Rain barrel

From GLGI

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We invite you to develop a whole new relationship to rain and water through the use of rain barrels. There are many uses of rain barrel water including watering plants, lawns, washing cars (park them on your grass and get a two-fer), and some people wash their hair with it. We guarantee that once you have one....you'll be sing'n in the rain!

Contents 1 Why it matters 2 What you can do 3 Winterizing 4 Cleaning Your Barrel 5 Uses of rain barrel water 6 Resources 7 Rain Barrel Waiting List 8 Our Stories 9 More Rain Barrel Pictures

Why it matters

• You can conserve water by using water from your rain barrel instead of your faucet for your landscaping.
• Rain barrels can help reduce the amount of water reaching the ground during a rainstorm, and thus can help reduce storm water runoff.
• Your water bills will be lower since you are not using as much water.
• Its fun - you'll look forward to rainy days...as they fill your rain barrel.

What you can do

You can install a rain barrel at your home. You can either make one or buy one. We encourage doing this with friends or neighbors as it's so much more fun doing it with others. We would suggest putting in one or two initially to get a feel for how much water you can collect and need.

• Step #1 - Determine the location of your Rain Barrel(s)
  • You'll want at least 20 linear feet of roof (i.e. gutter) collecting rain to capture enough water. The more roof that drains to that downspout the more water you will collect.
  • Rain barrels can be used to reduce wet areas on your property, since they hold the water and prevent it from going on the ground at the downspout. So if you have undesirable wet areas then look for the downspout that is sending water into these areas and target it for the rain barrel.
  • Determine if you want others to see the rain barrel or not. You know your neighbors. It has surprised many of us that most neighbors are very interested in the barrels and like to watch them fill up.
  • You'll need an area where preferably the barrel can be positioned right under or right next to the downspout.
• Step # 2 A - Building your own Rain Barrel (for less than $15) It was much easier than we thought. Our only difficulty was coordinating the pickup of the barrels with Coca Cola (more later).
  

  
  • What does a rain barrel look like? - Here is what one of our rain barrels looks like. It has a brass faucet near the bottom that you can twist open/closed to fill your watering can or attach a hose and let gravity create the pressure to run water out the hose. The black flexible tube is the overflow (when it collects more rain than the barrel can hold the overflow water goes out this tube). The aluminum downspout is connected to the rain barrel with a flexible vinyl connector; this allows the rain barrel to be disconnected from the gutter with ease. You cannot see the leaf/debris guard that is in the gutter at the downspout that prevents leaves and debris from going down the downspout and into the barrel. You'll notice that the rain barrel is on a stand that elevates it to allow a watering can to be placed under it.
  • What parts and tools will you need?
    • Here are the parts you will need for one rain barrel: (We made every effort to use/reuse parts and materials we had at home.)
      • One plastic barrel (we used 45 - 60 gallon barrels) Rain Barrel Sources
      • 3/4" brass faucet (approx $3)...please note you can use other faucet types. We found this to work well.
      • 1 1/2" sump pump tubing kit that includes 20' of flexible tube and one 1 1/2" threaded fitting ($10) There's enough tubing for three to four rain barrels...but only one fitting. Other fittings are available for $1 at most hardware stores where sprinkler system parts are found.
      • Flexible downspout connector($5)
      • Silcone glue (1 tube)
      • Marker
    • Here are the tools you will need:
      • Elecric/manual drill
      • 15/16" drill bit; 1 11/16" drill bit; approx 1/2" drill bit
      • Electric/manual sabre saw
  • How do you put the parts together to make the rain barrel?
    

