Okay, I see what you mean. To clarify, my bid for cleaning the entire area that they want plus the driveways would be $13.5K, which is based on the rate I would charge individual customers if they were to hire me to clean the concrete… I’m not losing money or working for free in that regard if that makes more sense? The cost of bulk water delivery, given my schedule doesn’t allow for a full week, let alone back to back days for availability, ends up being substantial and even with the reduced surface area (not cleaning driveways), it ends up being a couple thousand dollars more ($16.5). I’ll recalculate the bid with the 3/4 meter setup, but if it only reduces the cost by $1.2K, it still remains slightly higher than the bid for using homeowners’ water for the entire job. The difference in water costs between residential sources and hydrants is still significant enough in this area to make it less economical.
Good luck, let us know if you get
What are they looking at for the curbs and sidewalk rust or just dirty looking?
I drove through the other day and it looks mostly just dirty/some organic growth in the shaded areas. I should know more after the walk through.
meter is $90
3/4" Water Meter (Pulse Output) Totalizing Multi-Jet Brass | PRM (prmfiltration.com)
$40 in pvc for an air gap feed to the tank
Thanks for these links. I’ll have to confirm with the utility company but I believe they want at least a 1" meter. I’ve seen air gap mentioned a few times, read something about needing the air gap length to be double the connector size… so for 2.5" I would need at least 5" length with air gaps? Based on the diagram they sent over I’ll also need a backflow preventer in line after the meter and some ball valves (for shut offs flow control?). I have a Hudson on my buffer tank, am I correct in assuming this will work (mainly because of the hydrants psi) as it typically would when hooking up to a home?
I have Hudsons on all of mine they work fine. Some places require air gap and others will let you use backflow preventer. Don’t need both usually. But each water dept is different. I have to deal with 3 different sets of requirements in a 10 mile radius, lol.
The meeting on Monday went well. We toured the site and had a productive discussion. If it was up to the board member, I would have the job, and they want me to clean and seal their driveway regardless of what the HOA decides.
Interestingly it turns out that even though the buildings are located in the county to the north, all their utilities are billed through the city to the south. I’m still waiting to confirm who has jurisdiction over the hydrants. If it is the city or the county to the south, there will be a $500 deposit for the meter rental, and they will send an employee to hook it up and provide the necessary hoses for connecting to the buffer tank. However, that also means that the rental is only good for 24 hours and needs to be scheduled with the county each day I need access.
Update:
Heard back from the city and hydrant use (at least in that neighborhood) is a no-go and they are insisting on using bulk fill-up. However just heard back today that the HOA Board had their meeting and they want to move forward so it will be voted on by the residents at their annual meeting in March.
Recently, I had to work on a large shopping center outside my city (couldn’t use my hydrant meter), and they wanted it done as soon as possible. This shopping center only had two taps, both located at the back. We ended up filling two IBC totes around the back while working out of another two IBC totes up front on our truck. When our water ran low, we would go around back and use a sludge pump to quickly transfer more water onto our truck. Periodically, we would go to the back to turn the taps off, as they filled the tanks faster than we used the water. I’ve seen that float valves exist, but I have no experience using them in this application. I would consider looking into them for this setup so you don’t have to keep running back.
This still means you would need to get an IBC tote setup. You would also need permission to use someone’s water, but I like the idea of metering the water and offering to pay for it—maybe even offering double if necessary.
I run a hudson float in my tanks. Highly recommend, especially if you are a one-man show or can’t be waiting around to monitor. Super easy to set up. Running multiple totes is a good way to do it, but logistically for this job it wouldn’t work.
