I was planning on ordering 55 gallon water barrels through my SiLs church contacts, but my water will have to be stored in the garage, but then I read that it is not a good idea to store the barrels directly on concrete, so I held off.  Elsewhere I have read that is mostly a myth.  One site quotes some guy [“According to preparedness lecturer Kenneth Moravec: “Concrete attracts fluids and ‘bleeds.’ Anything that has been on or in that concrete will find its way into your plastic water barrel. This includes the lime in the concrete, any hazardous materials (i.e. gasoline, oils, kerosene or anything a contractor used in construction), algae, etc. Usually it is not enough to make the water toxic but it will taint the water enough to make the taste unbearable. And no amount of pouring it from container to container will take that taste away.”] who turns out to be a long term prepper from Utah, no particular expert except via experience (which is not to be sneezed at, except when you’re wrong), and then it gets parotted and shared as gospel.

*Heated* concrete is a problem, so if it’s in an environment with relatively stable temperature, like in a basement, it’s probably fine.  My garage isn’t temperature controlled though, so it might be a good idea to raise it.  If you are going to do that, then why not create a rack that stacks 2-3, to use the vertical space?  Right now, I could get this metal stand with upgraded plumbing system, with delivery, for around 385$ from groundzero3.com. It’s on sale, and there’s a coupon code, which drops it 60$ altogether.  Note this is without barrels.  Assembly of this would be relatively simple.

There’s are also a number of plans out there to build a wooden rack.  A 2×3 takes it up to 330 gallons, which would make me pretty comfortable, once a rain cachement system is in place. Do I have the skill to build that though?  Well, no.

These are great videos and make it seem easy.  But I don’t have the tools.  And if you add the materials and time, well, perhaps it’s not more cost effective.  But it’s twice the barrels.  It’s easier to expand.  Once you have the tools, the additional supplies aren’t that much.  Tools are useful and should be owned anyway.

Times like this, I quite wish my guy was handy.  And that he was on board.

Preparedness Pro has a great article on myths and facts of water storage.  Worth the read.