25+ DIY PVC Projects for Your Homestead

Do you have a problem in your backyard but you only have one weekend to fix it? Have no fear! We’ve got a slew of DIY PVC projects for your homestead or backyard that you can finish in a single day.

There are times that we make finding a solution to our problem a bigger problem than the problem we’re trying to fix. Trust me, that is more problems than you need! Luckily, we’ve got some DIY PVC projects that just might be the answer you’ve been searching for.

Homestead PVC projects

Why We Love SimplePVC Projects?

If you want to tackle your project, finish it quickly, and do it all on a tight budget, PVC will be your new best friend. There are a ton of backyard projects that you can fix right up with cheap PVC pipe. Heck, you might even have what you need lying around already.

PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) pipe is a cheap vinyl tubing option. The main use for PVC pipe is plumbing in residential homes. But that is far from the only use for this affordable material. You can use it for many, many, things around your homestead or backyard.

Here are more than 25 DIY PVC projects that just might solve your backyard woes. And as promised, they are easy enough that you can complete them in just one weekend — maybe even a single day.

Benefits of Using PVC for DIY Projects in Your Home and Garden

PVC is great for DIY projects in the garden. Not only can you make your garden look more presentable, but you can also create some incredible inventions that will help wildlife.

PVC pipes are the best material to use outdoors. They’re extremely lightweight, so putting them together is easy, and you can also drill small holes in them without needing someone to hold them up for you.

One person can handle most PVC projects alone.

PVC pipes are extremely durable and can handle daily wear and tear. This is great if you want to create feeders for animals in your garden or if you encounter heavy winds in your city.

The surface won’t become damaged easily. PVC pipes don’t expand when in contact with water, which means they won’t break if exposed to a heavy amount of it.

It’s a great benefit that PVC pipes are nontoxic, so animals and plants are safe around them. This is particularly important if you intend to insert seeds and other food into the pipes.

Finally, with incredible flexibility, you can easily manipulate the material into new shapes and designs for your garden.

A Handy How-To Guide for PVC Projects

A wall of pipe PVC projects

PVC Pipe projects are fun for the entire family. PVC piping is available at many hardware stores, and the material is incredibly durable so you can make cool DIY projects with it.

There are so many DIY PVC pipe projects you can take on, all of which can be created in a limited time too. PVC piping is lightweight and resistant to scratches and general wear and tear, and this tough material can handle various tasks.

As a result, you can even undertake PVC pipe garden projects or DIY projects that require more strength.

PVC is easy to cut, shape, and join together for easy fittings. As it’s so durable, it’s resistant to corrosion, shock, abrasion, and chemical interactions.

Even if you have little experience using PVC, we have some excellent easy tutorials to share with you later in this post.

DIY gardening projects are fun and practical. For example, you can build a hand-held seeder to plant beans and corn without bending down. This is perfect to prevent any back problems and enables you to evenly distribute the seeds.

PVC pipe project ideas such as this one are generally pretty easy. Here are the steps:

  1. First, use a piece of PVC that is equivalent to your height. This is one of the garden tools you’ll use to drop the seeds down it.
  2. Glue an inline fitting to make a handle.
  3. Glue an in-line T fitting around six inches from the bottom of the tube to make holes for the seeds to fall through.
  4. Then, glue PVC piping connectors to this T fitting.

Add more DIY gardening projects to your to-do list by connecting plastic pipes and fittings together and attaching them to the hose. Depending on the size of your garden, will indicate how many fittings you need.

What Kind of PVC Would Be Best For PVC Garden Projects?

Looking through the ends of pipes PVC projects

A barrier pipe is a suitable material to use for garden projects as water can flow through the pipes without creating any corrosion. This is ideal to use when creating a watering system for plants, but also for general storage outdoors when it rains.

Barrier pipes are lightweight, flexible, and easy to install, which makes the material ideal for garden projects. Other types of PVC – such as a structured wall pipe – are more robust and harder to work with outside.

How to Measure For PVC Pipe Projects?

If you have PVC pipe project ideas, you’ll need to correctly cut the iron pipe without damaging the material. This is an important step because if you incorrectly measure, you will end up with a poor result and many difficulties down the road.

  1. Measure the inside diameter of the PVC pipe. Use a tape measure from the center of the pipe on the inside against both walls.
  2. Then, wrap the string on the outside of the pipe to measure the diameter on the outside. Mark where the beginning of the string touches the end.
  3. Finally, measure the depth of the PVC pipe to see how easily it’ll fit inside a PVC fitting. For the optimum result, the pipe should easily slot into the fitting.

Note: If the outer diameter is larger than the inside, this will mean you have a strong type of PVC pipe which is great for outdoor DIY projects.

25+ PVC Projects for Your Homestead

PVC Sunshade

There are lots of variations on this to create sandboxes or leisure areas. They are portable and easily stored during lousy weather. These are not meant to be permanent structures, so take precautions during high winds. Alternatively, you can purchase this portable sunshade.

PVC Deep Garden Irrigation

We’ve used this, especially when planting trees to be able to give them along with large plants plenty of water at the deep root zone.

