The Leopold’s

OK, so the number is fabricated. It feels like I’ve done that many odd jobs around the house in one year, but I love every minute of it. Some of you have noticed pictures in our Flickr account of my new rain barrel. Based on several requests I’ve received, I have typed up the steps I took in creating this contraption in the unlikely case that some of you might like to re-create the process. Enjoy!

Part One: Lists

Part Two: First Steps

Part Three: Barrel Overflow

Part Four: Inflow Contraption

Part Five: Testing and Learning

TESTING AND LEARNING:

I learned after filling the barrel the first time that the gauge was a brilliant idea (even if I do say so myself). It is a great way to know how full or empty your barrel is at any point and works just as well as any of the overflow designs in other rain barrel plans.

I also learned that the design of wooden barrels includes the inset-top which, to no surprise, holds water. About ½” of it. I examined the barrel top and found the lowest point (which coincidentally faces the back of the barrel) and I took my best tungsten drill bit (1/8”) and drilled a drainage hole diagonally downward through the lowest point of the lid, and out one of the metal barrel bands on the side at the top. I scraped this hole open pretty cleanly and now the water that collects up there drains relatively well. In the future I may insert a metal or plastic tubing sleeve into this hole as the hole in wet wood tends to fray and gunk up easily.

The water in the rain barrel sits for a good amount of time, and it take a bit to use that much rain water. What I noticed after a month-and-a-half of the barrel sitting filled was that the water I was getting out of the spigot smelled sweet at first, then sour, then fermented. Since I am using an authentic whiskey barrel, I need to keep rinsing it until the aged whiskey finally leaves all the porous wood and provides me a good pure reservoir for my rainwater. I keep an eye on the weather forecast and dry to drain the barrel when I know a good rainstorm is coming.

I also noted the general amount of rainfall it takes to fill the barrel from empty to full. From the roof plane under which I located my barrel, it takes an average of ½” of rain to fill my entire barrel. Another improvement I may someday make to my barrel would be to completely drain my barrel, and add one gallon of water at a time and demarcate units of measure on my fill-gauge. This might help me plan for how much water I am using in the drier months of the year. It would also give me an idea of how much water remains in the barrel when the water line dips below the hardware on the gauge/overflow.

If you plan on building your own rain barrel feel free to use my design, or even better, feel free to improve my design! I had a lot of fun, and am excited to harvest some rain alongside my garden crops this growing season.

Peace.

Kieran

INFLOW CONTRAPTION:

The inflow contraption was easiest to build from the bottom-up. I started with the downspout-hose adapter (which fit snugly into the hole-saw drilled opening at the top of the barrel). The adapter has barbed ridges that grip the wooden opening and hold it in place rather nicely. It is easy to remove, yet creates a relatively good seal on the barrel top. Next, I took the downspout “T” junction and used some more clear acrylic caulk to secure the end caps to either side. These end caps became the sides to my inflow reservoir. I used the same hole-saw from the top of the barrel to carefully drill an opening into the top most part of one of the side pieces. I placed the hole as near to the top of the side as possible without compromising the integrity of the piece (no splitting or ripping).

Next, I placed the T-junction reservoir into the downspout-hose adapter. The T-junction bottom was a bit narrower than the opening on the hose-adapter, so I filled the space by spraying in some Great Stuff expanding foam and trimming off the excess when it dried. I didn’t care if it was water-tight, as long as the water didn’t systematically flow out of the void created by the different sized openings.

Once the foam was dried and trimmed, I placed the inflow device into the opening at the top of the barrel to double-check the barrel placement in relationship to the downspout. Since the inflow contraption has circular base, I was able to rotate it to make minor adjustments to the location of the downspout. I pointed the side of the inflow contraption with the hole I drilled towards the back of the barrel (towards the house) and pressed the contraption into the hole atop the barrel.

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INFLOW OVERFLOW

I built a redundant overflow system into the reservoir to ensure that in torrential downpours I would have enough “outflow” from my overflow systems to accommodate a full barrel of rainwater and a continuing downpour. The basic idea is that the barrel overflow simply helps to regulate how full the barrel can be at its fullest state. This overflow would handle the excessive amounts of rain rushing into the reservoir at any point of filling the barrel, as well as backed-up water from a full barrel in an ongoing rainstorm.

