IBC ToteTexas

Reuse ledger, year to date: 41,200 totes diverted from Texas landfills this year. 2,060k lb of HDPE kept in service. 1,772k lb of steel cage recovered. 3,140 tons of CO₂e avoided. 92% of our wash water recycled on site. 68 Texas counties served from one Austin yard. Full methodology at /sustainability/reuse-ledger.

Guide · Texas specific

Size it against
the dry spell,
not the rainfall.

Almost every rainwater system that disappoints its owner was sized against annual rainfall. In Central Texas the constraint is never the total — it's the six-to-ten week gap in August when nothing falls at all.

Outdoor tote yard beside a metal warehouse with the Texas flag flying overhead

The short answer

Collect about 620 gallons per inch of rain per 1,000 sq ft of roof. Size storage by multiplying weekly demand by the longest dry spell you want to cover. Screen every opening, fit a first-flush diverter, plan the overflow, build the stand for 2,400 lb, block the light to stop algae, and leave headspace through winter.

Spec a rain capture setup

Tell us your roof area and what the water is for. We'll size the storage and list the fittings.

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From the yard

Warehouse interior with double-stacked IBC totes carrying hazard placards on steel racking
Indoor racking. Chemical-service units stay under cover and stay physically separated.
Wide view of a warehouse hall filled with reconditioned IBC totes on polished concrete
Covered inventory. What you see on the rack is what goes on your truck.

620 gal

per inch, per 1,000 sq ft

After typical losses.

~34 in

Austin annual rainfall

Wildly unevenly distributed.

6–10 wks

typical summer dry spell

The number that actually sizes your storage.

2,423 lb

full 275 gallon tote

Build the stand for it.

Sizing

Work backwards from demand

Two numbers: what you use in a week, and how long you want to go without rain. Multiply. That's your storage target.

Catchment by roof area
Roof areaPer inch of rainPer typical 1 in stormAnnual (34 in)
500 sq ft310 gal310 gal≈ 10,500 gal
1,000 sq ft620 gal620 gal≈ 21,000 gal
1,500 sq ft930 gal930 gal≈ 31,600 gal
2,000 sq ft1,240 gal1,240 gal≈ 42,000 gal
3,000 sq ft1,860 gal1,860 gal≈ 63,000 gal
Storage sizing by demand and dry spell
Weekly demand4-week cover8-week coverTotes needed (8 wk)
30 gal120 gal240 gal1 × 275
60 gal240 gal480 gal2 × 275
100 gal400 gal800 gal3 × 275
200 gal800 gal1,600 gal6 × 275
400 gal1,600 gal3,200 gal10 × 330

Build

Six components, in order

Skip any of these and you will discover why it was on the list within one season.

  1. STEP 01

    Screened inlet

    Fine stainless or plastic mesh over the fill opening. Keeps leaves, grit and mosquitoes out. In Texas this is the non-negotiable one.

  2. STEP 02

    First-flush diverter

    The first ten gallons off a roof carries most of the dust, pollen and bird waste. Divert and dump it before the tote fills and your water quality improves dramatically for very little money.

  3. STEP 03

    Planned overflow

    A 2-inch overflow routed away from foundations and toward something that wants water. Totes fill faster than people expect, and an unplanned overflow finds your slab.

  4. STEP 04

    A stand that can hold 2,400 lb

    Poured pad or timber frame on compacted base. Concrete blocks on bare soil settle unevenly and fold cages — slowly, so nobody notices until something fails.

Light protection

Block the light or grow algae — it takes two to three weeks in open Texas sun. Paint the bottle with exterior latex, wrap it in a UV-stable cover, or buy a pre-wrapped opaque unit. Everything else is a distant second.

Vented lid

If you will draw water out with a pump, the tote needs to let air back in. A sealed bottle under a 40 GPM pump can collapse in under a minute — permanently.

Texas rules, plainly

  • No state permit is required for residential rainwater harvesting.
  • HOA restrictions are limited by Texas Property Code — an association generally cannot prohibit rainwater harvesting outright, though appearance and location standards can still apply.
  • State sales tax exemption applies to rainwater harvesting equipment and supplies. Ask for the invoice to be coded correctly.
  • Cross-connection rules apply if you tie a harvesting system into a potable supply. That is a plumbing question with real consequences — get it designed properly.
  • Some municipalities offer rebates for harvesting installations. Austin has run programmes in the past; check current terms with your utility before you buy.

Freeze protection

Central Texas freezes are short, hard and increasingly consequential. Water expands about 9% when it freezes, and an over-full tote splits at the shoulder. Leave headspace through winter, insulate or drain exposed plumbing, and close valves rather than trusting a hose bib to hold. After February 2021 nobody in Texas should treat this as theoretical.

Which tote to use

For irrigation and garden use, a Grade B unit with light protection is fine. For livestock water, use documented F-grade so you know what was in it. For anything with a potential potable path, use a rebottled unit with a new bottle.

