Rain Barrel Stand

Well some might have picked up from Dons Friday posts that a while back i purchased a rain barrel that was given out by our region for $25 to add to the saving water campaign. Who would think we need to do that surrounded by all these lakes.

So i set about making this stand to mount the rain barrel and get it high up enough so as to get a head of water pressure from it.

Thing is with us living so close to each other on postage stamp lots, i dont have much space down the side of the house and in future i have plans to get a bobcat down there to do some work in the back yard. So this rain barrel stand had to be removeable without too much issue.

I also did not want it heaving with the frost etc so i purchased a couple of spikes mounted a 2x6 cedar strip on the wall and made the fram with its posts removable. Two bolts on either side hold it to the rear "joist" mounted against the wall. Covered it with cedar i had handy left over from my garden shed and used an old cedar 4x4 for legs.

It was some project to get those spikes in the ground. The heaviest hammer i have is a 4lb and i broke the handle in the process. Used some scrap jatoba i had to quickly fashion a new one and made the handle extra long. Previous one that came with it from SA was about 10 inches, new one about 24 inches. Eventually won the day all is level and in a single night we had a barrel full of rain. 200 litres of free water i wont be paying for this summer. Will probably take 10 years to pay for the spikes. There is no way to justify this going green except to say if all hell brakes loose and our water main is cut in the area i have 200 litres to boil. Thats the boy scout in me. Be Prepared.

Nice work mate.

I'm planning on getting a water butt and doing something similar except no one around here is offering them for $25

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is tweaking the gutter to have it run in two directions.

I'm on my 2nd house with a rain barrel.
The first time, I also built a stand for the barrel, which put it up about 20-24" off the ground. But in our experience the amount of "head" was meaningless. My wife would try watering the garden with the house (about 20' away) and the water just trickled out. So she switched to a watering can and just filled it at the tap -- still slow.

At this house, we just put the rain barrel on the ground and when we need water we just pop the lid and dip the bucket. It's FAR faster, and we're much happier this way.

At first glance I didn't think this idea could hold water. Um. Then I looked again.

Good idea Rob. I have one as well. We use it to hold water for the garden. We have a shallow well that tends to get a bit low in the summer if we don't try and conserve a bit.