Water Butt

[Bill]

Ages ago I bought this huge rain butt from ebay for, literally, pennies. In spite of all sorts of problems and rain, I finally made a wooden stand for it and rushed in between showers to plumb it into a drainpipe using a Sankey diverter. It was a struggle and bit of a bodge to get it done ready for the massive rainstorm predicted for here yesterday.

The original plan was to strap it to the house, but I was going to do this as soon as I could get some black or green webbing rather than the orange that I have here. I often regret trying to please women rather than doing what should be done.

The rain came, but just before the rain came the huge gust of wind that woke me about 3 am. The butt being light, big and empty was whisked across the drive with the diverter, the various rawlplugs and screws and

3 segments of drainpipe.

Today I've bodged it back into place in the rain and SWMBO has been saying we can't have that noise as the water poured into it. It does seem to resonate as the water flows in.

However, the real problem is that since its flight, it seems to have a leak in its bottom as well as a huge dent in the side. Its a standard green plastic (polycabonate?) butt and about 5 feet tall, so reaching to the bottom to patch the crack will be very difficult, wet and cold.

If it's a straight crack, I plan to drill holes each end then patch with some sort of glue. Any recommendations? I'd normally just scratch round the problem area and mix up some epoxy, perhaps with a small piece of glass fibre mat, but it may be colder and wetter than I would normally do this.

[Martin Brown]

Provide it with a chain for the water to run down inside then.

It has probably had it then, but you might be able to make a decent waterproof seal from the inside with pondliner and suitable glue. The pressure and flexing of the base will experience makes it tricky. I have a collection of old bins scrapped by builders I use for making leaf mould that have suffered similar failures. They toss them my way.

Nothing will stick reliably wet (maybe a high tech PU glue would but I doubt if it will grab polycarbonate or polythene well enough).

[Matty F]

I've done this many times for small cracks. Drill a hole in the middle of the crack. Make up a metal and and rubber washer with a bolt. Lower the lot on a string through the lid. Put a nut on the outside.

[harryagain]

Temporary a bit of flashband on the inside. (Needs to be clean & dry.) Lasts a few months. Use blowlamp if cold/bring indoors. Part fill with hose to weight down. You need to arrange water to run down the inside of the butt to quieten it (not fall the full depth).

The fruit juice containers are a better buy, much thicker plastic. I have three. You can get some really massive ones, up to a 1000litres

These green butts you see in garden centres are s**te.

[fred]

What about a very large polythene bag? Something like a dust collection bag.

[Roger Mills]

I rather fear it's scrap. If you bought it cheaply, can't you get a cheap replacement?

When I was a teenager in the Cotswolds over 50 years ago, we had a corrugated galvanised iron water butt. That froze solid one year, and split the seam round the bottom. Against all the odds, I mended that with fibreglass resin/paste (remember David's Isopon?) and it lasted for least another 20 years! But I don't think that would bond with the plastics used these days.

[Dave Liquorice]

It should be an awful lot quieter when full, there will be no water flowing into it...

Some of the modern building adhesives down't seem to mind the wet, read the labeling to find one. If the butt is polyethylene then finding something to stick to it may well be a problem. Warmed up flashband probably will or a bit of ali foil pie dish and bitumastic sealant or modern building adhesive. Needs to be on the inside though and down the bottom of a tall water butt is not an easy place to reach. Lie it down and crawl in?

[David P]

Where do you get those from?

Our old butt is beginning to leak at the bottom seam so I've been looking for a replacement.

David

[Chris Hogg]

Drain it, dry it out thoroughly inside, get some black bitumen paint gunge and some Flashband from your local DIY shed. Lay the butt on its side with the leak lowermost, crawl in and paint the bitumen generously over and around the area of the leak, then apply a patch of Flashband while the bitumen is still tacky, making sure it's pushed flat all over, and apply more bitumen over that. leave it a day or two for the bitumen to dry. Don't wear your best suit; a torch can be useful to see what you're doing.

By the time you've bought the bitumen and Flashband, it would probably be cheaper to get a new butt. Only cost-effective if you've got some already at the back of the shed/garage/workshop.

[Bill]

In message , Dave Liquorice writes

Sadly, the days are gone when we had a child who liked to crawl into holes with a paint brush.

I've been cleaning and drying it, and discovered it was made by Sankey. Having held it up to the light, I don't think I'd buy another. Round the place where they obviously blow the plastic into the mould, it is so thin it is colourless. The huge dent in the side has sprung back out without any further cracking.

The leaking cracks seem two in number and fairly small, so I'll try waiting for a dry spell and experimenting.

There do seem to be a few decent hits on ebay searching "Plastic Barrel", but they are almost all collection only and the other end of the country.

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

[newshound]

It will almost certainly be polyethylene. As others have said, very little sticks to it and bitumen / flashband on the inside is probably the best bet (I have a giant wheelbarrow repaired that way). Holes to "stop" the crack are probably not a bad idea. If the surface is flat you may get an adequate seal by clamping rubber sheet on one side with a suitable plate and a suitable number of nuts and bolts. Although it may weep initially, the crack might well seal itself with silt over time. It can also be repaired by welding with something like a soldering iron, you are likely to need a "filler rod" to build up the thickness. Use bits of scrap polythene from something else.

[Martin Brown]

You missed out the cost of replacing the clothes you were wearing to do this job. Bitumen paint goes everywhere especially in a confined space!

[Huge]

"Sticks Like Shit" works underwater and bonds to PVC (I used it to repair our inflatable "swimming" pool, after I over-inflated it rather enthusiastically and one of the seams popped.

[harryagain]

We have a local farmer flogs them as a side line.

They are 1m sq and come in a steel cage on a pallet.

Example

[Dave Liquorice]

Only 1m sq won't hold much. B-)

Trouble with IBC containers is that most are translucent so algae will grow in them.

[Tim Lamb]

An alternative is *one trip* fruit juice containers. Targeted at farm use and tend to be available from agricultural suppliers.

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Way over in Suffolk but there must be other outlets.

[David P]

I found that one but it seemed they only sold in pallet/part pallet loads. I've no need for either 4 or 8 of them. Ta though.

David

[David P]

Just a bit too far from Yorkshire but thanks Tim; I'll continue the search.

David

[Jim K]

Whereabouts in yarkshire?

Jim K

[David P]

North of Leeds.

David