What we will never sell you for water is a tote that held herbicide or pesticide. Glyphosate and 2,4-D residues persist in HDPE and the downside — a poisoned trough or a dead vegetable bed — is not worth the saving. Configured options are on the water storage page.

Linking multiple totes

Connect at the outlets with 2-inch full-bore pipe and share a single overflow. They level themselves. Keep the run short — a long or narrow connection means the second tote fills at a crawl and you effectively own one tank with an ornament next to it.

Getting water out

A tote on a four-foot stand gives roughly 1.7 psi — enough for short gravity drip runs and a trough float valve, nowhere near enough for a sprinkler. If you need pressure rather than flow, you need a pump. See pumps and transfer.

Questions people actually ask

+How much rainwater can I collect?
About 620 gallons per inch of rainfall for every 1,000 square feet of roof, after losses. Austin averages roughly 34 inches a year, so a 2,000 sq ft roof theoretically yields around 42,000 gallons annually. Storage, not supply, is always the limit.
+How many totes do I need?
Size against your longest dry spell, not against annual rainfall. Weekly demand multiplied by the number of weeks you want to cover gives the target. A garden needing 60 gallons a week through an eight-week dry spell needs about 480 gallons — two totes.
+Is rainwater from a tote safe to drink?
Not without treatment, and not from a general-grade tote. Roof runoff carries debris, bird waste and whatever the roofing sheds. For potable use you need a rebottled container plus filtration and disinfection, designed properly.
+Do I need a permit in Texas?
No state permit is required for residential rainwater harvesting, and Texas Property Code limits how far a homeowners association can restrict it. Local rules can still apply to plumbing connections and any cross-connection with a potable supply.
+Is rainwater harvesting equipment tax exempt in Texas?
Yes — Texas exempts rainwater harvesting equipment and supplies from state sales tax. Ask us to code the invoice correctly when you order.
+How do I stop mosquitoes?
Screen every opening with fine mesh, including the overflow. An unscreened tote in Texas becomes a breeding site in under a week, and it is the single most common complaint neighbours make about rain capture setups.

Related

Next

Quick reference

Numbers worth having open in another tab

The figures that come up in almost every conversation, whichever page you arrived on.

275 gallon · 1040 L

48×40×46

Tare
130 lb
Gross, water
2,425 lb
Stack full
2 high
Stock
Always in stock

330 gallon · 1250 L

48×40×53

Tare
160 lb
Gross, water
2,915 lb
Stack full
2 high
Stock
Always in stock

264 gallon · 1000 L

48×40×46

Tare
125 lb
Gross, water
2,325 lb
Stack full
2 high
Stock
Usually in stock

350 gallon · 1325 L

48×40×56

Tare
175 lb
Gross, water
3,095 lb
Stack full
2 high
Stock
Order in

Outlet thread

S60x6 — 60 mm coarse buttress. Not 2" NPT.

Grades published

N, R, F, A, B, C, X — applied at the wash bay.

Wash standards

W1 rinse through W4 caustic CIP at 160°F.

UN retest

Leakproofness 2.5 yrs, requalification 5 yrs.

From the yard notes

Longer reading on this

32 articles written by the people who wash, grade, weld and dispatch. No marketing copy in any of them.

All 32 articles

On the yard this week

Flatbed trailer loaded with two rows of IBC totes secured with straps, hooked to a blue tractor unit
Twenty on the floor of a 48-foot flatbed. Forty if they're empty.
IBC totes strapped two high inside a box trailer with timber dunnage between the layers
Empties double-stacked and strapped over the cage rail — never over the bottle.

More answers

While you're here

Pulled from the full FAQ, which runs to forty-plus answers across buying, grades, food safety, sizes, selling, compliance, delivery and care.

Read the full FAQ

Where we are
3505 Montopolis Dr, Austin, TX 78744
Yard hours
Mon–Thu 7:30a–5p · Fri 7:30a–4p · Sat 8a–12p · Sun closed (Central Time)
Coverage
68 Texas counties on scheduled routes, from one Austin yard.

+Cash or credit?
Either. Credit against future purchases is typically worth more per unit, which suits operations that buy and return continuously.
+Is a 275 gallon tote the same as 1,000 litres?
No. 1,000 litres is 264 US gallons. Many sellers round it up to 275; we list both figures because eleven gallons matters if you batch to a recipe.
+Are your totes NSF certified?
The resin in new and rebottled bottles meets FDA 21 CFR 177.1520. Container-level NSF/ANSI 61 certification is a manufacturer programme that does not carry over to reconditioned units. If your specification cites it, you need new containers and we'll tell you so.
+Are stained totes a problem?
Cosmetically yes, functionally usually not. Staining is a strong signal about prior contents, which is why stained units drop a grade, but a stained bottle holds liquid exactly as well as a clear one. It does make the level strip harder to read.
+What payment terms do you offer?
Card or ACH prepayment on first orders. Net-30 on approved commercial, municipal and school-district accounts after an initial prepaid order.

Send us your roof area.

That plus what the water is for is enough for us to size the storage, list the fittings and code the invoice for the Texas exemption.

Get a quoteSee water storage totes