Custom made drainage trays

Commercial drainage trays are a pain because they are never exactly the size you need.

I was musing that one could be made out of wood (structural pine and plywood) and coat everything in bitumen paint then seal up the edges with silicone. Has anyone attempted anything like this? What products did you use and was it successful?

worldspawn said:

... What products did you use ...

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For my 12" diameter 5 gallon plastic buckets I grabbed some 14" diameter plastic saucers:

worldspawn said:

... and was it successful? ...

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Yes sir. They ain't nothing fancy - but they keep the run-off off of my tent floor.

StareCase said:

For my 12" diameter 5 gallon plastic buckets I grabbed some 14" diameter plastic saucers:

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/blooms-14-inch-clear-saucer/1000178201

Yes sir. They ain't nothing fancy - but they keep the run-off off of my tent floor.

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I don't love those clear ones. I've used them around the house in the past for other uses and they wear and crack and leak without much effort. For my tent I ended up getting these 14" saucers. Heavy plastic, but not brittle.



I thought about trays and angling them, but couldn't find anything that I really loved for the job.

Yeah I'm more talking about a single tray draining for multiple plants. I've started putting this together, will post the result. I made this drain elbow i'm pretty proud of. I can't seem to share it here though.

I made catch trays to exactly fit my stealth cab out of plexiglass cut to size and fused together with scotch weld or whatever it's called. The people at the plastic store know what you need. Probably costs more than wood but last for years and definitely waterproof.

yeah i got some online quotes. Will be several hundred bucks but probably worth it.

I'm planing to throw down a pond liner in my 8*9 room should give me a foot plus of extra clearance on each side and be like a huge tray.

I saw people on Amazon making them into lined beds with wood walls that were deeper closer to 8*4*3

If these guys would ever follow up on how to purchase outside the USA, I would be using these. I haven’t seen anything that compares.

Build a box the size of try you want or there abouts.
Cover the box with pond liner and seal corners properly.
Cover that with a piece of fiberglass and seal the corners properly once again.
Trim it up before it gets too hard and then touch up here and there maybe in the end, but that should give you a fairly stable tray and its surely water proof...just flip it over and remove the box...nice rubber mat/box.

Mak'er Grow said:

Build a box the size of try you want or there abouts.
Cover the box with pond liner and seal corners properly.
Cover that with a piece of fiberglass and seal the corners properly once again.
Trim it up before it gets too hard and then touch up here and there maybe in the end, but that should give you a fairly stable tray and its surely water proof...just flip it over and remove the box...nice rubber mat/box.

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any tips on sealing corners? I was just gonna lay it down and kinda push it into the corner.

Monster_of_Au said:

any tips on sealing corners? I was just gonna lay it down and kinda push it into the corner.

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Make a cut straight off the corner so it makes 2 equal size flaps that over lap...maybe add some silicone or sealant of some kind so theres no leak(s). If the piece is bigger then the tent floor it will help create a small boarder around the sides.
I'm sure there some videos online on how to do pools or ponds...pool liner could work too, but I think the black stuff has glue on one side...maybe not though...lol
Also maybe use cardboard as a template first then lay it on the liner your using...so if you mess up you can fix it with some tape and your not spending more money on supplies.
Best of luck and happy growin'

Aren't the drainage trays that go under washers and dryers about 4x4?

JonathanT said:

Aren't the drainage trays that go under washers and dryers about 4x4?

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machines are usually 24-30x24-30

And if its just the bottom you want to water proof...flex seal it.

worldspawn said:

Commercial drainage trays are a pain because they are never exactly the size you need.

I was musing that one could be made out of wood (structural pine and plywood) and coat everything in bitumen paint then seal up the edges with silicone. Has anyone attempted anything like this? What products did you use and was it successful?

Click to expand...

Hi dude i had the same problem, never the right size so i built a plywood one and got a place that makes truck tarps to weld me up a pvc/canvas liner that fits inside the plywood tray.
In one corner i cut a 4"hole then scewed a square of ply underneath, this creates a recess in which i drilled a 1½" hole and installed a drain fitting. I installed the drain tray on a slight angle so everything drains to that corner.

I'm making some corner joins in plastic... Probably will be PETG. This is left front corner. It joins 3x 35x70mm beams (back, side and bottom/leg) and a piece of plywood. The back and the plywood are angled at 5 degrees. The plywood should sit flush with the beams. All the deges are 5mm except over the top the ply which is just 3mm. This leaves about 42mm between the top of the plywood and the top of the front beam (which is essentially the trough).

This means I don't need to seal corners (which can be tricky for an amateur like me). Just need to seal the (coated) ply to the beams.

If only there wasn't timber shortage and a lockdown I could actually buy the timber

That looks so clean! Is that a real photo?

worldspawn said:

That looks so clean! Is that a real photo?

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Yeah, posted the link above for those trays, big ones are $29 each I think. Super clean.. those are commercial trays too. I missed getting a set in time for my run but I’m definitely getting them for the next.