Walking past my water butt today, I noticed a wet patch on the ground, and a jet of water coming from the bottom of the water butt. Closer investigation shows that there is a crack close to, but separate from the drain valve. Is this likely to be fixable (it is made of an unknown type of plastic), or is it RIP water butt ?
Adrian
If it's polythene, forget it - nothing glues that.
If you had some ABS/PVC pipe jointing solvent cement, see if a drop of that eats into the plastic. If so, you might be able to cement a piece over the crack.
You could try lining the butt with something. Thick plastic sheet or similar. If you can force fit an appropriate sized piece of pipe into the drain valve from inside
- probably the most critical aspect of the whole thing should be possible to cut a round hole and tie the plastic securely around that, binding it with polypropylene string. It may look a bit of a mess at the top where the plastic is gathered around the sides, but that can probably be solved if the lid wasn't too tight a fit to begin with. And its not as though it will be open that often.
michael adams
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IMHO RIP.
It's probably got brittle with UV damage as it ages.
Andy
It's a common failure point, on the corner of the recess where the drain-tap bolts on. I guess it's a stress point when opening and closing the tap. I have made semi-permanent repairs by emptying the butt and allowing it to dry out thoroughly, laying it on its side with the tap at the lowest point. Crawl into the butt armed with a torch, coarse sandpaper, a small pot of black bitumastic roof sealer, disposable brush and a small patch-piece of Flashband. Wearing your best suit is not advisable.
Sand the area around the leak to roughen and clean the surface, paint with the bitumastic, apply the Flashband patch, then generously paint on more bitumastic and allow to dry. Lasts a couple of years.
Applying the patch to the inside surface ensures the water pressure pushes the patch against the crack. If you tried to apply the patch to the outside of the butt, the water pressure from inside would just force it off quite soon.
Sometimes cyanoacrylate in a plastic crack works - to my surprise. I cant see it coping here but might help support the repair patch a bit more.
I just repaired a smaller cracked plastic water container with generous internal application of silicone. Its flexibility is a big plus, the crack's bound to move in use.
NT
Depends how much one would cost I'd imagine. maybe you need to get one before the drought hits. I did successfully use Urethane bond on one some years back, but I had to empty it clean around the crack, and make an ugly looking blob all around it. If its the plastic which has gone brittle with age, then its probably not going to be worth it
Brian
then mend it dear henry dear henry dear henry
Don't forget to avoid using any water from this water butt for several weeks, since the various materials used in the repair are probably injurious to plants, especially seedlings.
It's not really worth it in the long run.
Silicone releases acetic acid, which lots of plants love. There wont be enough to make any difference though.
NT
Many silicones have anti-fungals, which the plants will hate as most rely on fungi to work with their root systems.
Guess it depends on the size of the crack/hole. If it's a really tiny pinhole, emptying letting dry, warming the area, and appling liquid cyanoacrylate might work as it'll get drawn in by capillary action. Might be enough to bung up the hole but I doubt it will take much movement, cured cyanoacrylate is fairly brittle.
Wonder if Captain Tolly's Creeping Crack Cure would be better than cyanacrylate?
Other possible methods:
Drill small hole at point of leak. Fit nut and bolt through hole with and penny washers each side liberally smeared with a sealant. Stainless or brass nut & bolt and washers though if well covered in sealant ordinary plated steel parts might last reasonably well.
Use hot air gun and some extra plastic the same as the butt and try to thermo-weld over the crack.
It can be welded using a heat gun and filler rod, You can also weld with a soldering iron with the correct tip.
BTDT. I cut a few shavings from around the top of the butt to provide a bit of 'welding rod'. But I would recommend extreme caution with any heat-based process, as the plastic melts very easily and it's easy to make things a hole (sic) lot worse!
Everyone has a hole in their butt.........
I had this problem. In the end I bit the bullet and bought a replacement. I found Wicke's best.
Trouble is the OP's butt now has a 2nd hole. Some people pay good money for that.
It has 4 holes (big one in the top, small one in the side - water inlet, small one at the bottom - water outlet, plus crack).
Adrian
In message , Adrian writes
Thanks for the replies and suggestions.
Whilst I prefer to fix things if I can, I suspect that this might be one of those things that isn't going to be easily fixable. I've just had another look at it, the crack is the best part of an inch long, and is right at the bottom, so hard to get at from the inside.
Adrian
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