This is the reason I drilled the hole in the back of the reservoir (the T-junction box). I cannibalized a home sink “J trap” kit and pulled out two of the PVC collars used to hand-tighten the trap kit together. I used these because their threads were the exact diameter of the threaded adapter that came with my sump hose kit. For this to work, I had to modify one of the tightening collars so I could use the two to tighten against each other. Basically, I used a bench grinder on one of the two tightening collars to grind the top of the collar down to a flush edge. The result was that I had a basic threaded collar to work with, with no top or bottom. This allowed me to screw the ground collar on backwards as the set-nut.

With the first collar ground down, I threaded it onto the threaded end of the sump hose and placed that up into the hole on the back of the inflow box. Then I took the other tightening collar (the in-tact one) and put a small bead of acrylic caulking on the exposed threads of the sump hose inside the inflow box, and tightened the collar down until it reached the first collar on the outside of the sump. I twisted the two collars towards each other until they were snug, creating a water-tight seal on the sump hose now leading out of the back of the inflow box.

With the inflow contraption in place, I measured the length of downspout so that it terminates inside of the inflow contraption, just below the top-most edge. I made sure to leave space below the bottom of the downspout and the inside-bottom of the T-junction so that I could reach my hand in and clear debris that travels down the downspout.

Before securing the trimmed section of downspout, I took an old fiberglass screen (from a second hand building materials store) and folded it up four-ply. That left me with a folded sheet of screen about 3’ x 3’. I positioned that over the inflow contraption, tucking it as far into the contour of the reservoir as possible, and then connected 5-6 zip ties end to end for one continuous zip-tie fastener. I wrapped the zip-tie-chain around the screen hanging over the edge of the inflow reservoir. I tightened each zip-tie until the screen was secure in place.

Now I returned to my trimmed segment of downspout and secured it in place to the base of the gutter, and let it hang freely into the opening above the screening in the reservoir.

Next, I positioned the two sump hoses from my overflow system to the base of different bushes in the landscaped pebble bed.

The barrel was ready for its first test run, so turned the garden hose on the roof of the family room and let it drain into the rain barrel checking for leaks or other problems.

BARREL OVERFLOW SYSTEM (figure 1):

Figure 1

Next, I determined where I wanted to locate the barrel-overflow elbow. Most of the plans I found online used a simple fill-line process of locating the barrel-overflow at the top of the barrel. This is a pretty simple design – when rainwater in the barrel reaches that height, the additional rainwater just pours out the opening. I decided I wanted something a bit more useful and sophisticated on my barrel, so I put that opening at the bottom.

Let me explain my rationale – I wanted a fill-gauge on my otherwise opaque barrel, so I decided that if I put a hole at the bottom, plumbed some clear plastic tubing up the side of the barrel, and then trained the water over a U-shaped bend near the top of the outside of the barrel I could accomplish the same thing as the other designs, but with the added benefit of knowing how much rainwater was in my barrel at any given time. In addition, I have an overflow system that pulls from the bottom of the barrel instead throwing off the fresher water at the top (thus improving in-barrel circulation). From my short time as a marine aquarist I had learned a thing or two about plumbing and knew what I would need while I was at the hardware store.

At this point I drilled another hole near the back 1/3 of the barrel at the same height as the spigot on the front, again perpendicular to the curve of the barrel. I caulked and threaded the zinc elbow (male end) into barrel until it was snug and facing upwards (female opening pointing towards the top of the barrel). I ran another thin bead of caulk around this to ensure no leakage.

Into the female opening of the elbow I caulked and threaded the PVC coupling until it was tight. I pushed one end of the ¾” clear tubing over the barbed end of the PVC and slid a hose clamp over the barbed and tightened it. This next part is the tricky part, and you may wish to wait for this next step until the caulk has dried. I eyeballed the top of the rain barrel (estimating the thickness of the barrel top, the height of the bevel to the top of the barrel and roughly determined where the bottom of the lid to the barrel would be. I cut the clear hose about 2” longer than that length to start with.

