Those cinder blacks when placed correctly are very strong and if worried about it you could tie them together or even use some bailing wire to prevent collapse. You could also go with small pyramids for the legs.
But it should be extremely stable as soon as you get the first water jug in the middle of the plank with out anything else needed.
This is great information, thanks.
The next time we lose power for 5+ days I will for sure get a generator. What you’re saying here sounds like I could get away with maybe only a couple/few grand just to power the well instead of 12 grand for a whole house deal. (I would need someone to install it for me, so I’m assuming another grand for installation.)
My response to this most recent outage was to invest a modest $500 to significantly increase my onhand water supply.
As for a nearby stream, if it’s a true apocalypse, then yes, but for a week-long power outage, no, not reasonably accessible.
About 10 years ago I installed particle board shelving on the wall near the ceiling in my garage. Light weight stuff that I don’t need very often is stored up there. It is starting to sag in the middle between the brackets which are attached to every other stud, 32" apart(?). Temperature swings and changes in humidity are the factors I believe over the years. I would avoid long term storage of heavy items, even if rated for more than the weight our are storing, with anything made of particle board.
From what I am understanding reading this post the OP is planning on storing water for a long time. Is this for drinking? I would be concerned about stuff from the plastic leaching into the water over a long period of time.
I have about 30 gallons of water stored for an emergency. 5, 5 gallon plastic pails with a pour spout and screw on lid used for the toilet and general cleaning sourced from a food processing company. I add a tablespoon of bleach when filling. And 2 cases of bottled drinking water that gets rotated every 6 months.
I’ve had steel shelving in my garage for 16 years. The shelves themselves are particle board. The one or two with bottles of liquid have taken a definite bow in the middle. As soon as the weather cools off I plan to cut plywood replacements or add reinforcement to the bottom of each shelf.
I have more experience with generator life than I’d care to recall. For my 200 foot well, single pump, I believe the starting draw was about 1100 watts (220v). My 5500W running generator was about $800 and kept the well, forced hot water furnace, refrigerator, and various small loads like lights and computers going with no problem, and still had enough capacity to run an auto-drip coffee maker. As long as I made sure the well didn’t kick in while I was doing it, I could even run the electric cook top.
If you look at where the well service enters the house, there should be a switch box with a data plate that tells you the current draw of the pump(s). That will tell you what size generator can handle it.
Going back to flushing by dumping a bucketful of water into the bowl …
For tissue & #1 there’s no practical difference between water from the tank or water from a bucket into the bowl. It doesn’t take much volume to get the water flow started and it does much of the work.
For #2 there is a difference. Which depending on how big, stiff, etc., may make a real difference in flushing performance.
Down in the lowest area of the bowl is a 1/2"-ish inlet at the front that under a normal flush pushes a jet of water rearwards. Which helps get the stuff moving as well as the water. If you pour a bucket into the bowl that jet of water won’t be there. Which might cause you to just exchange the water but leave some/all of the chunks.
The countervailing argument is that most bucket flushes use more water dumped in faster than a typical low-flow toilet flush does. So with the bucket-into-bowl you may have better not worse performance chunk-wise.
But in a situation where the water supply is constrained, like an emergency, using a gallon bucket of your limited water into the bowl when you could instead use half a gallon (or less) into the tank first then flush conventionally to allow the toilet’s detailed design to work as intended to your advantage might be the smarter move.
it’s worth an experiment at a time when your water supply is not at risk.
These are not low flow toilets. It’s 4 gallons per flush.
I would much rather pour water into the empty toilet tank than stir up stinky bowl contents by pouring water directly into the bowl, even if it costs more water.
Regarding the particle board, I have a local woodworking / cabinetmaker guy I could go back to and get him to custom craft me replacement tops for the particle board pieces.
It’s not really a hardship and probably wouldn’t cost that much. Worth looking into? If so, what wood? White Oak? Hard Maple? Southern Yellow Pine, maybe? Any other details?
Assuming the steel frame is functional, that could solve all the issues, yes?
Why not just use contact cement and cover the particle board with Formica (or the generic equivalent)? You should be able to do that yourself.
That’s completely outside my experience or knowledge. Could you elaborate? It kind of sounds like something I could do. (I have never before seen or heard the phrase “contact cement.”)