    
    • Installing the flexible downspout connector: It is important to find the right location for the downspout connector on the top of the barrel where you want the water to come in. The downspout connector has a small end and a large end. The small end will go into the barrel and the larger end will slide over the aluminum downspout. The location of the entry point should be on top of the barrel near the edge. Hold the flexible downspout with the small end down on top of the barrel and trace it with the marker. Then take the drill with the approximately 1/2" drill bit and drill a hole in one of the corners of the marked rectangle. Then use the sabre saw to cut out the markered rectangle by placing the blade in the hole and then cutting along the marked lines. It is simpler if you catch the rectangular piece of plastic before it falls into the barrel, but you can tip the barrrel over and fish it out.
    • Installing the brass faucet: Mark a spot on the side of the barrel three inches up from the bottom directly opposite from where you put in the flexible downspout. Then drill a 15/16" size hole in the barrel. Put some silicone on the edge of the hole and the threads of the faucet and screw the faucet in. We found it easiest to do this with the barrel on its side. This does take a little patience and several trys to get the threads to grab. Once they grab, thread the faucet in until it's snug with the faucet pointing down. Be careful not to over-tighten and strip the plastic. We have used a round file to open up some of the holes a little so the faucet threads could grab more easily.
    • Installing the overflow tubing: Need to take a moment and figure out which side you'll want the overflow tube to come out of the barrel. Picture the barrel with the side of the barrel closest to the flexible downspout opening against your home/wall and determine if you want the overflow tube to come out on the back left or back right side of the barrel. Let's assume the left. Then mark a spot on the side of the barrel about 3 inches down from the top of the barrel on the back left side. Make sure you leave enough room so the tube can project at least 5-6 inches out of the barrel and not hit the wall. Then drill a 1-11/16" hole in the barrel at the mark. Put some silicone on the edge of the hole and the threads of the fitting and screw the fitting in the hole. This does take a little patience and several trys to get the threads to grab. Once they do, thread the faucet in until it's snug with the faucet pointing down. Be careful not to over tighten and strip the plastic.
    • Let the silicone dry: Its best to let the silcone dry for 24hours.
    • You now have a rain barrel!
  • Step # 2 B - Buying a Rain Barrel Here's what we have found after doing a little research:
    • Diverse Plastics
    • Composters.com
    • Rainbarrelsandmore.com
    • Gardeners Supply Company
• Step 3 - Make the Stand There are several alternatives that you have for a stand. We encourage you to use what material you have available. We are aware of options for wood, block and brick. Please be aware that no matter what you choose a full rain barrel can weigh over 500 pounds when full. So be careful in your design. Here are some of the options we've tried.
  • Wood stand: You can make this out of 4x6 or 2x6 lumber. The one shown here is out of 4x6. The key measurement is to first determine how high you want the barrel off the ground. This will determine the length of the legs of the stand. The front leg is four feet with 2 feet of it in the ground. We used a post hole tool to create the hole and then put pea gravel in the bottom. Then we put the post in and filled it with more pea gravel and tamped it down. We then dug out a trough 2 ft long and 8 inches wide and filled it with pea gravel. We then laid a 2 foot piece of 4x6 against the wall with the 6in side down. This is the foundation for the back leg. Using a level off the top of the front leg you can determine the height of the back leg. Cut a piece of 4x6 so when placed on the back foundation piece it's the same height as the front leg. Then measure the top and two side pieces of 4x6 that's used as the upside-down U-cap that straddles the two legs and forms the base that the barrel sits on. These are 20" long. We used 5" lag bolts to connect the U-cap to the legs. Its really working well to date. Its also very simple to remove. It would take about 15 mins to completely remove. Please note that this is not attached to the house. This design also uses a minimum of wood. We needed two 8 foot 4x6's to make this.
    • Parts to make one wood stand:
      • 2 - 8ft 4x6 treated lumber (you can use 3 - 8ft 2x6's)
      • 5 - 5" x 1/4"lag bolts
      • 3 gal of pea gravel
      • Tools to make a wood stand:
      • Radial/manual saw
      • Wrench for the lag bolts
      • Post hole digger (really helps...borrow one if you can)
      • Shovel
      • Level
  • Block / Brick Stand:
    • Parts to make one Block Stand:
      • 6 - 8" square concrete block
      • 4 - 4" angle brackets
      • 16 - 1.5" concrete screws
      • 2 - #4 reinforcing bars - 4 feet long (anchoring blocks into ground)
      • Bag of pea gravel
      • Bag of paver sand
      • Bag of concrete mix and water(anchoring blocks into ground)
      • Air conditioning pad cut in half (I used a pad that was given to me but you can purchase a pad from your local heating and air conditioning company)
    • Tools to make a Block / Brick Stand
      • Electrical drill
      • 1/4" concrete bit
      • screw drive bit(Philip head or Flat)
      • Radial/manual saw
      • Hammer
      • Shovel
      • Level
      • Tape measure
• Two or More rain Barrels...hooking them together
  • Both the Carters and the Fukuzawas have connected 2 rain barrels together. Here is David Fukuzawa's description of how they connected them: All we did is run the overflow tube into the top of the 2nd rainbarrel. We had to create a seal around the top, since it was a square hold (to accept a downspout), but it could easily have been routed to one of the round openings. We didn't plan to do this originally, but this seemed to work out the best. Click on the image below to see their rain barrel setup.

