Big butts with saggy bottoms

[Thomzo]

No Mr Moderator - this isn't spam. Please don't delete me!

Nor is it a self description (although any of you who might actually meet me will realise it is actually fairly accurate ). No my problem relates to water butts.

About 4 years ago B&Q were selling what they called "Big Butts" off cheap. On the face of it they looked the real thing. 330 gallon green tanks made of recycled plastic with a tap already installed. I bought 4!

They didn't have any stands (possibly why they were selling them off) and the tap is right at the bottom so they have to stand on something. I made walls out of bricks or breeze blocks for them all and there they stood, perfectly happily. Except that I did notice that the plastic is very flimsy and tends to sag - especially at the bottom.

Well due to the bright idea of a previous occupant of my house, one of these butts was the only thing that prevented my garage from becoming a swimming pool every time it rained. Needless to say, yesterday morning, that was the only butt that filled completely. All the others managed about half full.

Yesterday evening, I decided that pottering about in the garden hadn't been enough exercise so I went out for a walk. Only a couple of miles but enough at the end of the day to tire me out for bed. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed a DISASTER.

That one water butt by the garage had toppled off its stand and was leaning precariously against my new, second-hand hammock which was in turn leaning against the garage door. Something was bound to give at any second.

I had cleaned the butt out a few weeks ago and couldn't have put it back on it's stand properly. The weight of the water and the soft plastic had combined to cause it to fall over.

Well for about an hour last night I was using buckets to empty the water into the remaining butts to try to save as much as possible. I couldn't get to the tap so couldn't empty it that way.

It's funny how you can never get a syphon going when you really need one! After a while I decided that I had probably drunk more that the recommended safe level of butt water and gave up with that idea so buckets it was.

The butt now has a huge dent in its bottom so won't stand up on its own. And I now have huge muscles and a really sore back from carrying all that water.

Still the silver lining is that I got a lot more exercise than I'd planned.

And the butt isn't wasted. Providing I can seal the tap up, I plan to bury it in the garden and turn it into a well.

[Clara]

OOOOOH I can imagine the feeling when your saw what was about to happen. This made me giggle a little, the way you tell it not what happened you understand.

Hope you´re not feeling any ill effects from the butt water

Clara x.

[Wombat]

My first question is.......Have you been peeking at me in the shower again?

Wow! sounds like you really had a fun time! I'm glad it wound up mostly OK in the end. A few years ago we had a problem with our original water tank which, un beknownst to me had corroded on the inside to the point where it was paper thin in some areas. Walking past and brushed against it with something (can't remember what) resulting in a hole - minor panic. The trouble was that everthing I did to try and fix the hole only made it bigger.

In the end there was no choice but to drain the tank and get a new one .

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

How we guard our precious water! We seem to spend an inordinate amount of time mucking around with water butts too.

Most of ours don't have proper bases either, so they are up on pallets and similar. The big problem we have is they sink into the ground because of the moles, so sometimes we have to dig out a hole to get the watering can under the tap!

Glad you managed to save your water in the end!

[Thomzo]

Hope you´re not feeling any ill effects from the butt water

Clara x.

Thanks, not feeling too bad. At least I had cleaned the butt out before this happened so I know it wasn't too manky. Just the odd leaf that hadn't had time to decompose.

I keep moving the things around the garden to try to get the most fill off different roofs etc. It's not really surprising that one of them fell over. I'm now a bit worried about another one that looks a little lopsided so I'll be emptying that one first so that I can reposition it.

It never ends does it?

Zoe

[Cheezy]

You might be able to make some sort of timber frame around the butt to support it and actually raise it up?.

Wish i had a water excess problem, we STILL have had no water, dispite the weather people saying we were going to get some rain on Saturday night...no wait Sunday afternoon...no actually most of Monday... after 3pm...no Monday night....actually it'll be Tuesday, err no well today it's going to p*ss it down!....except it's lovely, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. And I've nearly run out of water in my butts and everything looks more like Dafour than Darlo!.

[Thomzo]

You might be able to make some sort of timber frame around the butt to support it and actually raise it up?.

With my DIY skills? I'd probably lose a finger But that is a good idea. I might have a go one day when I'm feeling brave.

Goodness, I didn't realise there were parts of the country that still hadn't had any rain. I feel positively blessed now, we actually have light rain today. Do you want me to parcel some up and send it on?

