I will be getting gutters put on the house in the next month and I'd like to also add a couple rain barrels. Does anyone have a good source for these around San Antonio? I also have one downspout that I plan to put a rain chain at, it's very close to the front door and I think this will look nicer than the traditional downspout.

Thanks, Kim

Keep an eye out at Tuesday Morning for the rain chains. I got several real nice ones there in the last couple of years for cheap

An idea. Get those that can connect together. I have three connected, so when the one under the downspout fills up, the excess fills up the other two. Lots more water collected.

I am getting stock barrels from a Pressure Washing company. They buy chlorine in 55 gallon drums. Talk about clean barrels, right? We plan on linking 3 barrels tipped on a diagonal for over 150 gallons of rainwater from one spot. We just installed gutters and the downspout that will be diverted. Well probably use a kit for that part. You can buy the diverting kits online/ Home Depot etc.. In fact you can buy all the connection sets, faucets etc in kits if you don't want to devise your own. Please keep us posted in your progress.

Thanks all for the great tips. Shady - I am having gutters and downspouts installed in a few weeks. I would like to include a diverter (this week is a good example of why) - which one are you planning to use? I'm debating whether to have the company cut the downspouts above the barrels or to deal with this on my own.

For those barrels...is the residual chlorine a concern at all? Just curious, looks like there are some different options in San Antonio from the searches I've done so far. However, the reading I've been doing seem to recommend food grade barrels.

Kim

Look on Craigslist they often sell them all ready to go

I haven't gotten so far as to choose the diverter kit. But I want one that in case the barrels over flow, it will divert the water back down the downspout. We won't be cutting the downspout for that reason. I found barrels on a local yard sale site for $10. I am picking up 3 of them as soon as I hear from her. But first I need to know what was in them. I will clean them out and let them sit in the sun first no matter what. "Food Grade" is what I heard, too. But I figured I would be using bleach to clean them out anyway so...

@blueeyes heres a simple set up. Hope you can see it
http://www.homedepot.com/catal...

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Fre...

I picked up my rain barrels today. They are beautiful and CLEAN! They are only 35 gallons though. Shrug. They will be more manageable for me since this is my building project. I might have to make two set ups to harvest all the water I can get. The man said it once held, "catalyst" but it came in bags, that the barrels were basically clean when it was emptied. He powerwashed them. The lid is held on by a nice locking metal clamp, not the screw on kind. I like them! If this project goes easily, I will make a second set on the other side of the yard.

@shadygreenthumb. I'd love to see pictures and for you to share any learnings.

Will do, @Lynne. I'll start another thread when i get started. The idea I'm using isn't one of my own. But a space saver idea from Instructables.com. Blog-tweeked of course! That worked for me building my greenhouse it should work great for this, too. (see "Harbor Freight Greenhouse Project" in the Greenhiuse Forum) If all goes well with the first build, I'll build 2 more for a total of 300+ gallons of rain water in 3 different places in the backyard. And if I can hide it properly, I'll make one for the front yard, too.

Here are the barrels. Small 33 gallons. But the lid is removable with a nice clamp so I can get into it and install spigots and whatnot. I just found a local warehouse source for parts on Jack Rabbit Rd.

Thanks for the links! I'm a visual learner, so this is great. I like the way they did the overflow, but then it does look like I'd want the installers to cut the downspout to fit the barrel. And I would want mine set up higher to get some more gravity flow for the spigot. Now to find some barrels...

Kim

@blueyes we are alike! I need pictorials, guides and simple language when i build. I do well and learn aling the way. I am also Queen of Do-Overs. I'm going with a Diverter from Amazon. We will continue to use our downspout for the run off. We get such torrential rains here in Houston. I bet a good rainstorm could fill up 100 gallons in 15 mins! Here are my plans. 42 pictures plus a blog that tweeks it. I posted it somewhere at ATP before. I liked it as soon as i saw it!
http://m.instructables.com/id/...

Costco had some very nice looking barrels with flat backs. There were 2 faucets, one higher which I liked.