Installing a Rain Barrel for Beginners

hi I'm Stephen with Alberta urban garden CA capturing rain is not only a great way to improve the sustainability of your garden but it's a great way to save a little bit of money on your water bill as well now you can purchase rain barrels from lots of big-box stores however in the consumer reviews of almost all of them there's lots of complaints about them leaking for this reason I've decided to build my own selecting a location for rain barrel is important you will want to think of ease of access for use of the water in your garden and the catchment area of the roof I selected a downspout in my backyard that has a catchment area of about one third of my roof this should allow me to catch a good amount of water even if the rain is light I built my rain barrels so that they're elevated off of the ground and the reason for this is it allows me easier access to the taps and it allows me to put the tap lower on the barrel increasing the amount of water pressure that the tap can access making it easier to fill your watering can before we deal with the barrels preparing the site is important my yard is not flat in this location so I had to cut some of the soil out in order to make a platform for the rain barrels I made sure the soil was mostly level after the soil was level I applied a bag of crushed saved place and this will form a compact base for the concrete blocks that is less likely to move then simply putting the blocks on the clay it will also allow for faster range of any water that ends up underneath the base now that the ground is level it's time to build the base I selected to build the base out of concrete as it won't degrade over time unlike wood and I also don't have to worry about its structural integrity over time especially when the barrels are full this barrel right here weighs about 450 pounds when full of water or 204 kilograms I use 2 24 inch or 60 square centimeter paving stone and made sure that it was level the joining platforms do not need to be level with each other but it will help the final visual appearance once the base is level it's time to place the cinder blocks the blocks will give me the desired height I place them making sure that the outside edge is line the outside edge of the paver I place all four blocks one on each side of the paver once the cinder blocks are in place you can put the top paver on this paver is where the barrels will sit make sure to check one last time that the top paver is sitting level the base is complete it's time to start working on the barrels when I was looking for barrels for this project I really wanted to make sure that I was repurposing something that would otherwise be trash so I looked for a plastic barrel but it is very important to look for a plastic barrel that's made with plastic that is food safe it's not to say that its original intent needed to be food for instance these ones held windshield washer fluid however you will be coming in contact with the water whether it's at the location or in the garden so you want to make sure that the plastic isn't going to leach anything that's harmful there will be a stamp on the bottom of the barrel usually with three arrows forming a triangle and a number inside if the number is one two four or five it is food safe additionally there may be a stamp that is a glass and fork and with the words food grade below once I got the two recycled barrels home I started by deciding where I wanted to cut the top of the barrel I chose to cut a large enough access holes that I could access the entire barrel you can make a rain barrel with much smaller hole in the top if you wish I started by cutting a two point five centimeter or one inch hole in a location that will be cut away I then used a reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade to cut along the edge of the barrel to remove enough plastic for easy access a jig saw will do the job better however mine was borrowed and has yet to be returned at this point it is important to clean the barrel out fully I washed each barrel with my hose at least three times ensuring that upon visual inspection there is no residue before proceeding the lower the tap the more water pressure you will have when the barrel is full and the less in the bottom you cannot access in order to find out how low I could place the tap I set the barrel on the base and marked the tap where the watering can could comfortably fit below the instructions that came with the tap recommended cutting a one and one eighth inch hole or two point eight five centimeters to install it cut the hole slightly smaller allowing me to file away the burrs and to fit the tap as snug as possible the best fittings for waterproof applications that will not leak our bulkhead fittings for that you will need access to the back of the tap in order to screw the washer and seal bolt onto it using a rubber washer on both sides will secure the tap in place and make it waterproof at any time when installing a screw where it needs to control water wrapping the screw and teflon tape the opposite direction of the thread will help seal it I could reach the bottom of my barrels fairly easily with the access that I cut if you'd like to do the same thing with a smaller hole in the top of your barrel you can simply do that by attaching some duct tape with a sticky side out to a long stick and then using that to stick the screw on to and lower it into place so that you can attach it to the bulkhead fitting if you're only doing one barrel you can install it now if however you're doing it like me it's time to connect more than one barrel to each other having two barrels increases my capacity to 400 litres of rainwater or a hundred around 100 US gallons having the larger access in the top in fact allows me to install the connecting pieces with a lot more ease and in the future if I want to add another one to it it's the same process I've located the connection as high as possible on the barrels as the first barrel fills the high connection point means there will be more water in it before it transfers to the second one this means if only the first barrel is full there will be more water pressure at the tap helping me to fill my watering can faster the process to install the bulkhead fittings for this connection is the same as the tabs once the bulkhead fittings are installed at roughly the same height on facing sides of the barrel I built a connector that will be watertight as well when purchasing the parts for this next step it is important to drive it everything in the store to make sure it all fits together for this you will need a hose a male to male thread adapter and a hose repair end I simply dry fit the already threaded end into the first bulkhead fitting to figure out how long the hose needed to be cutting the hose is fairly simple with the sawzall but it is very important to keep that cut straight the hose repair end comes with two parts the clamp which you slide over the hose before installing the threaded end which you insert the barbed end of that into the cut end of the hose once the threaded end is inserted all the way into the hose you simply slide the clamp back over it and tighten it by turning the screws a few turns each and then alternating between them in order to install the connector I threaded the male male thread adapter in one bulkhead and the originally threaded end into the other finishing off with a repaired end that articulated over the adapter it's time to get the water from your roof and your downspout into the barrels most designs for downspout diverters require you to make two cuts completely cutting the downspout in order to install it the only issue I have with these types of diverters is the fact that they're very difficult to winterize appropriately so that you do not incur damage so I selected one that I can easily remove when winter comes I selected this downspout diverter after watching the late bloomer show aside from easier winterizing it is also much easier to install simply cut a hole in the downspout with the provided bit slightly higher than the barrels and insert the catchment piece I then marked the location of where the screws that secure it need to go I did this so I could drill some pilot holes for the screws after reinserting the catchment piece and securing it with the provided screws I simply slipped on the hose and secured it with a hose clamp I then placed the other end in the rain barrel when the barrels are full what will end up happening is the water will backwater into the downspout and continuing on down meaning I don't need an overflow quite yet however I will monitor throughout the summer to ensure this is the case now that the barrels are installed I wanted to make sure that no insects could get to the water and lay their eggs such as mosquitoes for now I'm just using some weed matting that I had from another project and securing it with some vinyl string after I installed it I poked a small hole in the top to allow water that collects on the top to go in but also keeps the insects out later I'll install screen on top however at the time of this project I was unable to find screen and a small enough Quan ready that wasn't a high enough quality to last for a long time throughout the summer I will use the rain water over tap water to help improve the sustainability of my garden while saving me some money on my water bill when temperatures start dropping closer to the freezing mark I will disconnect the downspout diverter and install the plug that came with the kit I will continue to use the water in the barrels until the garden either no longer needs watering or the water begins to freeze in the barrels at that point I will drain the barrels completely in order to protect the fittings from freezing when I'm done I'll put a cover on top so that no snow or precipitation can get in the barrels until springtime if you would like to know if rainwater is safe to use in the garden check out the episode on screen now

Channel: Alberta Urban Garden Simple Organic and Sustainable

Views: 434,276

Rating: 4.8562117 out of 5

Keywords: rain, sustainability, rain barrel, barrel, water, garden, gardening, sustainable gardening, sustainable agriculture, sustainable food, watering, tap, watering can, organic, low cost, cheap, cheap water

Id: K8D6leyW47U

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 03 2016