Water butt for my shed - help!

[Demeter]

Evening all,

Hope you are all well and have had a good harvesting season (so far!)

My little one is just starting school and I've taken two weeks off work to settle her in and get some long overdue jobs done. One of them is to fit some guttering and a water butt onto my shed at the lottie, which seemed like it would be straightforward until I started thinking about the practicalities!

There is no drain or anything, as you can imagine, so my main worry is what happens when the water butt starts to overflow? The one at home is connected to the downpipe of my house so overflow is not a problem - but what about the lottie where there isn't anywhere (apart from in a big puddle around the water butt) for the excess water to go?!

The other question is what is the best way to connect the guttering to the water butt? I am using a spare wheelie bin and plan to plug it into the side of the bin. All the fittings I have seen are designed to divert water from a downpipe but I was hoping to avoid fitting a downpipe just for the purpose of diverting water from it!

Any suggestions? How have you all done it on your sheds / greenhouses?

Thanks everyone!
xx

[Capsid]

Unless the water butt is situated on a concrete surface then any overflow water will just soak into the soil.

I bought some right angles tubes and fitted them to a downpipe to direct the water into the butt.

Marley 87.5 Degree Round Downpipe Bend RB251BX Black (Dia) 68mm, RB251BX

[zazen999]

Get another big round container and decant the contents of the water butt into that sometime during the winter........and into any other buckets/containers you've got to try and keep as much water for yourself as possible. If you fill everything you have, then just let it overflow; it would have gone on the ground anyway....

[chriscross1966]

Or a couple of cubic metre bund tanks.....

[rustylady]

I would have thought a downpipe would be the easiest way to get the water from the guttering to the bin. They're not difficult to fit. If you can get hold of another butt/container you could link the two to collect any overflow.

[Flobalob]

For any excess water you cannot handle that is causing puddles etc. You could simply make a soakaway.
A soakaway is simply the water pipe dug in the ground leading to a small pit filled with rubble.

[Two_Sheds]

my main worry is what happens when the water butt starts to overflow? [and] I was hoping to avoid fitting a downpipe

You get another water butt and link it to the first with a piece of old hosepipe. They will fill each other (I think I have a pic of mine in my photo album 2008).

I was too tight to buy a downpipe, so I made one out of old pop bottles tied together with string.
It worked, just looked untidy

[Stacey Steve]

We save and are constantly filling the 4 pint milk bottles with excess water from the water butts. I store these all round the site as watering points. When OH goes to the lotties to water from me, then she does not have to carry watering cans (which are a little on the heavy side for her).

The lower stagings in the greenhouses are stocked up with bottles of water over winter so they don't freeze and burst and any that have to be left outside I only 3/4 fill and leave the cap loose.

So far we have about 100 bottles so that's 50 extra gallons of water stored ready for the spring.

[zazen999]

filled milk bottles are also good for weighing down fleece/nets/cloche ends

[bobleponge]

You get another water butt and link it to the first with a piece of old hosepipe. They will fill each other (I think I have a pic of mine in my photo album 2008).

I have all my water butts linked together this way. One word of advice, time spent at the start making sure they are all the same height from the floor, really is time well spent!!

[Demeter]

Thanks so much everyone!

Right you are - a downpipe it is, followed by a second water butt as soon as I can source a suitable container, and I will start collecting 4-pint water bottles. We rarely buy them as we can't use it fast enough (yes, I know that's unusual, but there you go). However I know loads of local mums who will do doubt be willing to donate to the cause.

Can't imagine myself doing a soakaway - sounds like it would work, but all that digging, and getting hold of rubble and I'm not even sure if it's allowed, and, er, all that digging... hm. Will consider it if puddling does start to cause problems!

xxxx

[Flobalob]

You make it sound as if digging is alien to gardening !
The pipe to soakaway can be a spades depth. The actual pit can be as large or as small as you are capable. Maybe 1 compost bag full of rubble ( bag of grit would suffice)

[Demeter]

You make it sound as if digging is alien to gardening !
The pipe to soakaway can be a spades depth. The actual pit can be as large or as small as you are capable. Maybe 1 compost bag full of rubble ( bag of grit would suffice)

You make me sounds like a shirker!
Not so far from the truth lol. But actually the way you describe it sounds like an easy peasy job, compared with the major groundworks operation I had imagined... Could I just dig the pit underneath the bottom of where the downpipe will come out (and do away with the pipe element altogether)?

[zazen999]

I use the 2 pint and 1 pint milk bottles; no good buying too much milk and throwing it away for no reason ....that's what we buy so that's what goes to the plot.

[Flobalob]

You make me sounds like a shirker!
Not so far from the truth lol. But actually the way you describe it sounds like an easy peasy job, compared with the major groundworks operation I had imagined... Could I just dig the pit underneath the bottom of where the downpipe will come out (and do away with the pipe element altogether)?

Yes that would be ok. I wish i had your problem, i cannot seem to keep my barrels full. I must use at least a barrel per day. After 4 days i'm waterless (