• Click on the image below to see the Carters' rain barrels:

• Another idea: John and Eileen Heasley's rain barrel

Winterizing

Before the frost, it's a good idea to empty your barrel and disconnect it from the downspout. We're also keeping the spigot open just in case. The pictures below show the process.

Emptying the rain barrel

Reconnecting the downspout

Cleaning the barrel out with a hose

Cleaning Your Barrel

After using our rain barrel for over a year, we noticed that the inside was getting lined with a black substance, probably organic matter that had come into the barrel over time. Here's how we learned to clean it:

• We usually clean ours in November, but any time in the fall is fine.
• Tip the barrel over and try to empty as much water as you can from the spout.
• Lift the barrel to the ground.
• With a spray nozzle on your hose, spray along the insides of the barrel from the hole used to connect it to the house.
• Take a small push broom with a detachable rod. Detach the rod from the broom, turn it sideways, and put it into the hole. Turn the broom head so you can see the part that will thread into the pole. (optional)
• Thread the pole into the head of the broom. (optional)
• Scrub the barrel on all sides of the inside. (optional)
• Spray again with the nozzle to clean out. Tip and empty water.
• Place barrel back up on stand.
• While the hose is out, this is a good time to rinse out the gutter that feeds the barrel.

--Peggy 06:00, 28 Feb 2007 (CST)

Uses of rain barrel water

• Watering plants
• Connecting a soaker hose and watering parts of the lawn
• Filling up the bird bath
• Washing the cars (on the lawn to help with runoff)
• We have hired painters to paint our bedroom ,and they were wondering where to rinse out paintbrushes, as we have no laundry tub. We directed them to the rain barrel, and told them it was no problem for the paint to get absorbed into the grass.

Resources

• Rain Barrel Sources
• Plans for multiple rain barrels Maryland Master Gardeners on Rain Barrels
• Other Plans for rain Barrels How to Build and Install a Rain Barrel
• Rain Barrel construction on This Old House
• Harvesting Rainwater by Not Letting It Go To Waste NPR story.
• Rain Barrel Workshop Presentation presentation from Bioneers 2007 conference
• Sustainable Berea Rain Barrel Project

Rain Barrel Waiting List

For those who want a barrel whenever we make another batch, sign up here.

Our Stories

• Bradley: The rains have come tumbling down, our barrels are alive with the sound of flowing rainwater. Our gardens seem to love their new found source of energy.It is great fun to empty them and then let nature refill them. And unlike gas it costs nothing, refills itself, replenishes the good earth,and puts a smile on my face when the sky clouds up! Dare I wish for more?
• Brennan: We are also loving our barrel. It takes just a couple of hours of rain to fill up. We have already emptied it completely, and it recently filled up again. We're using ours for watering plants, of course, but also for washing the cars. We think we'll be putting another one up this coming fall...
  • Another point: we have noticed that it doesn't take much time to fill up our 55-gallon barrel. It seems that even the lightest rain shower can fill our barrel rather quickly. So when you're planning, keep in mind that you may end up with more water than you anticipate -- be thinking about how it will be used. Also, checking the levels of these things really becomes addictive. --Peggy 06:10, 28 Feb 2007 (CST)
• Rain Barrel Barbecue - June 16th 2007

More Rain Barrel Pictures