This allows the trees and plants to get water deeper and spread roots further underground, which in turn enables them to have a better life through a drought.

PVC Tool Holder

This tool organizer is portable, but from our experience at our home, it becomes a cluttered mess pretty quickly. We much prefer the wall-mounted PVC version.

Rubbermaid Garage Tool Tower Rack, Easy to Assemble, Wheeled,...
  • ULTIMATE TOOL ORGANIZATION: Holds up to 40 tools
  • MOBILE STORAGE: Casters make for simple mobility
  • EFFICIENT SOLUTION: Ideal for long-handled garden tools

PVC Hoop House for Raised Bed Gardens

I love the take on making a long-standing project less expensive and working better for their own project. This specific example saves by using clamps on the outside of the frame.

PVC Greenhouse

While this is an excellent idea for an inexpensive greenhouse, this won’t stand up to the severe weather that much of the country gets. Be sure to place it in a protected area and use a good sturdy mil plastic that won’t tear easily.

PVC Camp Chairs

These camp chairs are great for kids to sit around the campfire or be with you when you’re working in the garden.

PVC Chicken Feeder

Fill each of the tubes with chicken feed for frequent feeding during times when you can’t allow your chickens to roam freely or they need extra nutrition. This feeder’s instructions are on Instructables, but you can find a ton of other ideas on our Backyard Chickens forum, too!

More gardening ideas from Mom with a PREP - pvc projects

PVC Hand-held seed planter

This is a great way to avoid crawling on the ground or bending over and hurting your back. You can adjust the height of the PVC piping to suit you, and this design makes planting seeds easier and much quicker. Once you’ve chosen a suitable height for you, glue the top and attach a tin to the side to hold the seeds you’ll plant.

PVC Goat Stand

You’ll need to play around with the height and width to suit your animals so they’re as comfortable as possible. Add some plywood to the surface so the animals have a solid place to stand. Make sure you test this out before allowing them to step on it.

PVC Chicken Tractor

A chicken tractor is also called a pen for chickens. This provides the animals with a confined space to run around in, while not running around the entire garden and eating plants and vegetables. PVC is a great material for this project because it’s lightweight enough to move around the garden if necessary.

PVC Garden Hose Caddy

Neatly tidy your garden hose with a PVC hose caddy. This prevents you from having to throw the hose on the ground which creates a messy garden and contributes to knots in the hose. Nothing is more annoying than coming to use your garden hose and it’s all tangled up.

PVC Tomato Cages

If you grow tomatoes in your garden, you’re familiar with the frustration of the cage blowing down in strong winds. A PVC version is an excellent alternative because it’s durable and easily dismantled to use during appropriate seasons.

PVC Trellis

A trellis is a garden essential that supports plants growing up fences. Make your own PVC trellis to add height to your fence while still allowing height to come in. You can create many versions of a trellis to connect one part of your garden to another, with plants blossoming around the PVC material.

PVC Trellis 2

Grow tomatoes on a home-crafted trellis using PVC. It is best to grow tomatoes near a trellis or fence, and this project is fun to do, too!

PVC Strawberry Tower

While I might not use this for many of the vertical gardening planters I see on Pinterest (too shallow for what I’d grow), this strawberry tower makes great use of limited space! You may be able to adapt this version for many of the plants you grow. Check out this hydroponic version.

PVC Survival Cache

Whether you use it for ‘prepping’ or for burying some treasure in your backyard, you can create these caches with PVC. Just be sure to make them watertight!

GET THE TECKTON PVC CUTTER

A necessary tool to undergo your PVC crafting at home. This cuts incredibly smoothly and effortlessly.

Zantlea Pipe and Tube Cutter, Ratcheting Hose Cutter One-hand Fast...
  • 【High Quality and Safety】The durable tube cutter are made of manganese steel that is high hardness, good toughness,...
  • 【Ergonomics Design】 The professional tube cutter adopts ratchet drive technology to greatly save your strength....
  • 【EASY TO OPERATE】Tubing cutter built with comfortable, ergonomic, textured handles that provide a reliable grip....

PVC Skein Winder

Great for beginners, easy to set up and assemble, and incredibly cheap to produce. Alternatively, it can cost you ten times the amount to purchase a skein winder.

PVC Hot House

Create your own greenhouse at home and get crafty with a hinged lid to add more plants and water them when necessary. Use shower curtain liners to protect your plants and vegetables and retain the heat. 

PVC Storage

Use for kids’ small toys or your crafting supplies (this would be great for tubes of paint), or if you’re using larger PVC tubes, you can store garage materials or shoes, and more!

PVC TapestryLoom

Weave easily with a design you can trust. PVC is a great material that can hold any tension you need for your designs.

PVC Pipe Shelf

These shelves are great for around the house if you need more storage space. PVC is friendly to paint so you can customize the appearance to suit your taste. This is a cheap and effective way to tidy your home.

PVC Carry Cart with Rigid Bottom

While this particular cart was created to carry a cooler and fishing gear, you can adapt it for any use – garden cart, bug-out cart, etc.

