Raised Platform for a Rain Water Barrel

With several metal scraps that remained from the construction of our garden gate arch and the garden pergola, I had to think of what else there is to do with the scrap. There were tubular pipes and round steel bars. Sell the whole lot to scrap buyers? Or just store it away somewhere? It's metal and will hardly deteriorate anyway.

The foreman and the workers did a fine job on the two projects that I wanted something usable that can be fabricated from the scrap metal. They were still working at my neighbor's house and so I had time to think. They had tools to work on the metal scrap like the high-speed cutter and welding machine, plus there was still some excess cement and sand remaining. It would be a waste not to seize the opportunity.



Faucet for the Rain Water Barrel

For quite some time now, I've been happy with how we collected rain water for the garden. I've built some mini-gutters to collect rainwater and then funnel all the collected rain water in a barrel. When it's time to get water, I remove the rain water barrel cover and dip the watering can inside to collect water. I raise it up and then replace the cover.

It's quite cumbersome and a bit uneasy on the back and shoulders. So I had to focus on not using my back and utilize the much stronger legs to raise the filled up watering can. DH wouldn't have any of that heavy work and would rather use a dipper to get water and then use that for watering instead.

And for this reason, I've thought of installing a faucet or spigot somewhere near the bottom of the rain water barrel and then collect the rainwater into a pail or watering can. But to make that work the rain barrel's bottom needs to higher than the top of the pail or watering can. In other words, the rain water barrel needs to be elevated and supported on a platform.

So finally, I decided on the raised platform to support the rain barrel as the next fabrication project.


Raised Platform for the Rain Water Barrel

The workers still had plenty of metal scrap and I offered any other metal scrap they could still find and utilize. I showed them the rain water barrel so they could get measurements for the platform's area. The only question the foreman asked is how high should the platform be. I looked for the tallest pail and told him 14 inches would be fine.

The foreman quickly got down to work with his welder and, after a day's work, the result was very basic, functional and strong.

The remaining 2" x 4" tubular steel pipe was cut to become the platform's posts. Some smaller scrap tubular pipes formed the top frame and bottom braces. The 12 mm. round steel bars formed the grill inside the frame.

The steel platform isn't as heavy as it looks. One person can lift it up and carry it by the grills. The tubular pipes are hollow but are of 1.5 mm. thickness. It's heavily welded and I even stood on the platform with no problems. I'm quite confident it's capable of heavy loads including that of the filled-up rain water barrel.

With the platform completed, it's time to install the faucet for the rain water barrel.