Two 55-gallon barrels rain barrel stand plans

Parts

Cut list

Kerf 1/8″ included. Every cut runs edge to edge.

Steps

• Tape measure
• Speed square
• Pencil
• Drill/driver
• Clamps
• Safety glasses
• Hearing protection
• Dust mask
• Circular saw or miter saw
• Miter saw, or circular saw in two passes, for 4×4 posts
• Sander, 120 and 180 grit

Underlined words have a short explanation: hover or tap them. All of them are on the glossary page.

1. 1Before you start

   Read every step once, start to finish, before you buy or cut anything. Each step names the parts it uses by letter; the parts list gives their sizes.

   Set up somewhere flat with good light. A pair of sawhorses with a sheet of plywood on top makes a fine work table.

   Wear safety glasses whenever a tool is running, hearing protection for saws, and a dust mask for sanding and for cutting treated wood or sheet goods. Tie back long hair and loose sleeves. Keep children and pets out of the work area.

   • Tip At the store, pick straight boards: hold each one up to your eye and look down its length. Skip boards that bow, twist or have big knots near the ends.
   • Tip Measure twice, cut once. Most mistakes are a misread tape, not a bad cut.

2. 2Cut and label the parts

   Cut every part on the cut list. Cut the longest parts first: if one goes wrong, it can still become a shorter part.

   To mark a cut, hook your tape on the end of the board, make a small V with its point exactly at the measurement, and draw a square line through the point with a speed square. Put an X on the waste side.

   Cut on the waste side of the line, so the blade's kerf (about 1/8″) comes out of the scrap, not your part.

   Write each part's letter in pencil on a face that won't show, and stack the parts by letter.

   Sand the faces before assembly while they're flat and easy to reach: 120 grit, then 180.

   ✓ Lay the parts out and count them against the parts list. Measure a few: if one is off by more than 1/16″, recut it now.

   STOP. Let the saw reach full speed before it touches the wood, keep both hands clear of the blade's path, and never reach under a board you're cutting. Support long boards on both sides of the cut so the blade doesn't pinch.

3. 3Pick the boards and the screws

   Pressure-treated pine: read the end tag. Parts that touch soil, sit in wet mulch or go in the ground must say "ground contact"; "above ground" lumber is fine for everything else. New treated boards are often wet and heavy: stack them flat with scrap sticks between them for a week or two in the shade so they dry and stop twisting.

   Sight down each board at the store like a rifle barrel. Skip boards that twist, bow more than about 1/4″ over 8′, or have big loose knots near where you will cut or screw.

   Use exterior screws only: coated deck screws (labelled for treated lumber, "ACQ compatible") or stainless steel. The copper in treated wood eats plain and zinc-plated steel within a few years. Indoor wood screws and drywall screws rust and snap outdoors.

   The legs stand on gravel that stays damp: buy 4×4s stamped "ground contact". The aprons and deck can be "above ground" lumber, but buying it all ground-contact is simpler and costs only a little more.

   • Tip Buy one extra board of the most-used size. A split or a mis-cut then costs you nothing but a few dollars.
   • Tip Cedar splits easily: predrill every screw within 2″ of the end of a board with a bit about the size of the screw's inner shank.

   ✓ Every board is reasonably straight, and the screw box says exterior, coated for treated lumber, or stainless.

4. 4Call 811 and check the spot

   At least 3 working days before you dig, call 811 (or use call811.com). It's free. They send people to paint or flag buried gas, electric, water and cable lines near where the rain barrel stand will go.

   Check your property line on your survey or plot plan, and ask your town about setbacks, easements and whether this needs a permit.

   Pick ground that drains: not a low spot where puddles sit after rain, and not over a septic field.

   STOP. Don't dig until the marks are down. Hitting a gas or power line can kill you and is expensive to repair.

5. 5Mark out a square rectangle

   Hammer a stake at one corner of the gravel pad. Measure 63 1/2″ along the long side and hammer a second stake. Tie mason's line tight between them, a few inches off the ground.

   For the first square corner, use the 3-4-5 rule: from the first stake, mark 3 ft along the string. Run a tape 4 ft out roughly at 90°. Swing it until the 3 ft mark and the 4 ft point are exactly 5 ft apart. That direction is square: set a stake 38″ out along it.

   Measure the last corner from the other two (63 1/2″ and 38″) and set the fourth stake. Run string around all four.