PVC Chicken Waterer

Attach a long PVC pipe to a water container. Create separate add-ons at the bottom depending on the number of chickens you have (one add-on isn’t enough if you have more than one chicken). Purchase watering cups so the water released catches in the cup for the chickens to drink.

You can get the chicken water nipples here.

25 Automatic Chicken Water Nipple Drinker Feeders Poultry Hen Screw...
  • Ideal for broilers, breeders, layers, pullets, ducks and game birds.
  • Manufacturer recommends 3 birds per nipple.
  • Does not require a drip cup.

PVC Tote Organizer

A version of this organizer has been on the Pinterest rounds for as long as I’ve been on Pinterest. It makes my organization’s OCD side so happy. It’s a great way to organize those bins without investing in chunky bookcases.

PVC Square Foot Gardening Grid

There are many uses for a gardening grid. First, you can water your plants and soil in a matter of seconds and evenly distribute the water across different patches. Second, a gardening grid creates sections on your floor so you have an even space for each patch for plants.

PVC Birdfeeder

PVC is ideal to use as a bird feeder because it’s quick and easy to attach the elements together, and the material is sturdy enough to withstand birds tapping and knocking on it. With holes already built into smaller PVC pipes, the job’s halfway done for you.

PVC Solar Light Tower

While there is no website that I could find to link to, the easy DIY instructions are in the pin mentioned above.

DIY Projects – PVC Aquaponics Setup

This project requires a lot of drilling and marking. Choose plant pots that are all the same size to make your life easier. Add these plant pots to the PVC pipes and attach your hose to water your plants in one smooth transition. This also adds a creative element to your garden.

DIY Gutter Cleaner

Cleaning your gutters isn’t fun and paying a professional to maintain them isn’t cheap. Thankfully, PVC is lightweight and durable, and you can select elements that are curved to reach the gutters. Attach it to a hose and clean out your gutters a few times a year. You don’t even need a ladder to reach them as you can adjust the length to your needs.

Further Advice for PVC Projects

More Resources for How to Use PVC

Pros for Using PVC Tubing:

  • It is cheap. There are varying sizes and weights that can make some projects much more affordable for those on budgets. This also allows you to work on a project to test out how it will work for you without the considerable investment of permanent materials.
  • It’s versatile: With all of the shapes and sizes of pieces, you can create just about any shape you need to make, without any customization or extra tools to weld or carve.
  • Little investment: There is no need for substantial investment in tools to make most of these projects work. Drills with bits, a hacksaw, weld primer, and a few other items, and you’re good to go!

Cons for Using PVC tubing:

  • Some PVC tubing may not be safe: Being made from both industrial chlorine and a carbon compound, the way it breaks down and reacts with our environment are some causes for concern that it may not be safe. There is a difference between the PVC plastic made for rigid tubings like PVC and the plastic that is made to be more flexible and shatterproof. The latter are those that have had BPA and other additives added to the compounds to make them more useful for everyone. This is not an issue with the rigid PVC you’d use for plumbing and the projects above.
  • PVC is also not made for outdoor use. It is sensitive to UV light degradation, making it brittle over time. It will maintain its shape but can shatter with use. You can protect the PVC by painting it with UV-protecting paints. Even with this protection, using PVC on permanent projects may not be a good idea. The grey PVC you can also find at most home DIY stores will last longer, but you can’t always see them in the multitude of diameters you can see the white PVC in, so plan accordingly!

Start Your Projects Today!

While our family has no issues using PVC for projects around our homestead, it is up to you to decide if it is something you’d like to use on your property.

Best of all, you can find PVC easily at your local Home Depot home improvement centers.

Want more PVC Project ideas? Grab this book with 101+ ideas!

The PVC Project Book: 101 Uses for PVC Pipe in the Home, Garden, Farm...
  • Sanders, Charles A. (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 224 Pages - 01/13/2005 (Publication Date) - Burford Books (Publisher)

Other Homestead Project Collections:

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Katy Willis is a writer, lifelong homesteader, and master herbalist, master gardener, and canine nutritionist. Katy is a preparedness expert and modern homesteader practicing everyday preparedness, sustainability, and a holistic lifestyle.

She knows how important it is to be prepared for whatever life throws at you, because you just never know what's coming. And preparedness helps you give your family the best chance to thrive in any situation.

Katy is passionate about living naturally, growing food, keeping livestock, foraging, and making and using herbal remedies. Katy is an experienced herbalist and a member of the CMA (Complementary Medical Association).

Her preparedness skills go beyond just being "ready", she's ready to survive the initial disaster, and thrive afterward, too. She grows 100% organic food on roughly 15 acres and raises goats, chickens, and ducks. She also lovingly tends her orchard, where she grows many different fruit trees. And, because she likes to know exactly what she's feeding her family, she's a seasoned from-scratch cook and gluten-free baker.

Katy teaches foraging and environmental education classes, too, including self-sufficient living, modern homesteading, seed saving, and organic vegetable gardening.

Katy helps others learn forgotten skills, including basic survival skills and self-reliance.

She's been published on sites such as MSN, Angi, Home Advisor, Family Handyman, Wealth of Geeks, Readers Digest, and more.

Last update on 2024-03-18 at 20:14 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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