DIY water butts.

gsxr1

Since the scare of new water metering by our loving caring government has come to air. I want to start using the good ole free rain to water the garden.


Has anyone here made a home made collector on their shed or guttering?
Its there other ways to collect rain.


If so . Could you advise us on our efforts.

fergal.b

You can buy these in most DIY shops or garden centers you just cut your down pipe and fit it in you can also get them square shaped.




You can also buy the tanks quite cheep.

robbyrne22

I have what I think is a great solution. I got a wheelie bin from a friend. He works for a waste disposal company. Any of these (e.g. Greyhound, Oxigen etc.) will have lots of slightly damaged bins in their yard that they want rid of. I got a green bin, so it had never had anything but paper and plastic in it. The wheels were broken so they couldn't give it to a customer. Holds 240 litres of water.

Then I just redirected the downpipe into it and hey presto.

Now I do have the bin in the side lane beside the house son it's not in the garden. But even still. The money you will save getting a free bin you could buy a little bit of fencing to put around it if it's in the garden......

gsxr1

robbyrne22 wrote: »

I have what I think is a great solution. I got a wheelie bin from a friend. He works for a waste disposal company. Any of these (e.g. Greyhound, Oxigen etc.) will have lots of slightly damaged bins in their yard that they want rid of. I got a green bin, so it had never had anything but paper and plastic in it. The wheels were broken so they couldn't give it to a customer. Holds 240 litres of water.

Then I just redirected the downpipe into it and hey presto.

Now I do have the bin in the side lane beside the house son it's not in the garden. But even still. The money you will save getting a free bin you could buy a little bit of fencing to put around it if it's in the garden......

What if it overflows?

Joey the lips

If you buried a whilie bin in the back garden and diverted your drain pipes you could use a cheap waterbut and it would get interesting.

robbyrne22

Well, I drilled a whole near the top of the bin and inserted about a foot and a half of half inch qual-pex, and then that over flow goes into my brown bin and soaks and the stuff in there allowing it to compress so I can get more in. I have a hole drilled in the bottom of the brown bin and the water just runs down the lane.

But if it's in your garden, again you could use qual-pex and run it to the nearest shore. qual-pex is pretty inexpensive and flexible. Sure if you are putting the butt near the down pipe you can just run the overflow into whats left of the downpipe where the rain water would've been running anyway...

5T3PH3N

I made one last year for my uncle, got a steel barrel and a tap like this http://www.diytools.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/4/image/400x400/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/o/u/outdoor-garden-tap-1-2m-x-3-4m.jpg (the one I got came with a nut on the threaded part)
I drilled a hole a few inches from the bottom of the side of the barrel and used a round file to get the hole to the exact size for the tap to fit tightly.
Put an o-ring on the tap and place it in the hole and and then another o-ring and then the nut on the inside and tighten it as much as you can.
Then I cut a square in the lid of the barrel for his gutter to fit and it works sweet collecting rain water from 2 roofs.
He had an outdoor hose reel that was longer than he needed, so I cut a length that is just
longer than his back garden and also reaches the whole front garden too so he can use the barrel water for the plants.
The barrel is up on a few old patio slabs that he had and that's enough to get a good flow for what he needs.
It never overflows because he just leaves the tap running into a drain when a lot of rain is coming.

vicwatson

Check with your local county council for subsidised water butts. Most county councils supply these at cost. Worth checking out.

paddy147

vicwatson wrote: »

Check with your local county council for subsidised water butts. Most county councils supply these at cost. Worth checking out.

What sort of cost though??

Most buildersproviders sell 210 litre complete water butt kits (tank,stand,divertor and fitting kit) for around 50-55 euro these days.

Avoid buying them in Woodies,BnQ or Homebase...absolute rip off.:rolleyes:

meercat

gsxr1 wrote: »

What if it overflows?

fergalb has posted a pic of whats available(b+q,woodies etc)
these connect to your drainpipe
the overflow is built in,so when your container fills,the overflow goes back down the drainpipe

http://www.reuk.co.uk/Rainwater-Diverter.htm

Dilbert75

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_21529.htm

paddy147

Dilbert75 wrote: »

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_21529.htm

Those will absolutely fly out the door on Thursday morning.

Lidl had 200 litre kits last month and there was nearly fights breaking out over them in the Coolock branch last time.:D

Dilbert75

The ones on Thursday are only 100 litre though - the last ones were 210 litre. We actually got the last one in my local Aldi store today, though we found out afterwards that the connection kit is missing, so I might have to cobble something together based on some of the links on this page.

vicwatson

paddy147 wrote: »

What sort of cost though??

Most buildersproviders sell 210 litre complete water butt kits (tank,stand,divertor and fitting kit) for around 50-55 euro these days.

Avoid buying them in Woodies,BnQ or Homebase...absolute rip off.:rolleyes:

My mate in Wexford got hers for €35.00 from Wex Co Co and that was at cost to them. 190 litres as per the picture in post number 2, she said it came with the stand divertor and fitting kit.

vicwatson

paddy147 wrote: »

Those will absolutely fly out the door on Thursday morning.

Lidl had 200 litre kits last month and there was nearly fights breaking out over them in the Coolock branch last time.:D

What price were the lidl ones Paddy?