   Measure both diagonals, corner to corner. Nudge the stakes until the two numbers match.

   • Tip For bigger layouts use 6-8-10 instead of 3-4-5: the bigger the triangle, the more exact the corner.
   • Tip Batter boards (two stakes with a crosspiece set 2 ft outside each corner) let you take the strings down to dig and put them back in exactly the same place.

   ✓ Sides are 63 1/2″ and 38″ and the diagonals match within 1/2″. Spray marking paint along the strings, then pull the stakes you're about to dig around.

6. 6Dig out the pad

   Cut the sod inside the paint lines with a flat spade and peel it off in strips. Then dig the whole area 1″ deep. The border timbers sit on the bottom, so the finished pad stands about 2 1/2″ above the lawn and rain runs off it.

   Find the high corner: lay a straight 2×4 across the hole with a level on it. Dig the high side down to match the low side, rather than filling the low side with loose dirt. Dug soil is firm; added soil sinks.

   Rake out roots and big stones, then tamp the bottom with a hand tamper: lift it waist high and let it drop, overlapping each hit, until your boots don't leave prints.

   • Tip On a slope steeper than about 1″ per foot the low side needs a second row of timbers. Use a flatter spot or ask a landscaper.
   • Tip Keep the sod: it patches bare spots around the pad when you're done.

   ✓ The bottom is firm and level within about 1/2″ end to end. Check in both directions and on both diagonals with the 2×4 and level.

7. 7Set the border timbers

   Lay the long timbers (G) along the long sides and the short ones (H) between them, inside the long ones.

   At each corner, predrill and drive two 6″ timber screws through the long timber into the end of the short one.

   Measure the diagonals and push the frame until they match. Then check level along every side; dig out under the high spots or pack soil under the low spots and tamp it.

   Drill a 1/2″ hole straight down through each timber, about 1 ft from each end and every 4 ft between. Hammer a rebar stake through each hole until it's flush with the top: 8 stakes in all. They stop the frame creeping apart.

   ✓ Diagonals match within 1/2″. A level laid on each timber reads level, and on a straight 2×4 across the frame, both ways.

   STOP. Wear gloves and a dust mask when cutting pressure-treated wood, and don't burn the offcuts.

8. 8Lay landscape fabric

   Roll landscape fabric over the dirt inside the frame. Run it up the inside of the timbers a few inches. Overlap the strips by 12″ where they meet.

   Pin it with a few garden staples, or just hold the corners down with the first shovels of gravel.

   • Tip The fabric keeps the gravel from sinking into the mud over the years and slows weeds. It doesn't need to be perfect.

9. 9Fill and compact the gravel in layers

   You need about 11 bags (0.5 cu ft each) of crushed gravel. Ask for 3/4″ crushed stone (drains well) or dense-grade aggregate (crusher run, packs hardest). Not pea gravel: round stones roll and never lock together.

   Spread a 2″ layer with a rake. Mist it with a hose so it's damp, not muddy. Damp gravel packs much better than dry.

   Compact it: go over every inch with the hand tamper, overlapping, two or three passes. For a pad bigger than about 8′ × 8′, rent a plate compactor for half a day; it does in minutes what takes an hour by hand.

   Repeat 2″ layers until the gravel is level with the top of the timbers: about 4 1/2″ in all.

   Screed the top: rest a straight 2×4 on two opposite timbers and drag it across in a side-to-side sawing motion, filling low spots and pulling off the extra. Tamp once more.

   • Tip Compacting in thin layers is the whole trick. Six inches tamped at once only packs the top inch, and the rest settles later.
   • Tip If the gravel was delivered, have it tipped on a tarp near the pad and wheel it in.

   ✓ Walking on it leaves no prints. A level on the straight 2×4 reads level in every direction.

10. 10Build the two end frames

    Lay two corner legs (A) flat on a driveway, 23″ apart outside to outside, tops even.

    Lay an end apron (C) across them with its top edge flush with the leg tops and its ends flush with the outside faces of the legs.

    Predrill and drive three 3″ screws through the apron into each leg, spread up the apron so they hit the middle of the leg.

    Screw an end stretcher (F) across the same face with its bottom edge 3″ above the leg bottoms: two 3″ screws into each leg. It stops the legs from spreading or racking.

    Build the second end frame the same way.

