Warren Smith, post: 367222, member: 9900 wrote: "Welcome to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion
And don't forget to get your Powdermilk Biscuits down at Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery....
imaudigger, post: 367217, member: 7286 wrote: That is kind of what I figured. Pretty typical for many parts of Mexico. Are you solar powered?
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Your cistern is much larger. Mine is only 1350 gallons, but it fills up every 24 hours. Around here the tanks cost about $1/gallon of storage so I was trying to be frugal so as to leave some funds for the remainder of the project. It is amazing how fast the cost adds up. Currently I am in the process of installing about 600' of 2" dia. PVC. The pump house still needs siding and roofing. My goal was to get this finished last fall....so I'm playing catch up now.I bought an 8000 gallon tank to place near the water source, but I still have to figure out how to move it to my property. It weighs about 8000 lbs. and is kind of awkward to handle without heavy equipment.
Here is a picture of my cistern. The hole ended up being about 13' deep if I remember correctly and half of that was bedrock. 13' is about the max. depth that backhoe can dig effectively, so I lucked out in that aspect.
It's not very often that you can gravity feed out of a cistern. When I spoke to the manufacturer (located on the East coast) about cutting a hole in the bottom of the tank, they got very confused..."why would you want to do that?" I had to explain to them that out west there are these things called mountains and not everybody has power.
around here most pilas (cisterns) are concrete block, often above grade. most are maybe 12,000 liters, which is the common size of the pipas (water trucks). mine is below grade, and a bit larger than most. the pipa I prefer is larger than average and can fill me up... same price for all of them, the water is nearly free (about 400 pesos at the public well), the trucking for 8 miles is what we pay for.
those huge tanks like yours are not too common here (or I just don't see them). pickups move them around.
pumps can be an issue, many people only have 110v, I have 220v and a float switch that prevents it from running dry.
few people filter their water, I have a two stage carbon and paper setup.
all of the laundry water, sinks, showers, and patio wash down gets piped and channeled into the garden areas... 20 years and my septic tank is fine, has never been pumped. with way less than 10 inches of rain a year we need to be frugal.
houses in town with piped water often have a tenaco (water tank) on the roof, we replaced my wife's tenaco a few months ago. all new piping (1/2"PVC) and new molded plastic tenaco. 450 liters, I roof topped it a couple miles with my Durango. My son-in-law put it up and plumbed it, total cost with labor was less than $2,000 pesos (about $120 dollars). There is good service in town but short term outages are not uncommon so the gravity feed makes it nicer to always be able to wash up and flush.
In my area we have had electricity for about 30 years, but another 5 miles out was off grid until about 10 years ago. those folks had small solar, generator, or wind rigs. electricity is cheap here (heavily subsidized, Federally run) so unless you are a gross consumer solar is not cost effective.
Interesting. I thought about building a cistern, but didn't want to deal with leakage issues.
Many people have to haul water now due to the drought. I especially feel sorry for them. They now have to stand in line for hours behind the Mongolian drug cartel, who monopolizes the public water source to commercially grow drugs.
It used to be easy and cheap to buy water. I think it was $2 per 1000 gallons when the city was providing the service. They didn't want to get involved in curtailing water use for illegal activities, so they privatized the service. Not sure what it costs now.
imaudigger, post: 367396, member: 7286 wrote: Interesting. I thought about building a cistern, but didn't want to deal with leakage issues.
Many people have to haul water now due to the drought. I especially feel sorry for them. They now have to stand in line for hours behind the Mongolian drug cartel, who monopolizes the public water source to commercially grow drugs.
It used to be easy and cheap to buy water. I think it was $2 per 1000 gallons when the city was providing the service. They didn't want to get involved in curtailing water use for illegal activities, so they privatized the service. Not sure what it costs now.
leakage seems to be a non issue, they make a cement/sand mix and coat the inside (richer in cement than is used for stucco). most are obviously dry on the above grade pilas... mine is below grade and I irrigate around it so I would never know.
biggest issue here (other than not having much) is the alkaline water laden with calcium and salts (not salt that you taste). makes for funky coffee and lots of toilet deposits (see lead photos). Muriatic Acid does great for the toilets, sold in all the markets, cheap.
95% submittal. Invoice attached.
Poured concrete before breakfast, then I went to town. Came home at 5, set the toilet, and hooked up the supply line. No leaks.
It flushes, pooper scooper is in place, used once and it works fine.
Bowl is full of rags and 2 liters of Muriatic Acid now so the old stains will be gone in the morning (it was "garden art" for a couple years).
Tomorrow I will reset the pavers.
first change order: SWMBO requires tile.
not my forte, but I can do it.
not quite sure how to price it...
I guess it's just personal preference, but I prefer to take care of my business with my feet flat on the floor. I couldn't help notice the elevated parapet the toilet is perched upon. I'm guessing you're a tall feller...my little feet would be danglin' off of there like a 5 year old on a handicap toilet.
Paden,
He told us earlier he is building this for his dogs. Apparently they do more than drink from the toilet. Must be a sight to see them carefully balanced up there while trying to tear off a useful length of Charmin.
From post #12......Yup, but my dogs needed their own toilet...
conflicting grade of crossing pipe, had to go over it.
perhaps I will add a step in front before I tile it.
this was built for dumping the pooper scooper, better in the septic tank than in the field.
never thought of the water bowl angle, I need to build a ramp for them.
Peter Ehlert, post: 367503, member: 60 wrote: 95% submittal. Invoice attached.
Poured concrete before breakfast, then I went to town. Came home at 5, set the toilet, and hooked up the supply line. No leaks.
It flushes, pooper scooper is in place, used once and it works fine.
Bowl is full of rags and 2 liters of Muriatic Acid now so the old stains will be gone in the morning (it was "garden art" for a couple years).
Tomorrow I will reset the pavers.
first change order: SWMBO requires tile.
not my forte, but I can do it.
not quite sure how to price it...
Take it out in trade!
