Maybe I can't quite envision the detail, but it sounds like you want to take a gutter horizontally away from the house, but not at ground level. Why not a more traditional approach (keep it against the building)? Why disguise the pipe? Make it a design element. I have seen many Japanese double board wooden gutters, half round copper, and others that enhance the structure. And of course it is an opportunity for the ever popular rain chain. Forgive me if I missed the crux of the problem.

No, you seem to see it OK. There was a recent problem with water in the basement and so now they want the water from the down pipe to discharge some way away from the house. Unless it passes through a gateway like I planned it will be above a walkway and bare.

OK - then I am more worried about the practical aspects than the design. Nobody in cold climates likes to have closed gutters run horizontally. They plug and freeze even when they are vertical, so I would rethink. Maybe you can bring the gutter to an open channel on top of the gate - sort of like a roman aquaduct, and then down. Or bring it down to the ground at the house and run it underground to cross the walkway (requiring excavation and drainpipe).

Any chance that the owners want/would tolerate/have room for/would pay for a sometimes-dry waterfall coming from a "natural" bridge over the walkway?

Or how about those bamboo conduits that carry water from place to place in any Asiatically-intended landscaping at Disneyland? (Those are authentically Japanese, right? :)

- Evelyn

Evelyn;

Authentic "Gilligan's Island"

I love that show.

Michael

Most times this is done by piping the water under the ground to a "French drain" some distance away from the foundation.