Let me say upfront that I’m not handy at all, I have virtually no tools at all, and no place to use tools even if I had some. But I could lay down some newspaper in the driveway and paint / stain / whatever action “covering in contact cement” would be.
*Discourse is so irritating.
Now I’ve never done this, but here for instance is a webpage that illustrates how to apply plastic laminate (Formica, in other words) to a surface using contact cement.
That is orders of magnitude above my ability or opportunity to do myself.
You might just need some boards to add on top of strength in addition to the particle board. You should be able to get the pieces cut to size at the Lowes or Home Depot. A cabinet maker wouldn’t charge too much just to cut the pieces either. Simply laying a couple of 2x6s across the top would give you a lot of extra strength, it would resist sagging for a long time. The span is under 40" between the legs. However, if you can attach boards to the particle board using glue or screws it will be extremely strong. In that case a layer of 1/2" plywood would be sufficient, or would 1x6 boards. Note that two 1x6s or 2x6s placed side by side will only be 11 1/2" wide. That should be fine if your jugs aren’t bigger than that.
However, you are placing a lot of faith in those ‘sturdy’ steel legs. I don’t recall what exact gauge or grade of steel is rated as ‘sturdy’.
If you’re not handy with tools maybe just go to the cabinet maker right up front. Don’t ask for a species of wood, tell him what you’re doing and he’ll know what to do.
BTW: Contact cement is a type of glue that is applied to separate parts, allowed to set on the parts, and then when you bring the parts together the glued areas instantly bond to each other forming a very strong permanent connection. If your pieces are not perfectly aligned when you join them together you cannot reposition them in anyway, they are permanently misaligned. There are techniques for avoiding problems doing this, but if you are not handy you may want a different solution. However, there is an easy way to glue boards on as I suggested with spray on contact cement if you are interested.
Good luck with this. We lost power for just 2 days a month ago, water was available, but it was the worst kind of timing for us. I can understand why you want to prepare for something that could go on a lot longer.
Hehheh. Yeah, I have no clue what they’re actually going to be like.
Fortunately they arrive Saturday so I can see for myself then. (Maybe I’ll take some photos and link them here to get feedback.) Amazon said it would take 3 weeks to arrive, but it’s currently on pace for 4 days. That’s clearly a sign that this was a good decision, yes? Gotta be.
That’s my thinking as well, bringing (ideally) a constructed frame and separate top to show and/or leave with him as needed. And yeah, let him decide. My only hesitation with this is that he might take one look at the frame and not be willing to sign off on the concept.
Why do you say that?
I mentioned upthread that there are a half dozen or so different “brands” of these tables, with two general sizes. The one arriving Saturday is this one: (Amazon links)
WLIVE Dining Table with 2 Benches
Now compare the 5th image in that one (the one with the measurements) with the 5th image in the following listing (also the measurements):
JULYFOX 3 Pieces Dining Table and 2 Bench Chairs
The JulyFox bench looks identical to the WLIVE one, has the same listed top width of 43.3", and lists the interior width of the bench at 40.9". Do you think that’s wrong? Or are the models noticeably different? It would allow for 1.2" on each side for legs and overhang, which should be plenty thick enough for sufficiently strong metal. Whether the actual metal is sufficiently strong is a different question.
My water jugs line up to 40.5", so I’m kind of counting on that 40.9" measurement for the interior width to be accurate. I could probably squeeze the jugs in an inch but would rather not.
I only saw a dimension of something like 43.5" and misunderestimated the width of the legs. That’s awful tight though, giving your self just 4 tenths of an inch clearance even assuming that’s an accurate measurement. Remember, if you assemble them you may not get exactly the result they advertise. But if you’re close you shouldn’t need much squeezing to get them in.
Those could be pretty narrow legs, but without more information there’s no way to tell how strong they’d be. Max load ratings like that can be very deceptive. Do you know you can prop up a Bentley on 4 tea cups, one under each wheel? Someone I know lent his Bentley to be used in a commercial for the tea cup manufacturer. Several thousand pounds just propped up on 4 tea cups. Except the first couple of times they jacked the car up onto the cups they suddenly exploded and the car dropped to the ground because they didn’t have the load balanced on those cups quite right. Somehow they convinced him to let them try one more time (some cash was involved IIRC), and they got it to work. Anyway, when you put your Bentley on those benches that will be a concern.
