How to Make a Rain Barrel
Prepared by Pam Mastin, Pitt County Extension Master Gardener Volunteer
Why Harvest Rainwater with Rain Barrels?
Residential irrigation can account for 40% of domestic water consumption in a given municipality. Rain barrels not only store water, they help decrease demand during the sweltering summer months. Depending on the size of your house and the amount of rainfall in your area, you can collect a substantial amount of rainwater with a simple system. If you’re harvesting rainwater with rain barrels to use for watering your landscaping, the rainwater can help to improve the health of your gardens, lawns, and trees. Because it tends to have fewer sediments and dissolved salts than municipal water, rain water is ideal for a multitude of applications, including biodynamic and organic vegetable gardens, raised planter beds for botanicals, indoor tropicals like ferns and orchids, automobile washing, and cleaning household windows. Saving water in this manner will reduce your demand for treated tap water, and save money by lowering your monthly bill. Rain water diversion will also help decrease the burden on water treatment facilities and municipal drainage systems during storms
How Much Water Can You Collect in Rain Barrels During a Rainfall?
Believe it or not, for every inch of rain that falls on a catchment area of 1,000 square feet, you can expect to collect approximately 600 gallons of rainwater.
The type of gutter system you have is also important, as many may have lead soldering or lead-based paints. Additionally, if you live in an area that produces heavy industrial pollution, your rainwater itself may contain some undesirable contaminants. Talk to your local municipal government about the issue of environmental contaminants in your area that may affect rainwater quality.
The location of you rain barrel is also important. Make sure you place it on level and stable ground. When your rain barrel is at maximum capacity, it will weigh quite a bit and tipping is a risk on un-level ground. If you don’t have gutters, put the barrel under a valley in the roof that sheds a lot of water.
Safety and Maintenance Concerns
Water stored in any kind of container represents a risk for small children. Children can drown in as little just a few inches water. Additionally, animals both wild and domestic may become trapped and drown in your barrels if uncovered. Therefore, you should never use an open container for rainwater collection. Make sure you have some way to cover the barrel with a screen or a top. Standing water is also where mosquitoes breed best. As the West Nile virus and other diseases are important concerns these days, you’ll need to take appropriate measures to deter mosquitoes from breeding in your rain barrels. It only takes about ten days for mosquitoes to breed, so you should ideally empty the water in less than ten days. You should also use a fine screen over the top of the barrel so the mosquitoes can’t reach the water in the first place.
INSTRUCTIONS
These are the instructions for a simple rain barrel. There are embellishments that can be made such as linking barrels to increase storage capacity, adding an overflow pipe, etc., but this will be a good start on water conservation in the garden.
You will need:
(1) empty 55 gallon plastic barrel
(1) ½” or ¾” brass hose bibb for ¾” hose; Male IPS (plumbing department)
(1) ¾” X 2 ¼” X 1/8” Rubber Washer (hardware department)
(2) ½” Conduit Locknuts (electrical department)
(1) short length of garden hose
(1) fiberglass window screen
(1) bungee cord
Saber Saw
Drill with ½” or ¾” bit (depending on the size of your hose bibb)
Wrench to tighten locknuts
Step by step instructions:
1.Start with a plastic 55 gallon drum (food grade if possible).
2.Carefully cut out and remove the top of the barrel using a saber saw.
3.Thoroughly wash the interior with warm soapy water and rinse 3 times with clear water.
4.Drill a hole in the side of the barrel approximately 8 inches from bottom. Drill straight in…try not to drill in at an angle.
5.From the outside of the barrel, insert the male part of the hose bibb into the drilled hole.
6.From the inside of the barrel, push the rubber washer onto the male threads of the hose bibb; thread the locknuts onto the male threads of the hose bibb, placing them “back to back” against each other and tighten with a wrench.
7.Cut to size the fiberglass window screen allowing 6 inches of overhang around top of barrel.
8.Fit the bungee cord around the barrel, securing the screen. Pull edges to tighten screen across top of barrel.
9.Position barrel under eave of house or under downspout to receive roof runoff. Raise the barrel off ground using concrete blocks, bricks, etc. so that gravity will feed the water flow.
10.Attach a short length of hose to facilitate filling watering cans.