Rain Barrel's Finished

So Last Sunday I left off where I had made some wood cutouts to help level both barrels. These cutouts of OSB worked perfectly for my purposes and have kept the barrels on their blocks all week long even in some pretty intense wind storms without having any water in them. Now, OSB tends to easily be destroyed by nature and it's wrath so I used some really nice paint and painted both boards to help seal them off from the rain and wetness. I really made sure I got the edges since that is a particularly weak spot for moisture to do it's damage.

Here is what my OSB leveling board looks like having been painted and centered on the bricks.


Here is the general picture of the two barrels. They have not been connected yet nor has the drain line been connected yet but you can see them both level and upright due to the leveling boards beneath them.




Now for the intake, I used my jigsaw to cut a 3" circular hole in the bottom of the left barrel (remember that the bottom of the barrel is really going to end up being the top of the rain barrel). I then used a 4"-3" reducer and inserted it into the 3" hole in the top of the rain barrel. In order to keep the bugs out and to keep the ever annoying mosquitoes from spawning in there I put a piece of regular window screen on top of it and used a 4" hose clamp to secure it in place. If you don't have window screen then pantyhose will also work. Then I ran the downspout right into the reducer as my intake.





Once my intake was all completed, I then undertook the quite easy task of connecting the two barrels together using the PVC I started before. I cut two 3" lengths of PVC pipe and used them to bring the piping out away from the brick a little and then I attached another 90 degree elbow and pointed the two barrels toward each other to be connected. Going back to the leveling of these barrels... The very first thing I did when beginning this project was lay the bricks and level them. This started with pouring sand in the area and leveling that out first. Sand sort of self levels over time and settles more evenly which is why I wanted to use it as a base instead of just throwing my bricks on the normal ground where it would settle unevenly and create problems for me later on.





With all of that completed I was able to connect both barrels and attach the valve for water stoppage and release. I used a 12" piece of pipe on both sides there, and PVC T, to bring the manifold out to the valve. On the end of the valve there is a hose adapter so I can attach a hose if I wish or I can just use this to fill a bucket full of water if I want. The last thing I did was attach the drain hose to the barrel on the right using a sump pump drain hose kit I nabbed from Lowes for 10 bones.

Now, this manifold system works using the self leveling properties of water. Water always finds it's own level if it is allowed to flow freely between two points. That's what this manifold system enables here. There is no stoppage between the two barrels. So even though only one barrel has an intake and only one barrel has a drain hose, both will be at the same fill level at all times. As I sit here typing this out, it is finally raining for the first time since I finished this project on Tuesday. I am excited to see how much rain water I will be saving from this storm alone. I now have the capacity to save roughly 110 gallons of rain water at any time and to then use that to water flowers, grass, trees, garden or even in an emergency make it into drinking water, all off the grid. I hope this helps all you other DIY'ers in your home projects. If you have any questions on how to make your own barrels or what materials to use, let me know and good luck!