Here at the cabin, we have a good well, but its not piped into the house. We do have a drywell and a septic built, and kitchen sink, and the toilet and a tub hooked to the drain system. But we have to carry in water from the well. For dishes, for flushing the toilet, for showers and cleaning up or even washing cloths sometimes. We also have to heat the water in a big kettle if we need it hot.
I've come to see it as a usual daily activity here, and weirdly enough, I don't mind it at all. I hauled in about 30 gallons last night because I knew today was going to be a soaker. So far I've used half of it, but 5 went to a shower and another 5 to washing some shirts. A couple to dishes, and some for the toilet. Long as it stops raining before tomorrow night, I won't need to carry more in. But if I do, thats O.K. :)
Sounds like a raised cistern is in order, collect the rain water for the toilet.
In a few short weeks our rain will probably be frozen. :)
Need a rain barrel and some eves gutter for the wash'n and toilet water. It won't be cold enough to freeze up solid 'til near the end of October will it? Besides if done like the old times it wouldn't freeze at all, provided ya stay all winter. Only thing is, you'll be carrying wood. :D
Ya need a water tower. We had a galvanized stock tank in the rafters of the garage at camp that supplied water to the cabin. There wasn't enough pressure for a shower but it worked great for the sinks, toilet and kept the gas water heater supplied. Every so often we'd fire up the generator to power the well pump and fill the tank :) There was an overflow pipe sticking out of the gable end of the garage that indicated when the generator could be shut off :) The tank is still up there but isn't used since the electricity came thru.
There's talk of spotty frost down here Sun, Mon and maybe even Tues nights.
I'm not complaining, just observing. I think the water lugging is good for me :)
What we need to do if anything, is bury a line from the well to the cabin and do a little plumbing. :)
The gravity system worked well for us but as soon as the power went thru we moved the pump under the cabin, added the pressure tank and never looked back :)
The way it was done at the camps here was to run a pipe line up into a spring fed brook and there was always lots of pressure for shower and sink and drink. The line was unhooked in the fall and then hooked up in spring for the bear hunt. :)
While building the shop and before I had the water line brought in I hauled water. Had a 100 gallon tank inside so I could haul a lot or a little. 30 gallons will last quite a while depending on if I used the inside or outside toilet.
Since I pretty lazy I built a little system to collect rainwater off the roof, filter, and run it into my tank for a while.
After I get the house built, going to build another rainwater collection system which will hopefully provide enough for the veggies and possibly us in an emergency.
I could make the toilet flush using one gallon of hauled water before the well was installed. We had a well put in at the camp last summer after having 4 years of hauling it from the Stream or from my brother's house downtown. A ten gallon hot water tank soon followed along with a shower. :)
Everything is plumbed with Pex except the run from the well to the camp. The well was drilled where we plan to build in the future and about 400 feet from the camp. The run is simple black garden hose for now. It's worked well for two years. :)
We're set up to wash dishes outside and will improve on that next year with an outdoor sink. I had the stuff to do it this year but time runs out quickly when you're on vacation.
How deep do you have to bury the line from the well to the house, to keep it below the frost line? Or would you need to heat tape it? We have to use heat tape here, because the frost line gets so low.
Instead of a water heater with a tank, you might look into one of those small instant hot water units. Last time I checked, they were still pretty spendy but prices were dropping.
If you said anything about electrical power I missed it.
Was thinking about an article in Mother Earth News from some 20 years back where they made a hot water heater by fabricating a wood burning chamber beneath an old gas hot water heater. It was a neat rig and, I understand, worked quite well but would have to be placed so that the helix in the gas flue could be removed ocasionally to clean the soot out of the flue.
I'm imagining all kinds of kluges to get the water from the well to the cabin.
Good luck and enjoy.
I'd say 4 feet is standard fair for this region Warbird. I've seen frost go down 3 feet and maybe a few inches more. I don't know how far down my well goes but it's about 100 feet from the house. It's ice cold water to. 8)
If more people had to haul their own water, we wouldn't have such dire shortages in places like FL, where more than half of the municipal water supply goes to keeping the lawn pretty!
When we first setup the trailer at camp the sand mound was installed but we didn't have a well or electric.
Our site is partway up the side of a stream cut valley. Went uphill till we had 30 ft of fall and buried 3 plastic barrels on their side and plumbed the 3 bottom bungs and 3 top bungs together. The top 3 vent the barrels and is piped 10 ft. up a tree. Took the backhoe and dug a ditch down to the bottom of the hill where we dug a hole as deep as the backhoe could go and hit water. Ran 1 inch line from the bottom of the barrels to a $99 Harbor Freight pump at the bottom of the hill.