Next, I fitted the two PVC elbows together over the male threaded ¾” coupling until I had a U-shaped bend. The plan is that the clear tube slides over the barbed end on one side of the U-bend and then I position it at the perfect height in relation to the barrel to provide the most amount of rainwater to collect without being so high that water overflows out the top of the barrel. Once I found the right height of the U-bend, I took the 1” copper hose stabilizer and secured the U-bend near the top of the tank. Then, I was able to more-accurately estimate the proper amount of clear tubing to trim off. I trimmed the clear tubing, slid a hose clamp onto the tubing, fitted the tubing over the barbed end of U-bend, and slid the clamp in place and tightened it.

THIS NEXT STEP IS CRUCIAL! You should drill one or two 1/8” (or smaller) holes in the top or outward edge of the U-bend. These will aid in breaking any siphon that forms when the overflow begins doing its job – due to the overflow location at the bottom of the barrel, a siphon would mean that your whole barrel will completely drain!

After drilling the holes, I added the first 10’ length of sump pump hose to the out end of the U-bend by puncturing two little holes in the end of the hose on either side. I threaded galvanized wire through the holes and around the end of the U-bend to hold the hose in place (see figure 2).

Now with the overflow in place, I filled the barrel to check my work. Once the barrel filled near the top (eyeballing from the opening at the top of the barrel, and following along with my clear-tubing-gauge on the side) I waited to see where water came out first – the overflow or the top of the barrel. To my delight, it began trickling out the overflow, and then flowing at a pretty good rate.

At this point, I decided to stain my barrel with a good outdoor wood stain. This is an optional step, but I did it to protect the logo of the whiskey company and ensure it sticks around for years to come. I also stained the half-barrel base for continuity. I applied two coats and let them dry thoroughly.

Next, I positioned the barrel on the stand and turned the barrel so the spigot faced the optimal direction for access to fill my watering cans and such. Then I ensured the opening at the top of the barrel lined up with the downspout location. A few minor adjustments to the base and I was ready to continue.

Figure 2

THE PROCESS

PREPPING THE BARREL AND SPIGOT INSTALL:

First off, I decided where I would like to place my rain barrel. This is important as it will dictate the remaining steps. I found that the area of my home where the barrel would look the best and would be in close proximity to where I would actually use the rainwater would be under the back half of our family room/garage roof. There was a downspout termination on the edge of that part of the roof conveniently located in a pebble-covered landscaping bed.

An easy eyeball estimate of the height of the soffit told me that that I would have no problem fitting the rain barrel stacked on the half-barrel base under it. I also decided that since there are only four basic planes of roof on my house I would either get a huge amount of collection from the main portion of my house, or a more moderate amount of collection from the portion over my garage and family room. That, and my sump pump is located under the other corner of my house and I prefer to not mess with the hydro dynamics of adding any overflow from the rain barrel to the drainage on that side of the house.

Next, I decided that I liked the designs I had found on various websites for a brass spigot, and found that there were many options available at the hardware store. I decided on a simple ¾” variety with a “wing” style turn on it. I found a boring bit that was just under the size of the threads on the spigot and chose the face of the barrel that I wanted pointing out. This was easy because the logo for Templeton Rye is painted on one side of the barrel. I located the spigot hole near the bottom of the barrel and made sure to drill in perpendicular to the contour of the barrel’s edge (so sort of up at a slight angle). This means my spigot would screw into the barrel perpendicular and allow for better turning of the spigot handle without making contact with the barrel’s side.

Once I finished drilling the hole in the barrel I realized that the inside of a used whiskey barrel smells pretty darn fantastic, but not optimal for collecting rain water. I checked the size of the drilled opening to the spigot and found that it would allow me to “thread” the spigot into the hole. I then doped up the threaded end of the spigot with clear acrylic caulk and slowly began turning the spigot into the hole. I took my time and when I finished I made sure the spigot was pointing down to the bottom of the barrel. Then I drew another bead of caulk around the edge of the spigot where it meets the barrel.

