How To Make and Install a Rain Barrel

Rain barrels give you free water to use on your plants. The rain you catch is better for your plants, and your plants will love you for it. In this post, I’ll teach you how to build a rain barrel. Stick around to the end of this post, and I’ll break down all the material I’ve used to build a rain barrel irrigation system.

Did you know for every one inch of rain on a 500 square foot roof yields around 300 gallons of water? This will significantly reduce the amount you spend on water over your summer, especially if you live in an extremely hot climate. The University of California calculated a food garden on average needs about one inch of water over the surface area per week: that’s 25 gallons per 40 square feet.

How to build a DIY rain barrel?

To make a rain barrel, the main things you will need is a 55-gallon barrel, a drill, a downspout attachment, a 10 in one screwdriver, a 7 8 inch hole saw, a 1 3 8 hole saw, a 1-inch plastic male adapter for the overflow hole, Teflon tape to seal your faucet at the bottom, a half-inch ball valve faucet, a tape measure, a hacksaw to cut your downspout, a jigsaw, and a downspout.about:blankImageUpload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.UploadMedia LibraryInsert from URL

So the design for this rain barrel system was very simple: from the downspout, I wanted a filter at the very top to stop any leaves from going into the water supply, and then I wanted a mosquito net at the very bottom so that any bugs any mosquitoes cannot contaminate the water. I wanted a big rain barrel setup, so I chose a 55-gallon drum. In the very bottom, I put cinder blocks at the very base and then a thick slab to disperse the weight because this thing is going to be heavy when it’s fully loaded. At the very bottom, just a spigot, a half-inch ball valve faucet. I wanted it elevated to have a canister underneath to either have a garden hose at the bottom or a canister. That’s essentially the design of my rain barrel setup.about:blankImageUpload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.UploadMedia LibraryInsert from URL

The very first thing you want to do for a heavily weighted rain barrel system is to level the underneath surface: I put six garden wall blocks, three on each side, and then a concrete slab on top to disperse the weight of the 55-gallon drum. Later on, these are used for raised garden beds. Later on, if I decide to turn it into a raised garden bed, I can take the option. So it’s a multi-purpose brick.

The next thing you want to do is get some sort of dish soap. You never know what’s in your 55-gallon drum. Get something that’s environmentally friendly and wash out your 55-gallon drum.

The next thing you want to do is you want to mark out four inches down for your overflow hole. I’m using a one-inch PVC male adapter, two sealing rings, and then the lock ring to hold it tight, and then a one-inch insulated plastic bushing on the outside to keep the threads safe.

To make sure that your overflow hole is sized correctly, what you want to do is you want to take your one-inch male adapter and pick your hole saw that’s just a bit bigger than the actual threaded part of the one-inch male adapter. So it’s going to give room for the lock ring to catch on to the 55-gallon drum, and nothing’s going to go through, and the ceiling rings can seal it. That’s how you size it correctly.about:blankImageUpload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.UploadMedia LibraryInsert from URL

To get your overflow hole adapter on, I tied the string onto a measuring tape. Make sure you leave enough rope, so it doesn’t fall through the hole because then you have to start all over again. Add the lock ring and the gaskets onto the string. Then with the measuring tape and the rope attached to it, feed it from the top through the overflow hole and untie it from the measuring tape. Then you should simply be able to thread it onto the adapter.about:blankImageUpload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.UploadMedia LibraryInsert from URL

Now that you have the hole at the top for your overflow, the next thing to do is to get another hole at the bottom, and that’s going to be for your three-quarter ball valve faucet. While building a rain barrel, one thing to keep in mind is you want to keep your rain barrel higher up; that’ll increase the pressure for your faucet. But at the same time, you want the hole as low as you can. So I’m going to do it two inches higher because it’s sitting on the cinder blocks that will increase the pressure as well, and you’re able to get your canisters underneath to water your garden.

You want to take your hole saw for your ball valve and make it a tiny bit smaller because you’re going to do Teflon tape around here, so it seals.

After you made a hole on top using holsard jigsaw, the next thing you want to do is you want to cover this with some sort of mosquito net. I’m going to use it over the top, and then I’m going to put the new downspout that I cut in over the top of this.about:blankImageUpload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.UploadMedia LibraryInsert from URL

I chose this indented area because if water runs on top, we get a lot of rain, it’ll still be able to go into this hole even if it misses. On top of the mesh net, I’m going to use a plumbing fitting. I’m going to put it over the top and then taking the downspout with a filter on top and just putting it over the top, so it’s going to be very snug. That’s going to be assembled.about:blankImageUpload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.UploadMedia LibraryInsert from URL

FAQ

How Many Rain Barrels Do I Need?



Thank you for reading until the end. If you need a detailed video tutorial on how to make and install a rain barrel, you can watch this video.