    • Tip Pressure-treated wood is wet and can split near the ends: predrill every screw within 2″ of an end.

    ✓ Both diagonals of each frame match within 1/8″, and the two frames are identical when laid on top of each other.

11. 11Add the long aprons

    Stand the two end frames up, aprons facing out, 51 1/2″ apart outside to outside.

    Screw a long apron (B) across the front, top flush with the leg tops, its ends covering the ends of the end aprons. Three 3″ screws into each leg. Repeat on the back.

    Mark the middle of each long apron (25 3/4″ from the end). Stand the two middle legs (A) inside the aprons, centred on the marks, tops flush, and screw through the aprons into them: three 3″ screws each. They carry the second barrel.

    Screw the long stretchers (E) on the front and back at 3″ up: two 3″ screws into each leg.

    • Tip If it rocks, loosen one long apron, press the high corner down and re-drive its screws.

    ✓ Both diagonals across the top match within 1/8″, and the stand sits on the driveway without rocking.

12. 12Lay the deck

    Lay the 9 deck slats (D) front to back across the aprons, ends flush with the outside faces of the long aprons. Start flush with one end and work across with 1/4″ gaps.

    Drive two 2 1/2″ deck screws through each slat end into the long apron below. Where a slat lands over a leg, add a screw into the leg top too.

    The gaps let rain drain off the deck so it doesn't pond under the barrel and rot the wood.

    • Tip Two 16d nails or a scrap of 1/4″ plywood make good gap spacers: drop them between slats as you screw.

    ✓ The last slat finishes flush with the far end (within about 1/4″), and every slat is screwed at both ends.

13. 13Protect it from the weather

    Decide how you want the stand to look in five years. Bare cedar and bare pressure-treated wood both weather to silver-grey and still last many years; doing nothing is a real option.

    To keep the colour, use an exterior oil or semi-transparent stain: brush it on, let it soak in 15 minutes, then wipe off whatever is still shiny. Renew it every one or two years. Avoid clear varnish or polyurethane outdoors: sun cracks the film, water gets under it, and it peels.

    For a solid colour, prime with an exterior primer and use two coats of exterior latex paint. Paint end grain twice: it soaks up water like a straw.

    Pressure-treated wood must dry before any stain or paint. Sprinkle a few drops of water on it: if they bead up, wait; if they soak in within ten minutes, it is ready. This can take a few weeks to a few months.

    • Tip Finish on a dry day above 50°F with no rain forecast for 24 hours.
    • Tip Oil-soaked rags can catch fire on their own as they dry. Lay them flat outside to dry or keep them in a sealed metal can of water.

    ✓ The finish is dry to the touch everywhere, with no wet or shiny puddles in corners.

14. 14Set the barrels on the stand

    Set the stand in the middle of the gravel pad and check level with a level across the deck, front to back and side to side. If it is out, lift it, rake and tamp the gravel, and try again: never prop a leg on a wood scrap.

    Set the barrels on the deck, centred, spigot facing out to the front. Follow the barrel's own kit to fit the downspout diverter.

    Point the overflow, or a hose screwed onto it, at least a few feet away from the house so the extra water can't soak the foundation or the basement.

    Cover every opening with fine insect screen. Mosquitoes breed in standing water in about a week, and an open barrel is also a drowning risk for small animals.

    Rain-barrel water is for plants, not for drinking, cooking or pets: it carries grit from the roof, bird droppings and whatever is on the gutters.

    • Tip Before the first hard freeze, drain the barrel, leave the spigot open and disconnect it from the downspout, or the ice can split it.

    ✓ After the first good rain fills it, the stand is still level and nothing has sunk or leaned.

    STOP. A full 55 gallon barrel weighs about 472 lb. Never try to move, tip or straighten a full barrel: drain it first.

15. 15Finish

    Ease every sharp edge and corner with 120-grit sandpaper so nobody gets a splinter.

    Sand all over with 180 grit, always along the grain (the direction the wood fibres run). Scratches across the grain show through stain.

    Wipe off the dust with a barely damp rag and let it dry.

    Outdoors, use an exterior finish: a penetrating deck oil or exterior stain, or primer and exterior paint. Leave cedar bare to weather silver if you like. If it holds soil for food plants, leave the inside unfinished.

    Let it dry for the time on the can before using it.

    • Tip Try your finish on a scrap of the same wood first: stain looks different on every board.