Garden barrels for collecting water are at every summer cottage. But under the influence of moisture, they often rust and gradually deteriorate, and plastic liners do not help either. Experienced gardeners have found a way to protect the barrel from rust without using liners.
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Many gardeners try to protect metal containers with large plastic bags that are placed inside the barrel.
But often this does not help prevent rust.
First of all, the edges of the bag are difficult to secure tightly to the edge of the container. They often break, begin to leak water, especially during heavy rain. Rusty spots begin to appear on the edges of the barrel, which not only spoils the metal, but also negatively affects the quality of the water inside the container.
In addition, plastic bags do not have a large margin of safety, they often break, and moisture gets inside.
Therefore, experienced summer residents consider the use of liners impractical and offer the best way to protect the barrel from rust.
How to protect a barrel
You can create a dense protective layer inside the barrel if you thoroughly coat the container with ordinary cement.
After such treatment, water remains clean throughout the summer cottage, since it is like in a concrete well.
The main advantage of this method is environmental friendliness, since the gardener does not have to use it for processing the walls with potent chemicals, which can affect the quality of the water and, when watering, affect harvest. In addition, this method of processing garden tools has a fairly low cost. For work, you only need clean water and some cement, which can be purchased at a hardware or hardware store.
To protect the barrel, you need to follow the sequence of actions exactly, otherwise the result may not please, and all the work will have to be done again.
First, the container must be cleaned of dirt and rust. For this, you can use a stiff brush or sandpaper. The main thing is to completely remove all dirt. After such processing, you need to thoroughly rinse the barrel under running water and put to dry. The walls must be completely dry.
The next step is to prepare the cement mortar. A standard two-hundred-liter container will need about 1/3 of a bucket of solution. If necessary, its amount can be reduced or increased.
In order not to spoil the bucket, you can use old, already unnecessary equipment for breeding, but you can put a dense plastic bag inside and just throw it away at the end of the work.
It is better to take cement brands 400 or 500. It is mixed with pure water in an arbitrary proportion. You should get a solution with a consistency like ordinary paint. It is not necessary to knead the solution thicker - it will be difficult to apply it to the walls of the barrel.
Some gardeners recommend using milk instead of water for mixing. This makes the cement stronger. The dairy product must be high in fat.
When the solution is ready, you need to start processing the container. Use a wide paintbrush to apply a thin layer of cement to the inside of the barrel. It is important to carefully coat all the cracks so that the layer is even. If this is not done, in places where flaws have been made, rust may appear, and the work will go down the drain.
It is recommended to start from the bottom of the barrel, gradually moving to the edges. To make it easier to work, you need to put the container on its side.
When all walls are evenly processed, the cement layer must be dried.
To prevent the cement from cracking, the container must be placed upside down and placed over a basin filled with water. This is necessary in order for the coating to set in a relatively humid environment.
When the barrel is completely dry, it is recommended to apply a second coat and dry it as well. Multiple coats can be applied if necessary to make the homemade concrete well more airtight. Each time the coating must be thoroughly dried.
After the last layer has dried, you can put the container in its usual place and fill it with clean water.
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