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rainbowgardener
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water containers

I put this at the bottom of a weather post, but I thought I would give it its own thread, see if anyone has ideas. Here's my issue:

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275 gallon containers. You can get them clean, used, food grade for about $100. I want two. I've just been dithering while I figure out how to make a platform for them. I want them up about 3 feet for gravity feed and easy bucket filling. But of course that much water weighs 2,287 pounds (= more than a ton), not counting the weight of the container. So whatever they sit on has to be VERY sturdy. And they have to be level, even though the ground where they would sit slopes away from the house (as it should).

All you ingenious folk out there, any thoughts about how to do this that is within very average DIY skills? I have thought about wood, maybe just stacked instead of built into a structure or concrete block.... OR

I found this image:

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It's a platform for a very large tank. Looks like made from wooden platform supported on steel pipe frame. But I have no idea how to build or where to buy something like that.

Here's a picture of a water heater on a platform, but that's all there was of the picture, not enough detail. What is it sitting on on the ground? How does the pipe connect to the platform so that the whole thing is supported?
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Thanks very much for any thoughts/ ideas

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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I think I would take advantage of yard slope put drain hole on the down hill sized. It only needs to slope about 1/2" to drain out all the water.

Cement blocks are $2 each most place, brick yard they cost less and they deliver. You can stack cement blocks to hold up full water tanks. 40 blocks to hold up each water tank cost $80 plus sale tax per water tank.

4"x4" boards on each corner is strong enough each corner is about 550 lbs per corner. 4x4 boards are $6 each. 3/4" plywood is $35 each. Support board, screws, etc. to build a 4 leg tank holder will cost about $75 each to build for each tank.

If I was building that for myself I would set tank on the ground then buy a $40 Little Giant water pump for the garden hose. The pump will use about 75¢ worth of electricity per month pumping water to the garden. There are many different Little Giant pumps buy one for a garden hose to connect too.

When I lived in the big house in town 1991 to 2011 I hand dug a ditch around the house 8" deep 10 ft long ever day it took me about 2 weeks to dig all the way around the house to the garden. I put 4" pvc pipe in the ditch then connected house rain gutter drain to the pvc pipe. I covered up the ditch all rain water went to the garden behind the house. After the first rain I realized I need a small containment pond to hold the sudden serge of water so I shoveled soil from center of pond to outside to make a levee around the pond. I planted my garden rows pushed soil up 3" high 8" apart to make a levee both sides of each row of plants. Next big thunder storm pond filled quick then over flowed to the irrigation rows. I had to make a few adjustments to control water flow in each row but it worked very well. I could still walk down center of each row no irrigation & no mud between rows.
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rainbowgardener
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thanks for the ideas, Gary!

SQWIB
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IBC TOTES 40" x 48"
2" x 8" frame with 12" centers. 5 boards across - 77" long (length of tote minus 1.5" end boards)
4 footings of cinderblock two on each end
Double 2" x 8 "s on each cinderblock (optional and really not needed, but gives piece of mind).

the wood height alone will give you 15"
you will need three cinderblocks high at 7.625" high
the total height would be 37-7/8" but you can dig in a 1-7/8" to get your 36"

I think the 8" is completely overkill and could probably be fine with 2" x 6" boards all around. but will bring you down 4" overall

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rainbowgardener
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The 36" is just a round number figure to pick. It doesn't matter exactly.

I am so un-spatial. Is it possible you could add a diagram of what you are talking about?

What do you do about the ground slope? A little for drainage is fine, but I don't want the whole thing sliding off!! :D

Thanks so much SQWIB!!

SQWIB
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There are a million ways to skin a cat but this is what I would do.

A few things that come to mind, I'm not sure how the IBC Totes are constructed as far as where the weight will be applied, I'm assuming a flat bottom so the weight will be distributed evenly on all the boards.
Also IBC Totes can be stacked, however stacking 2 on a frame you would need a beefier frame.
If you have grass underneath where you plan on building this it will die, so you may want to frame out underneath the storage unit and put in mulch or some kind of stone, especially being on a slope, just a few things to think about.

For the ground slope I would go to the lowest point measure the difference and on the high side dig in your cincerblocks. Remember that you any need to figure out the slope for the length "only" you are making your support.

So for example if you have a 9" difference from one end to the other and your cinder blocks are 7.625" high you would use one less cinder block and dig the other one in 1-3/8" deep.
If you have a heavy clay soil, no need to do anything else, if you have a loose soil, you can dig down an extra 12" and put in some crushed stone

I wish I could draw so I could convey to you what I mean
Also I think you will be fine using 2x6" boards, just use PT and when you buy your boards check for squareness, they can bow a bit but the "spline needs to be square, does that make sense?

Going a step further, you could use the underneath for storage, so consider that when making this as you may want to put trash cans or yard gear underneath.
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