A tee and 3 valves lets us fill the barrels or pump water to the trailer. And when not running the pump we can go about a week on the water stored in the barrels. Until we got the electric installed we ran the pump with a 2500 watt inverter hooked to my truck.
We do plan on drilling a well when the cabin is built so we have water when it freezes.
Here in Saskatchewan we have to bury our water and sewer lines minimum of 8 feet down to get away from the frost. I have even seen a few years where the frost went deeper than that and we had to keep a small trickle of water running all the time to keep from freezing up.
Some folks here try just 2-3 feet and their lines freeze up in a real cold January. Last January was the coldest in a long while and lots of pipes froze up. Sometimes it's not the depth it's buried, people also get caught with poorly insulated walls around the cupboards and sink.
So on that note Jeff, just keep hauling water. :D
Ever hear of sawdust insulation ??? ::) ::) ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Ever hear of fire code. ??? ::) ::) ::)
Touristers from up north bury the water we give them when they are down here. (sulphur water) I think they believe that something died in it.
Then we sell them sweet water. :D
All the wells on the hill were dad lives have sulfur in the water. I can't stand it with being used to water with no smell or taste, just calcium in mine at the house.
How does fire code affect buried water lines surrounded with sawdust ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)
Because most times you old timers want to shove it in walls. ::) ::) And your post really didn't say what to use it for. ::) ::)
Around here once sawdust is full of moisture it freezes just as good as dirt.
We tend to put 2" blue board insulation over the top of water lines to keep the frost from reaching them in areas that can't be buried deep enough or drive ways.
In Warbird's area some times it is easier to keep the lines above ground. At least then they won't freeze in the summer. A friend of mine in Tok AK, has their water line running right from the top of the well to the house above ground. When I asked him why, he said it is much easier to work on at -80F.
Sawdust in the ground would not do anything. Like wally said, once its in the ground, it becomes ground and freezes. Sawdust insulates from preventing air infiltration.
Quote from: Reddog on August 31, 2009, 09:31:04 PM
........... in Tok AK, has their water line running right from the top of the well to the house above ground. ...........
My water line runs above ground from the well head into the house, and doesn't freeze. Valve shuts off 10' below the well head, and the water drains into the house pressure tank. Works fine and doesn't freeze - - at least down to -35° F.
(knock on wood :) )
Sawdust will also hold the frost and ice for a long time. It was used in ice houses after all. It has been used spread out on the floor/ceiling of a barn or shed with air circulation from the eves. But it has to be kept dry, if the stuff heats you could be looking at a disaster in a building.
It was never stuffed in house walls around here, they just slapped on two layers of boards outside followed by clapboards and plastered the inside walls, might find one sheet of newspaper in the outside walls to cut draft. ;D The family renovated 3 of these old farm houses and there was nothing in there. No wonder I was cold as a kid and the neighbor laughed when we wrapped the house in plastic in the fall and banked the house with spruce bows. And no stove fires at night. :-X :-X
How ya carry your water, 2 buckets on a pole and over the shoulders? :o Like They show on National Geographics? :P Or just muscle them? ???
Just Curious, Thanks
I like the hydraulic ram
5 gallon pails. Its only 50 feet or so to the well.
Quote from: Slabs on August 29, 2009, 08:38:33 PM
If you said anything about electrical power I missed it.
Was thinking about an article in Mother Earth News from some 20 years back where they made a hot water heater by fabricating a wood burning chamber beneath an old gas hot water heater. It was a neat rig and, I understand, worked quite well but would have to be placed so that the helix in the gas flue could be removed ocasionally to clean the soot out of the flue.
I'm imagining all kinds of kluges to get the water from the well to the cabin.
Good luck and enjoy.
We heated hot water this way for showers at mom and dad's. As kids we lit the fire after school, and it was ready by later that evening. worked fine, for an outside shower.
We have been happy with our rain water system here in W.Va. The tanks had about 6" of ice around the tank walls but we never lost water. We did run down to a 500 gallon level during one long period of temps in the teens but we made it to the next snows and thaws that filled us back up. Now that we are sure that we are satisfied with the system, we are going to put in a 1500 gal under ground cistern and use the above ground tanks to catch and prefilter the rainwater. A colder climate would make this system harder to maintain. It would be much simpler to just hook up to city water but we just don't want to. I grew up in a house with a well 30 yards from the house and we never had a problem with that.
Quinton