My First Rain Barrel

First, I bought the barrel, which was $15. It once held Kikkoman Soy Sauce.

Then, I drilled holes in the lid so that I could cut the lid off. I used a saw to cut the lid off.

Once the lid was off I was able to clean out the inside of the barrel with soap, water, and a scrub brush.

Next, I drilled a hole for the tap. I forced the tap into the hole and sealed it with plumber's caulk, which turned out to be a bad idea. That stuff just erodes away. Use silicon. I made my own rubber gasket out of a piece of rubber.

Then, I tested the seal. The seal was great when I first tried it out, but eventually, the plumber's caulk gave way.

I screwed some longish screws around the inside edge of the barrel to hold the lid up, because it shrank up. The lid had already been outfitted with a PVC pipe adapter, courtesy of the guy who sold me the barrel. But, that would be the next step if you were to cut your own hole and add an adapter. This adapter makes it easy to go directly from a gutter or PVC pipe into the barrel.

The next part was screwing some mesh screen to the bottom of the lid to keep the mosquitoes out. They're bad this year.

After that, I set up a PVC pipe / adapter / gutter system to run from the roof to the barrel. And that was that. It works great!

Two more to go.