Los Angeles Rain Barrel Rebates: Get Paid to Catch Your Roof Water

LA Rain Rebate Guide

Who pays LA homeowners to catch rain, and what your gutters need first

Most rain barrel money in Los Angeles flows through one place: SoCal WaterSmart, the rebate program run by the Metropolitan Water District for its member cities and water agencies. You buy the barrel or cistern, install it on a downspout, then apply online with your water bill and receipt. What changes is the amount. LADWP customers in the City of Los Angeles get an enhanced rate of up to $50 a barrel or up to $500 for a cistern. Burbank Water and Power, Glendale Water and Power, Beverly Hills and Las Virgenes Municipal Water District customers in Calabasas are pointed to the regional base rate. Santa Monica runs its own, richer Rain Harvest Rebate, and LA Sanitation points city residents to the regional rebates and posts rain barrel installation and maintenance videos.

Here is the part most people miss. Every one of these programs is really a gutter program. SoCal WaterSmart requires existing gutters along the entire roof perimeter plus downspouts, or on a partly flat roof, gutters on every pitched section. The barrel has to receive all the water from a downspout unimpeded, sit about 6 inches off the ground on a solid base, and keep a lid and a screened overflow. If your house has gutters on the front only, or a downspout that dumps on the driveway where the barrel cannot go, the rebate stalls before it starts.

The Brothers That Just Do Gutters Los Angeles is owned by Robinson O’Brien-Bours and holds California contractor license 1140218. We do not sell barrels, but we get the roofline ready for one: seamless gutters formed on-site to close the gaps, downspouts added or moved to where the barrel will sit, and BroGuard mesh that keeps palm litter and leaves from rotting in the tank. Where you would rather send water to a planted area or out to the street, we extend and redirect the downspouts instead.