I have a job for 16 apartment buildings. About 50% of the units are close to the one and only water source which is a pump house. None of the buildings have an outdoor spigot or anywhere to access water.
Long story, but accessing a hydrant is not an option cause my county does not allow it.
Therefore I am relegated to using the pump house for all of my water. Again, 50% of the buildings are located within 200’-350’ of the pump house so a long 3/4" garden hose to my buffer tank will keep me going. However there are 50% of the buildings more than 350’ away from the pump house so a long garden hose is not an option.
I got a 330 gallon tote I plan to put in the back of a U-Haul Sprinter Van. My plan for the buildings I can not reach with a long garden hose is to drive the van and 330g tank to the pump house and fill it up then drive it close to my trailer where I will use banjo connectors to disconnect my 55g bugger tank and tap-in the 330g tank as my buffer. I have a 6.5gpm pump so I think I will get about an hour of use before draining the 330g tank. Once empty I would need to make another run and then rinse and repeat.
Is there another option I am overlooking? I thought about trying to have the 330g tote somehow used to keep topping off the 55g buffer tank on my trailer but it seems like it may be a pain.
Good suggestion but it’s not possible. I did update my post. The water commission here does not allow pressure washers to rent the meters. Kinda annoyed that they won’t entertain the idea at all, I even tried to tell them “YOU WORK FOR ME!!” lol, just kidding
I was going to ask how far the farthest point is from the water. We’ve planned on about 600’ total distance on a couple things, but we haven’t actually done them yet. I figured about 300’ of supply to the truck, and 300’ of pressure hose to the workpoint… Less than optimal, but you could also maybe drop the van/tank at around that point, and run a semi-trash pump to push from the tank to your PW truck. You could then leave the supply running all the time, and just fire up the water pump when you need a refill or the tank fills up. But @Innocentbystander is by far the authority on this one…
Yea, I recall the video you posted where you show the hose run you made last year. I was being safe with 300’ of hose but will see how far I can go with hose until the flow is too low. Thanks!
My run was off a hydrant, your flow will be slower, but it might be faster than shuttling water. If the pump house for an irrigation well? If so, you may have problems
There’s got to be an exterior spigot somewhere on the property that’s tied in to city water. Is there not one at clubhouse? I ran right at 500’ the other day on that long drive and it kept up fairly well, even with the 8. Actually a lot better than I thought it would.
Do you have room to set a temporary tote on your trailer? Then you could have one filling while working off the other. Transfer from van to trailer with sludge pump. What we have to do when doing the country fence projects.
I thought about putting a temporary tote on my trailer and thought about your idea too but I would have to re-cobble so much stuff to get it to fit for 4-5 days of work I decided against it. There is a clubhouse with a spigot but it’s a distance from the actual units. I did some Google earth measurements and saw the furthest distance from the pumphouse would be 780 feet. If I can swing 500 of hose and 300’ of high pressure line it may not be a huge deal. I’m just hoping to get away with 500’ of garden hose. Thanks Rick!
Agreed, check with whoever is in charge of the landscape and irrigation. For the town I work for we hide spigots in meter boxes at all of our beautification areas. Most places require a backflow to be installed with the irrigation to prevent water from seeping back into the water supply. You might luck out with a spigot near one of them or even near an irrigation valve box.
