Question
Sean,

First, thanks for volunteering your time here.  We recently had a deck and patio installed.  The deck was designed to be waterproof and finished underneath so that we can enjoy the patio even if it is raining.  It works just fine and looks great.  The one thing we are struggling with is this.. where the stairs coming off the deck going down to our backyard meet the edge of the deck there is no waterproofing liner.  That meet point is directly above the very edge of our patio and as a result during a heavy downpour we get a pretty steady drip/drizzle of rain water.  There is no way to astheically put in a little gutter so we were thinking about some sort of decorative rain bowl or catch (something with an overflow run on the backside would be perfect).  Do you have any ideas on whether something like that exists.. effectively a large decorative bowl for outdoors that we could strategically position to catch any rain drips we get on that outter patio edge?  For that matter we're open to any suggestions you have as alternatives.  Thanks!

Answer
Google "rain chain" there are plenty of these type devices out there that look great and work effectively. A large bowl full of fine or pea gravel works well to cut down on splash. You can cut a small hole and connect a compression fitting with an insert on either end and run the hose away from the area to drain it. You can bury the hose but make sure it maintains at least a 2% slope so it doesn't hold water.

Best of Luck
Sean J Murphy, LA,ISA, LEED AP
Please check out my blogs and articles on landscape topics like this on my websites.
http://www.seanjmurphy.com
http://amenityarchitects.com