How to Make Bamboo Rain Gutters

Bamboo rain gutters are a green alternative to metal and plastic gutters and are often used in areas where bamboo is abundantly available. Bamboo gutters are cheaper and give a beautiful rustic appeal, but they are less durable than conventional gutters.

However, they are perfectly suited forharvesting rainwater   from a roof and watering, for example, a small vegetable garden. Rainwater can easily be harvested as it flows through an outlet connected by a pipe to a rainwater tank or container.

The usual form of a bamboo gutter for carrying water from a roof consists of a large-diameter bamboo pole split lengthwise, with all the nodes removed. This is held to the roof’s eaves with iron hooks, or with long pieces of wood or wooden brackets nailed to the rafters and notched at the top edges to support the split bamboo.

Sizes for Bamboo Rain Gutters and Outlet Drains

The size of the rain gutter is determined by the roof area and its slope, while the diameter of the outlet drain is proportional to the roof area and the gutter’s width. In the table below, you can calculate the appropriate gutter width and the outlet drain diameter  corresponding to a given roof area:

ROOF AREA (M²)	GUTTER WIDTH (CM)	OUTLET DRAIN DIAMETER (CM)
50	12	6.5
60	13	6.5
70	14	6.5
80	15	7.5
90	16	7.5
100	17	7.5

The depth of the bamboo gutter is about half its width. For example, if the gutter is 13 centimetres wide, the depth should be 6.5 cm.

The diameter of the outlet drain is proportional to the amount of rainwater collected in the gutter. Otherwise, rainwater could overflow if the outlet were too small.

Installing a Bamboo Rain Gutter on a Roof Structure

Bamboorain gutters — courtesy of:Paul Sypkes

1. Measure the length of the roof where you’re going to install the bamboo gutter. Stretch a tape measure all the way to the opposite end of the wall to determine the correct length for the bamboo gutter.
2. Place the split bamboo on a flat surface and measure where it needs to be cut. Draw a pencil line all the way around the outside of the bamboo gutter.
3. Wrap a piece of masking tape around the bamboo where it will be cut, to prevent the bamboo from cracking or splitting.
4. Cut the bamboo with a fine-toothed handsaw or a table saw.
5. Once it’s cut to size, remove the masking tape from the bamboo gutter.
6. Attach the bamboo gutter to the roof.

 

Attaching the Bamboo Gutter to a Roof Structure

There are various ways to attach bamboo rain gutters to a roof structure . The following illustrations show the most common examples:

1.  Attach the bamboo gutter to a bamboo roof structure using plywood gutter brackets.

2  Attach the bamboo gutter to a thatched-roof structure using plywood gutter holders.

3.  Attach the bamboo gutter to a thatched-roof structure using wooden brackets.

4.  Attach the bamboo gutter with iron gutter holders to a thatched-roof structure using wooden brackets.

5a.  Using wooden brackets as gutter holders.

5b.  Attach the wooden bracket holders to the roof structure with rope, iron wire, or nails.

Rainwater Harvesting with Bamboo Gutters

Bamboo rain gutter grow system with 14 pots of vegetables.