I want to show you a very simple guttering system — an easy-peasy guttering system you can do really quickly when you’re working with corrugated iron.

Why is this important? Because people are sometimes too fast to leave projects, to let somebody else take over — to let somebody else take our freedom away from us by telling us it’s too complicated. It isn’t.

The Idea

The whole system is built around a simple 75mm PVC downpipe — the standard kind you’ll get at any Builders Warehouse or Home Depot, along with the little elbows to match.

The trick is this: you split a length of downpipe down the side, then open it up and clip it onto the end of the roof sheet, where it acts as a gutter. The corrugated iron edge sits inside the split pipe, and the rainwater running off the roof feeds straight into it.

I’m not the guy who thought this up — I’ve seen other guys do it before, including a very good friend of mine who has used it on very nice buildings.

The Tools

Nothing fancy: a pair of gloves, a cordless hand drill (mine’s a 14-volt), a crosscut saw, and a level — I like to use a Stanley.

I cut the slit on a table saw, but you don’t need one — you can do it with a handsaw. One warning: be careful of the sharp edges of the corrugated iron. I don’t want to create any accidents with this.

Putting It Together

Split the pipe, open it up, and work it onto the edge of the roof sheet — I prefer feeding the thick end on first. At the corner, an unsplit elbow clamps over the split section, which also helps grip the gutter more firmly around the sheet. Then secure it in place with a screw from your hand drill — that’s all you need to hold the downpipe in position. Do that at each corner and you’re away.

At the bottom end, the downpipe runs into a 200-litre drum — ours was rescued from a dump site; it used to belong to Castrol, but now it belongs to Pebble Spring Farm. From the drum, a few attachments let us run the water off to feed the chickens and the rabbits.

It’s really that easy.

Do the Numbers

Don’t be confused by the size of this very little project — it’s a rabbit hutch and a chicken coop we built here. But the maths is worth looking at.

This little piece of roof is 1 metre wide by 1.5 metres — 3 square metres of roof sheet in total. Here in Port Elizabeth, at 34 degrees south near the coast, we get about 600 to 700mm of rain per year. Over 3 square metres, that’s around 2 kilolitres of water a year — an average of about 5 or 6 litres a day.

The chickens and rabbits are not going to use 5 litres a day. This little unit becomes completely self-sustaining — and the whole system is going to expand to 10, 15, 20 units.

Keep It Small, Keep It Free

Don’t try this on big industrial operations. I’m talking about home projects — a little shed, a little house, a little cottage, a chicken coop, that kind of stuff.

Tell me how it works for you in your environment. We’re looking for easy things, we’re looking for cheap things, we’re looking for stuff you can do yourself — to set yourself free.