How to put together a Rain Barrel

How to put together a Rain Barrel
Using photos and captions we will show you how to put together a rain barrel like this one.
Barrels can be gotten form a place in San Jose for about $40 to $45 each. Make sure you get a barrel
that has an opening large enough for you to get in side so that you can tighten the fitting at the bottom.
Drill a hole about 4 inches up from the bottom of the barrel. This will allow sediment to remain in the
barrel and not clog your outflow. It also gives you some space to attach a hose without it being at an
odd angle.
Clean up the hole with a knife so that there are no stray bits of plastic that could get in the way of a
good watertight seal.
The next photo shows the faucet, and connecting fittings that will be used to make the connection to
the rain barrel.
The rain barrel is between the faucet with the plastic washer and the white threaded slip joint. The
elbow and gray tube will help to get the last bit of water out of the barrel when empting it out. Cut the
gray down-tube so that it is about a ! to 1 inch above the bottom of the barrel.
I made the brown washer out of some Trex plastic decking that was cut down to about an1/8 of an inch
thick and using big and a smaller hole saw to make a doughnut out of the piece of Trex. Other plastic
could be used for this. The hole should be the same size as the one in the barrel and should be a tight
fit so that the faucet threads in on to the washer and then into the barrel.
Now comes the fun part when someone has to go in the barrel to turn the threaded slip joint while the
faucet is held in place. Apply water-proof caulking to both parts before assembly.
The attached faucet should look like this:
You should also put in an over flow attachment near the top of the barrel so that extra water will be
taken away form the house. Here is what I used, but this is probably too small in a good rain storm:
Use sealant when installing these parts:
The finished over flow looks like this. A hose can be attached here to direct the overflow away form
the house.
And the finished barrel should look like this:
The barrel should be set on something strong so that gravity will help you empty the barrel when you
want water. The barrel should also be strapped to the house for earthquake safety. Remember a 50
gallon barrel when full will weigh 400 lbs or more. The hole in the top where the downspout comes in
should be covered with a fine screen so that mosquitoes don’t get in the barrel. Make sure the hole is
large enough so that leaves and other debris don’t clog the input to the barrel.