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Fixing holes in plastic buckets!

We have had a few fires recently in the brazier in the back yard. Its lovely to gather with a coffee and sit and chat into the evening with friends and family. Some one collected up some twigs in our new (to us) plastic bucket to get the fire going with. The next morning we found the bucket must have been a little too close to the fire as it had two melt holes in the bottom of it...

I wasn't so keen to throw out such a handy bucket and so we had a bit of a think and here's what we did...


The bucket with two decent holes in it!
 
 You can see the burn holes. Too big to patch with a blob of silicone this time...
 
 
We cut the corner out of an old ice cream container that happens to fit into the corner and covered up both of the holes.
 

Perfect!
 


Not the most glamorous look - but its a bucket not a bridal dress!
 

Generous amounts of silicon go around the outside of the ice cream container ...
 
 
Like so...
 
 
A blob around each hole...
 
Hold it down firmly to seal the holes and stick the ice cream container on properly and then...
 
 
Fill with gravel that you have lying around - Sand would have been better we reckon but old gravel from a path was all we had! Something that moulds to the buckets contours will work. You need an even weight across the silicon seal. 
 

 
Leave the gravel in the bucket for at least 24 hours and then empty out. We have got some dirt stuck to the silicon that leaked out from under the ice cream container.
 

 
But it holds water again! Cool!
 
This might not work on all buckets. It could be a bit tricky finding a container that has the same contours as your bucket but you could always make individual patches for each hole if you needed to! We used sink sealer type silicon because it was what was in the garage. I guess as long as its water proof, any silicon would work.

Score card:
Green-ness: 5/5 for fixing and not throwing a bucket out!
Frugal-ness: 5/5 for a free fix.
Time cost: A few minutes to get the patch in and stuck. 24 hours to set.
Skill level: Cutting and pasting - like most of my projects!
Fun -ness: Great fun not to have to throw out an almost perfect bucket!

Comments

africanaussie said…
very clever! When i first read about the bucket and some twigs the little song theres a hole in my bucket came to mind :)
Practical Frog said…
My husband was humming it the whole time we were fixing it! Its very catchy! - K x
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