You have the benches on the way, see what you get, you can work something out. Maybe pick up a few tools and learn use them too, that can be helpful when the power goes out also.
I might get into crafting, tinkering and light woodworking if I had any room for it at all. Right at this moment the only workspace I could conceivably use would be outside on the driveway. And even if I was willing to do that anything large would be a hassle even to store, much less use. Zero chance of a workbench.
Also, the massive storm yesterday rolled through in only 15 minutes. Pretty severe winds, but I guess the hurricane earlier this month already knocked down all the dead trees. Power didn’t even flicker for a second; no clocks had to be reset. I can also now confirm that the bathtub does not leak, so I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.
Are you (or is anyone) saying that these benches will immediately buckle under the weight? If that’s not what you’re saying, be aware that that’s the impression you’re giving.
It’s hard for me to get past the idea that these are benches, intended for adult humans to sit on. Being able to hold up 100 pounds should be a piece of cake. So when I hear the bentley on teacups example, it’s hard not to dismiss feedback like that out of hand. These aren’t shoe racks, where I’m praying they can just hold up 100 pounds. They’re benches, intended for people to sit on, so they guarantee can physically hold up 200 pounds.
My only question was “how long can they do it for” not “can they do it at all.” I’m 100% confident these benches, and in fact all benches, can hold up 100 pounds. I was really just looking for a math formula, something like “divide max weight by actual weight stored and that’s how many years you can expect before collapse.” Sadly it appears no such formula exists.
I think they’ll likely hold up for a while. If the construction is so poor and rickety that you have to worry about short term failure then I think it will be obvious when you assemble them.
Well, yay, it came and the benches work, but there are a few issues.
First the good: They’re pretty darn sturdy. The legs are 2" wide hollow rectangular tubes of metal, and the actual metal part that’s bent around to form those legs is pretty thick. Plenty sturdy enough to hold my weight when I sat on it. (I’m maybe 175 pounds?) Should be fine to hold both the water jugs (106 pounds) and the beverage bench when full (90 pounds!)
The first bummer is that between the legs is indeed less than 40". 39.5" to be exact. So I can only store 5 jugs under them instead of 6. Oh well, not much to be done about that. At least the benches are tall enough to fit jugs underneath; that would have been a real problem.
The second bummer is that the water bench is supposed to go in a spot that is very much not level. The right leg is something crazy like 1/2" or 1" higher than the left leg. I put six jugs on it and it seemed fine but I’m not down with the non-level bench. For the time being I have all 12 jugs on the ground: 5 under each bench plus the two upstairs. Now I need to go buy a level and also figure out some way to shim the thing to level. Any suggestion welcome, but be warned I have no way to cut any wood except for branch and tree tools. (Bow saw, axe and pruning shears. )
And the final bummer is that the two tarps I originally got for 9 across but that I reconfigured to use for 6 across after the original plan changed don’t work for 5 across. I always needed 4 tarps total, and I can still use the two I have and only need to get two more so no waste of money, but it means that the 10 jugs I have out there now have no tarps on them plus I have two tarps sitting in my guest room. Not an issue, but a minor annoyance.
Also, it’s been raining nonstop and cleaning your garage in the rain sucks balls. Other than that, I’m pretty stoked. The only real problem is the non-level garage, but I am optimistic a shimming solution can work.
At the hardware store they will sell something called “shim stock”. It’s a package of about a dozen wooden or plastic strips about 1-1/2" x 8". Each one is about 1/4" thick at one end and tapers to about a 1/16th at the other. Think like a broad but very flat doorstop.
The idea is you can stack them with the slopes face to face. By sliding them back and forth lengthwise, any stack of 2 shims will be parallel as between top & bottom and between 1/8" and almost 1/2" thick. If one pair isn’t thick enough, stack a second pair on top. etc. There’s no real need to cut them shorter although you can if they stick out enough to get in your way.
See
or
https://www.homedepot.com/p/7-5-in-Cedar-Shim-10011701/301757712
You’ll also notice they’re very, very expensive. 