Skip to main content

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
I am thankful for this blog to gave me much knowledge regarding my area of work. I also want to make some addition on this platform which must be in knowledge of people who really in need. Thanks.
carpet steam cleaning Bondi
End of lease cleaning Mascot
End of lease cleaning Pyrmont
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Popular posts from this blog

Killing cockroaches with boric acid v borax!

We live in Queensland. We have cockroaches. Lots of cockroaches! Why the NSW rugby team is called the Cockroaches is a mystery to me - surely ours are not only bigger but more plentiful??? At any rate, I don't like living with them (and I'm quite sure they  are not so fond of me at the moment!!) and I have been going through the usual gauntlet of sprays, solutions and bombs to get rid of them... But I'm not so keen on the chemical aspect of all this spraying and bombing. I hate the smell and can almost feel disease and cancer growing in me every time I spray. I'm OK with the resident cockies getting a lungful of chemicals and then keeling over but I feel its impolite (and probably illegal) if my guests and family members do the same thing!!! We went through a faze of killing them by hand (and flyswatter and rolled up newspaper and underfoot) but its hard and frustrating work and it probably was only culling the dumb and slow ones - leaving the smart fast ones to bre

Easy to make fabric covers for milk crates!

Like most households, milk crates appear in and about our house as they are the right size to sit on, strong enough to stand on and the right shape to store things in. They are usually free or picked up for a dollar or two at garage sales or at dump/tip shops. They come in red and blue in our area (depending on weather they are originally from Paul's or Dairy Farmers!) and that simply doesn't go with my outdoor decor - neither does the plastic look but that's another issue. Something had to be done. I decided to cover them with material that fitted in with the rest of our current outdoor setting - A quick look on the Internet for inspiration and confidence and... The finished product being modelled by the cat! Here's what I did... I started with the standard Brissy Blue and Red Milk Crates... Then I bought a sheet and a couple of pillow cases from the local Footprints Op Shop This is less a pattern and more a method to follow - Cut the sheet i

What to do when your cat attacks a bird... and doesn't kill it.

We have an eight year old cat who we got as a stray about six years ago. The vet reckoned she was about two when we got her and we did all the right things and got her spayed and vaccinated and all that stuff. She loves people and no matter where you are in the house or garden, she will not be far away. She really good with kids and will put up with the squishiest cuddles and a far bit of toddler tail fascination before bolting out the door to escape. She is well fed (despite the look she is giving me and the empty bowl below...) but not fat - but still the  urge to hunt and subsequently kill still seems to be quite strong. Last weekend, she pounced out of nowhere on a rainbow lorrikeet - thankfully my husband and a band of teenage boys were also there and managed to grab the bird before the cat had done more than pounce. Now we have a slightly mangled still alive but obviously unwell bird on our hands - what do you do? Here's what we did... We found a box - popped an old