While that dried, I examined the location where I was going to place the barrel. I removed the downspout from the bottom of the gutter along the edge of the soffit, all the way down to the extender that fed into my lawn. Now I was working with a basic opening from the bottom of the end of the gutter. I re-used a piece of collar from the pieces I removed to join a straight piece from along the side of the house to the opening at the bottom of the gutter so I had a straight shot down from the gutter to the ground. I temporarily tacked that in place to see where I would need to place the barrel to collect rain from that spot. I then removed the down-piece for later re-sizing and cutting to length.

I determined where the barrel would need to sit, and evened out the landscaping pebbles a put down some hexagonal cement patio pavers as a foundation for the barrel base. I placed the half-barrel upside down (bottom up) in the spot to make sure the rain barrel would sit in the proper location. I checked for level, and evened out the ground some more until the barrel base was level.

Then I returned to the barrel and moved it into location under the downspout. I estimated where the hole in the top of the rain barrel would need to be to match the downspout, and marked the barrel top. Then I removed the barrel and used my 2.5” hole saw in that mark to create the in-flow opening. Since the barrel top is made out of multiple boards, I had to be careful not to let the pieces of board separate while cutting them and fall into the barrel. To avoid this, I drove a screw into each of the pieces of wood inside my hole-saw cut. As I got near the end of the cut, I attached a piece of string to the screws, and lightly tapped the inside of the hole-cut with a tool until they broke free. Then I was able to pull them up one at a time out of the hole using the string.

If I thought the whiskey smell was strong when I drilled the hole at the bottom side of the barrel, drilling the hole in the top was an all new experience. I decided to fill the barrel and let it rinse out with hose water. I did this two or three times and it allowed me to rinse out wood finings that entered the barrel from the drilling and hole-sawing.

I have had some requests for some step-by-step instructions for a recent project I completed so I am putting them up online as an easy reference for any of you who may be interested.

I decided to craft a rain barrel out of a used Temlpeton Rye whiskey barrel from the distillery. I found some plans online and used some of them and a little tinkering of my own to arrive at the design I’ve used.  A basic parts and tool list are as follows:

MATERIALS

Barrel

I chose the oak cask from one of my favorite whiskey distillers, but plastic would work too, just make sure it’s structurally intact (no holes or punctures.) Many people choose to use food-storage barrels. I suggest avoiding any barrels that once contained chemicals for obvious contamination reasons. 50gal or larger is best.

Base

Since I used an oak barrel, I purchased a half-barrel planter from the local hardware store for continuity. I rest my barrel atop this overturned planter for a base. You can also get cinder blocks on the cheap from a building materials store, or find other more decorative ways of elevating your barrel.

The point of elevating the barrel is two-fold: first, it keeps the barrel from developing mold or any other issues on its bottom. Second, it provides elevation to your reservoir which increases outflow water pressure from your container.

Hardware

You will need a few things. I will list what I used and you can start with that, but keep in mind the placement of your barrel, your existing down-spout makeup and a number of other factors will dictate your actual hardware needs.

I used:

- A t-shaped downspout collector

- Two end-caps for the collector

- A landscape corrugated hose adapter (one end is rectangular to fit around a down-spout, the other is circular and about 2.5”)

- Two 10’ lengths of black sump pump tubing

- Fiberglass screening

- Zip-ties

- Great Stuff expanding foam

- Plastic tightening collars from a sink trap kit

- Threaded brass spigot

- Stain (for wood barrels)

- Hexagonal cement patio paving blocks (for foundation)

FOR BARREL OVERFLOW:

- ¾” zinc threaded elbow – male to female

- PVC coupling: ¾” threaded to ¾” barbed

- Two PVC 90° elbow joints (3/4” barbed to ¾” threaded)

- ¾” male threaded coupling

- 3’ of clear plastic ¾” tubing

- Galvanized wire

- Two 1” hose clamps

- 1” Copper hose stabilizer

Tools

- Drill

- 2.5″ Hole saw

- ¾” drill bit

- Screw driver (flat head and Phillips)

- Awl

- Coping saw (or hack saw)

- Ladder

- 1’ Level

- Paint brush

- Clear outdoor acrylic caulk