Really nice! I only have 55-gallon barrels; this may inspire me to upgrade!

Wow -- that IS inspiring. How many gallons does it hold?

It's 250 gallons.

It will have a spigot output and a large knife valve for the clean out at the bottom. Jeff doesn't think that there will be enough pressure for soaker hoses, but I'm not so sure. It's gravity fed and 32 inches off of the ground. That was the highest it could go and be under the downspout. We are covering the intake at the top with hardware cloth under vinyl window screen fabric to prevent mosquito infestations. At the bottom, between the clean out and spigot there will be a vinyl screen to stop debris that could clog my soakers, just in case I get to use them. The overflow will be captured with a lay flat drainage hose that will divert water into the driveway.

I still have another tank for the side/back of the house. I'll post more pictures as the project progresses, especially after it's finished. It looks like heck right now :-).

I have the same tanks. Actually 2 250 gallon and one 375 gallon and 1 55 gallon. The two 250 gallon ones are linked on top of one another and sitting on the ground. The water pressure depends more on the level of the top of the water. I also don't think it would be good for a soaker hose, but haven't tried. I'm eager to hear of your success with that.

I'd also like to know how you are going to prevent mosquitoes. I've found the dunks make the water yucky, but don't know of a better way.

Great job, by the way. Also good you got them in before the rainy season!

Thanks Lynn Marie. We will use window screen (vinyl) over a hardware cloth dome shape over the top fill opening and a lay flat drainage hose for the overflow. I didn't want the lil buggers flying in through a pvc overflow pipe. The top fill screen doubles as a filter to keep debris out.

Do you just use yours with a garden hose? If so, is there enough pressure to use a spray nozzle?

Where did you find the 375 gallon tank? We are going to need one more and I'd like to go bigger.

DH just told me that it is really only 330 gallons. We got it from some guy on Craigslist in Rockwall. You can't use a nozzle at all. If you hold the end of the hose down low, you can put your thumb over the end and get a little more pressure, but not much.

That whole water pressure thing is discouraging. I know that hubby set up two of the tanks that I have in tandem for a couple that we met in Granbury. He built their platform a little higher than ours because they had more clearance. He then ran drip emitter hose downhill to their garden. I know that was working for at least two seasons, then we lost touch. I need to find out how theirs are doing.

I agree with copingwithclay that one should look carefully at the structure that you have there. Overdoing it before is preferable to repairing after.

That's a great point, we already have the lumber so adding those vertical supports makes sense. I was planning to use exterior latex on the frame to protect it since we chose to not use pressure treated lumber.

I love it, great job. I have been wanting to do something similar here in North Houston.

Exterior paint WILL let in moisture at any small crack or void and not allow it to escape causing rot on a scale that would amaze you and fairly quickly in pine.. I am a furniture maker and I have made exterior furniture and have seen mushrooms and fungus growing out of my furniture. I have seen situations where the painted surface was there and NO WOOD was under it, just paint . Caulk every joint well and start with a penetrating primer, and repaint routinely. There is no exterior paint the will prove indestructible. Houses are designed with water shedding inherent in the design and there is still rot where there are sills and treads. This structure has water CAPTURE designed in every joint. Look at your structure and imagine that you are a drop of water. End grain is very absorbing and you have it as the weight bearing surface under the cross pieces. At least the cross piece forms a cap above it But the cross piece is not supported with any weight bearing member, just screws. I would also add some support pieces under the tank.. I no longer build exterior furniture and if someone twists my arm, I will never ever guarantee it, ever ever again and I was building out of a water resistant woods. The un painted test chairs withstood weather better, but the wood was old growth cypress, white oak and sassafras.

We are working on a tight budget, it's amazing how much the plumbing components cost and we didn't have the budget left for pressure treated lumber. There's no taking it apart and coating the whole shebang with primer or paint, he used 3 inch ring shank nails because they are stronger than screws and those won't be coming out. I guess a lot of caulking and priming is in my future :-)

I have a set of nice adirondack chairs that he built for me 10 years ago from untreated pine that I repaint maybe every two years. The only rot on them was where they touched the earth. That being said, they don't hold nearly the weight of that tank full of water.

Thank you for all of the perspectives and advice.

We are back to square 1. I mentioned the concerns about the structure to hubby. Jeff literally slapped his forehead and said that he is starting over and this time building without drinking beer!

We will be channeling the gutter directly to the opening on top of the tank. There is a huge amount of water that flows through that downspout.

I can believe it. I have a 3K' worksop with a butterfly roof that drains out on a 10' roof over our entrance. The 2 grooves drain into a large 7'wide slightly sloped gutter that goes the 70' of the shops inner spine and then makes the bend over the entry. We had to have a special extra wide and deep raingutter bent up that also drains in two pipes. Man does it get the water flowing during a downpour. I have seen a waterfall over the entry when the tanks are full and too much water is entering the system and it can't get out fast enough. It is a scream. We have a 20K gallon system. That is what we live on.

Bumping this back up since we are rebuilding the structure this holiday weekend. There was some rot but the real issue was that the fencing that we clad it with needed more support. Also the tank supports needed to run the other way so that it's easier to slide the tank in and out. We have to power wash it every couple of years because of the algae buildup and with the wooden pallet that it mounts on, the supports would hang up. Regarding the soaker hoses, the cheap round ones made from recycled tires do work, you just have to leave the valve open for about 24 hours to get enough water down.