Zoe

[the.fee.fairy]

After a while I decided that I had probably drunk more that the recommended safe level of butt water

I nearly fell off my chair reading that!!

We've got a butt on bricks, they're cemented in pretty securely, and it makes something like a small tabley type thing for it to stand on. Might be an idea of next time!!

If you made something like that, then maybe it might be an idea to make it so that there's a ledge that the water but has to stand on so that it always goes on the right way.

There's less chance of losing fingers with bricks too!

[Thomzo]

Two of my butts are on bricks, dry laid around in a circles to make a column. That seems to be really secure and solid but needs a flat base to start with. Most of my butts are in places where I might need access behind them to get to downpipes, drains etc, so I would hesitate to put anything too permanent in place. I do want one inside my potting shed/greenhouse and I did think that getting a proper brick base built would be the best option in there as I really couldn't risk it falling over.

[ohareward]

All you people with water butt problems. Do you use them because you have to, are you not on town water? Or is it cheaper to supply your own because the councils charge too much.
Where we are in Canterbury we are lucky as our water does not need to be treated like other parts of the country. We have our own bore. The aquifer below us is only 10 metres down. Some people further inland have to go down 10s of metres.
We were in Queensland a week ago and my wife's brother was saying that they had run out of water in their tank, (30,000 litres) and had to buy in water. This water problem is going to get very scary.

Robin

[Wombat]

We were in Queensland a week ago and my wife's brother was saying that they had run out of water in their tank, (30,000 litres) and had to buy in water. This water problem is going to get very scary.

Robin

Ummm, mate......it already is!

Nev

[Muddypause]

I think a combination of things are happening here in the UK, Robin. We have a growing population (in some regions more that others) living in more and more houses on a fairly small island, and I suspect people may be using more water. And we now have vast areas of land that have been tarmacced, concreted and patioed over, with the off-flow diverted away from where it would normally go. Rain patterns seem to be changing, too. Here, we had torrential rain last night, but have had practically nothing for six weeks or more before that - that is very unusual for April. Last year saw a low point in reservoirs and aquifers because of long term low rainfall, so many regions imposed a hosepipe ban. This makes watering your vegetable plot difficult, and so lots of people installed water butts. This in turn lead to a shortage of butts in the stores, hence people have been improvising.

For decades we have had easy to use (easy to waste), purified water piped to us by the water cos., and most of it goes stright down the drain again - we flush our loos, wash our clothes and water our gardens with drinking water, and consider this to be perfectly normal.

I think that we will see a gradual change in the way we pay for water - ATM most residential properties pay a flat annual rate, and for that we can use pretty much what we like, but water meters are gradually becoming more common (once this is commonplace, it may bring up whole new ethical problems of who 'owns' water, who is entitled to use it, who can profit from it, the difference in usage between rich and poor people, etc.).

Hose pipe bans have happened from time to time before, but last year they were necessary in very many regions, and I think some people are realising that this may be a long term problem and are trying to take steps to obviate the problem. I've installed loads of water butts for people over the past couple of years; one client has 5 already (one of them a huge thing) and she still wants more.

[Millymollymandy]

And on top of all that that Muddy said, it is just easier to water your veggie patch when there is a water butt close by, than have to walk a long way to a tap!

[ohareward]

Thanks for that info. Regarding who owns water, in NZ, we have regional councils, and part of their job is to look after the water supply in the region. If people want to start up a business and water is needed in large quantities, they have to apply to the regional council for consent. Dairy farmers use a tremendous amount of water to keep the pastures green. They are allocated so many litres per second. The council has to weigh up the situation between recreational fishermen, (who fish in the rivers) and agriculture and still maintain steady flows in times of low rainfall. Some people think they have a rite to take what they like, and moan when they are knocked back.

Robin

[Thomzo]

Hi
Personally the main reason I use water butts because I am on a water meter. Being on a meter has really changed my attitude towards water usage.

Also, as 3M points out, having a water butt near the veg patch is much easier than lugging watering cans full of water up there.

Another reason I use butts is because my old house doesn't have proper drains where the downpipes reach the ground. The water just washes over the soil. As the ground slopes down towards my house there is a serious risk of flooding and my garage regularly floods. The water butts catch at least some of the water and stop it flooding into the house.

Zoe