ground, has adjusted to it over a long stretch.

Note that once a container is full the arrangement behaves much as it did before, and ask what that means for everything downstream.

Collection helps least in exactly the conditions that produce the most water, which owners rarely anticipate.

Ask what happens during the heaviest rain rather than during ordinary rain, since that is when any arrangement is genuinely tested.

How an arrangement behaves in extreme rainfall is for a qualified drainage professional to assess for this particular property.

Note whether any change could send water towards a neighbour, a boundary or a shared surface, and treat that as a question for others to answer.

Water crossing a boundary raises questions of responsibility for the relevant authority and, where needed, for a legal adviser.

Ask how readily the arrangement could be returned to how things were, and what would be left behind if it were removed.

Reversibility is worth knowing before committing, particularly where the property may change hands.

Note what currently benefits from water arriving where it does, such as a border beside the downpipe that has never needed watering.

Removing an unnoticed water supply from established planting is a familiar and avoidable surprise.

Confirm locally what applies to collecting and storing rainwater at a property in your area, and record where each answer came from.

Recording the source of each answer means the reasoning can be checked later rather than recalled from memory.

Requirements vary by location and by property; confirm with the local authority rather than relying on general accounts.

Ask what applies if the property has any protected status or sits within a controlled area, since alterations visible from outside can be restricted.

Anything affecting the appearance of a property with protected status is a matter to confirm with the local authority before it is arranged.

Ask what information a professional would need from you before they could advise on an arrangement here.

Finding out early what is missing avoids a wasted conversation and a second wet spell spent gathering evidence.

Write down who would be responsible for each part, including anything touching the gutter, the downpipe and the ground.

Work split between several people is where things get left undone, and the gaps are visible on paper beforehand.

Write down the questions you are deliberately not answering yourself, including overflow destination, fitness of the water and anything touching the building.

Keeping these questions with qualified professionals and the responsible authority is the point of preparing rather than deciding.

Keep every answer with the name and role of whoever gave it and the date, so the reasoning survives long after the conversation.

Advice given informally is forgotten or misremembered, and it is exactly the part you will want later.