Hello lehua, Silly me I assumed people would understand that I want to use this water for the garden plants. The roof is approximately 12 feet above ground. Underground cistern is out of question because there's concrete foundation around the house and the house is surrounded by concrete fence/wall which also has concrete foundation, which leaves little non foundation space between the house and the fence, and also there's 4 rainwater pipes so this would involve a lot of work and expenses. I am not doing this to save the money, we get 20,000 gallons of free water per month, so I wanted to do it for the sake of the environment, freshwater is scarce in UAE, and desalinization is an expensive way to get it. We do have a pump that pumps underground water, but that water is salty so we only use it to water native plants such as our date palm and the shade trees we have in the front of the front fence. I was wondering if there's some kind of non-electric device that would let the water flow into a container near every drain (like I said there's 4 of them). I am asking for simple device/way because my husband would not cooperate (he's already complaining that my gardening is expensive).

cacwoody, check your local library for a book called The Sunset Western Garden Book, and look through the list of trees and the comments they have about what would be appropriate for your Bakersfield location. You need only a small tree or patio sized tree with deep growing, well-behaved roots. A small tree will give you sufficient shade for your home and yet not be a problem for nearby concrete or pipes. A large tree will end up being an expensive problem and could cause you problems with your neighbors. What if it were to fall on your home? Get the smallest tree that will do the job. A "small tree" is defined as 30'-35' which is likely too large for your lot. A "patio" tree would be something like 20'-25' and would still provide the shade you need. For the size of your yard and height of your home, one or two large shrubs limbed up as trees, or a "patio" sized tree may do just fine and be less likely to cause problems and expense. Getting a tree trimmed costs money. Choose wisely.

While no one seems to want to hear the truth of the matter, the plumber is correct, the Plumbing codes now require all above grade metal piping, be it water, gas, air, central vacuum or heating fuel lines. to be bonded to the house electrical grounding system, and the requirement has absolutely nothing to do with the NEC electrical grounding requirements or electrolosys. From the later part of the 19th century up to the early 50's galvanized iron or lead pipe was the only material available for water supply lines. By the late 40's to early 50's there was a strong trend to use copper pipe in place of galvanized iron, but in either case it was still a direct buried metal pipe. In those days the obvious choice for electrical grounding was the water line, and in fact, not only was the house electrical systems grounded to the water lines, in some regions lightning rods were also grounded to the water lines. In those days it was also common to wire a house 2 wire circuitry which had no common conductor and in instances when a ground was required they simply ran a ground wire from the appliance to the nearest water pipe. In the mid to late 50's they started using polyethylene pipe (PE) or Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe. It was soon realized that the plastic piping material no longer provided an adequate means of grounding so the NEC was amended to require all structures to have a driven grounding rod, or grounding to rebar in the footer as was mentioned by Brickeye above, and in instances where there was a metal water line the house electrical ground was to also be bonded to the water line. About that same time they began using PVC pipe for water distribution lines within the structure, therefore they could no longer rely upon grounding appliances to the nearest water line as had been done previously, therefore the NEC was again amended requiring the use of AWG14-2WG or AWG12-2-WG cables and three prong plugs, thus the entire house electrical system has its own independent grounding system and no longer relied upon the water lines. While we do still occasionally see a galvanized iron water supply line the codes now require that all direct buried galvanized iron pipe must be factory wrapped and all joints must be field wrapped to an equivalent level of protection, thus there is no direct contact between the galvanized iron pipe and the soil, hence the pipe will not provide any grounding. Some local codes still require copper pipe for water supply lines but as a rule, due to the price of copper it is very rare that we see a copper water supply line. Keep in mind that the NEC only requires bonding to the water supply line when there is 10' or more of direct buried metal pipe. In instances where the water supply line is made or PVC, Polyethylene or PEX there is no requirement in the electrical code to bond the pipe, as a consequence there have been many instances where an electric water heater, pump, electric solenoid valve or other electrically operated device has short circuited and energized the metal piping throughout the house. One could make the argument that this cannot happen because the NEC requires all of those devices to be bonded through the ground wire on the electrical supply cable, but in the real world we all know that many people tend to disregard connecting that silly unnecessary green wire therefore in the event that particular device fails your entire water distribution system can become energized. God forbid you should be standing in the shower and reach up and touch an energized shower head. I wish i had a dollar for every time I have went into a basement or crawlspace and grabbed a copper pipe and got the living hell zapped out of me. This problem is prevalent enough today that in the apprenticeship training we stress that everyone in the trade should carry a single probe voltage sensor and test all metal piping systems before actually touching them. Thus the Plumbing codes have now been amended making it not only the electricians job, but also the plumbers job to insure that all above grade metal piping MUST BE BONDED to the house electrical grounding system. Will bonding the pipe to the house ground improve the house electrical ground? Probably not. Will it retard electrolysis? NO. Could it save your life? Absolutely yes. Now for the question of pin holes. Buss driver asked the important question here. If the water is supplied from a municipal water source the likelihood of pin hole developing from water quality is slim to none because the Federal standards for municipal water treatment require that they treat acidic water to have a neutral PH. Far too often what is attributed to pinholes is in fact pipe wall erosion because the line is undersized and the velocity of flow exceeds the maximum allowable flow rate of 8ft/sec.

trees have been planted next to roads since game of thrones started filming...er, I mean...what's a very long time? a recurring thread is trees lifting pavement of one kind or another. often, in these threads, the tree was planted in a small square cut out of a sidewalk. trees are routinely planted in islands in parking lots, and thrive for at least a few decades. when they are taken down, or start to decline, there's usually proximal causes that cannot rule out factors concerning root growth, development and ability of the tree to find it's water. A very long time ago, I ran across an article that measured tree root growth and spread in urban settings. Part of the trouble is in the nature of studies, funding, and construction/development. Studies take time to plan, lots more time to get the funding, and then, you kinda have to be sorta careful in how you go about collecting and recording your data...and construction timetables aren't necessarily kind to such things. At any rate, to make the long story short, the condensed version is that trees (and plants in general) are far better at finding ways to exist in the most contrived situations than we have any reason to hope. Full disclosure: this was a long time ago I found this article, and while I'll try to faithful in reflecting what was written, it was a long time ago. Somehow, this guy found a place where a lot of demolition/removal was happening, and he got to go in and try to assess root growth in a urban environment...so we're talking median strips, boulevards, small squares cut into sidewalks. Simply put, roots found a way to grow, not necessarily evenly, but they found ways to snake through the compaction and fill of urban construction designed for heavy traffic. you're speaking of a suburban residential environment. think you have anything to worry about?