300 Gallon Rainwater Harvesting System

Project:
300 Gallon Rainwater Harvesting System
Consists of (6) - 55 gallon translucent polypropylene barrels
Mag 9.5 Pump for pressurizing hose for watering - ok to use for now but will upgrade to something more suitable for this application - not enough pressure

Total time it took to complete:
A few days...took a few hours to make up a stand that will work best with the setup I came up with + be able to handle the weight of a full barrel (400+lbs) with no problem.

Most time consuming was figuring out how to connect the barrels together, being able to disassemble it if needed, and finding the best way possible to get the water out of the barrel.

Here is a picture of one of the stands already built.
All the stands were made out of 2x4s fastened together with 3.5" framing nails. Very strong.


Shown below is another stand being put together, from start to finish, this one just to hold one barrel.


The legs for the stand consist of (4) 4x4 - made out of (2) 2x4 put together. Each barrel has 4 supporting legs.





And here is the stand completed. Next to it is the stand for two barrels. I also made another stand, for three barrels (not shown). Only difference between a single barrel stand vs a multiple barrel stand is that there is an additional piece of 2x4 bracing the two legs together - shown below.


And here is the picture of where I placed the barrels (somewhat blurry because I took the picture in pitch dark), two of the other barrels are on the left side, where the pump is located to pressurize the hose for watering. Barrels are located on the side of the house where nobody sees often, very well placed and hidden from the public eyes lol.


Have more pictures but do not have it on me right now, will update later on....

Finally updated (May 31, 2009):

Up-close picture of how the barrels are linked to each other. Union fittings were used for each connection to barrel in case I need to disconnect the system.


Pictures of the final setup. Notice the left barrel with the gutter run-off.


The only difference in the picture below is that I placed the other gutter run-off into the barrel.


....still missing the picture of how the water is accessible

Garden Bed Boxes

Project:
(4) Garden Bed Boxes (14'L x 4'W x 11"D)

Total time it took for me to build:
Less than 1 day

Wood is delivered to house from lumber yard.
Consist of 2x4x14, 2x6x14, 2x6x16


Most of the cutting were done in the garage. The red box contained a 5 shelf/workbench that I used with my miter saw.


All lumber pieces are transported into the garage.


Here is a picture of my work in progress (all of the required 2x4s are cut) - The wood on the right are used for building the box, left side are scraps.


First box being built (prototype).


The box is raised due to the corner legs sticking out 5", they will be planted into the ground, and the sides of the box will be touching the ground. Right now, the box is still not finished yet, and for this prototype, one of the cross-braces was not spaced correctly (does not affect integrity of the box).


Here are three more boxes being built...


Cross-braces are placed and fastened in each of the three boxes (4 cross-braces per box).


Now for the final product...the top of the box has a mitered 2x6 ledge for aesthetics as well as a place to sit while gardening.


-----Day 2-----

(3) Truckloads of loam and mulch being delivered and dumped onto driveway.

Loam is used for the garden bed boxes.

Mulch is for the black area on the right next to fence.


First load of loam being dumped.


Final results: 7 cubic yards of loam

And the third load - 3 cubic yards of mulch

Here are the garden bed boxes being placed into the ground...

The area is roughly 24' by 17' - boxes are spaced 2.5~ft apart for walkway.

Back to the mulch, loaded onto a dump cart (max 600lbs capacity).

Moved and used 4-5 carts full of mulch to fill up the side of the house.


Three garden boxes in the ground, one left to go.

All boxes are lined with landscaping fabric. One is shown lined.