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I ordered two rain barrels from our county’s water district and wanted to install them with some height so I will have a decent amount of water pressure. I have used concrete blocks in the past, and wanted something a little more attractive. The design is super simple and is easily found online. I cut the 4 vertical post to 30 inches tall and the 2 horizontal members to 31 inches. This leaves room for a 24 inch diameter rain barrel. I mounted the horizontal supports 4 inches below the top of the post. If I were to make them again I may make the post taller so the vertical supports stick up higher to hold empty rain barrels in place during a storm. I used two two cedar tone treated 4×4’s for each stand. The joints are all half laps with exterior grade glue and lag screws. I used the trenching feature on the miter saw to cut the half laps and cleaned up the joints with a chisel.
To connect the rain barrel to the downspouts I used a diverter from earth minded. I have used this diverter in the past and had a couple extra parts laying around from and old house. The holes were already drilled in the rain barrel so I could not set the hole height to the recommended spacing, but I think it will still work since I have a positive slope and the diverter is below the lid.
The rain barrels I received were pre drilled and came with an upper overflow attachment. I did not want to drill another hole in the rain barrel so I heated up the attachment and enlarged the opening a tiny bit to receive the 1.25” expandable hose that came with the diverter. The diverter has its own backup so the barrel should overflow back down the downspout.
Of course now that these are booked up, there is no rain in the foreseeable forecast. Sorry. I did leave my umbrella out of my backpack for work today so maybe that will entice the rain clouds.
Witch Wood Works 
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