I am quoting a 12 building apartment complex. It’s not super spread out and the buildings are fairly close to each other. The issue is water. They have two buildings including a pump house where I can tap into a water source and that’s it. The buildings themselves don’t provide water access.
I searched here and found I can potentially tap into a fire hydrant by working with the city to rent a meter. I’ve not done that before but can figure it out. If I went this route I would be shuttling back and forth to get my buffer tanks refilled.
I wondered about just running a very long hose from the pump house to my rig. I would take a lot of precautions marking off the hose and perhaps buying some covers to go over the hose which I would use if I had to cross the street or any sidewalks. I honestly would love to make this option work vs the fire hydrant option.
Is there a downside to running a long hose to my rig?
I find after about 200-300 ft you lose too much flow and constantly have to wait on water. Have you measured by hand or used Google earth to measure how far the farthest apartment to the pump house is?
I use hydrants all the time. As long as your garden hose length is under 500ft you’ll be fine supplying your truck. I buy the cheapest garden hose Walmart has and just throw it away every few months. No need in covering or protecting it
William, how do you handle the balconies if they have people’s stuff on them? Pass them over? I’m guessing you wash thses from the ground?
Also, and more importantly for me right now, how do you handle curbs with people’s cars on them? I also go at hours where people are gone but I can’t do that with appartments/hotels. Thanks! @Innocentbystander
We got snow here in Columbia SC enough to stick for the first time since 2014. It was nice, but I think snow 2-3 times a year that melts in 2-3 days is all I would want.
Every balcony that has something on it, or of a bottom balcony has something and I can’t wash the ones above it, is free money. I give a schedule and if they aren’t cleared, it’s not my problem. Curbs, it is what it is. If the car isn’t completely on the curb we can still wash it, but notices say to park one foot off the curb on the day we are doing that building. All of my apartments are done at least once a year, a lot are twice a year, so if we don’t get it the first time, it’ll probably get done the next time around.
I haven’t done a ton of apartments, but all of the ones I have done, had a laundry room in the center of each building on the ground floor. If necessary, I would unhook the cold water line from a washing machine and hook a garden hose up to that.
Thanks, I thought the same thing but they don’t have public laundry - just hook-up in the units. I did see one person mention (in another thread) to see if there are any vacant apartments where I could tap into the laundry hook-up.
Hey IBS - a follow-up question for you on this long hose run. Can you put a battery operated 12v pump on a section of garden hose to boost the flow and get more pressure for a longer run? Like a repeater? Just a thought I had. Thanks!
I know you’ve expressed times before you don’t believe me, but a booster setup will give you more flow and pressure than what’s supplied naturally at the spigot. I just washed a house this weekend that was on a well with only 30psi at the spigot and low flow. Connected my booster setup to it and I was spraying with a full flow at 100 psi, same as other houses with great water pressure. I’ve cleaned hundreds of houses using this setup and I get the same pressure and flow out it on every house, it never changes on the output side.
Edited and deleted my statements about a 12v booster working in this application. It may be possible as long as there is no restriction that builds pressure on the outlet side.
It was nice, but I think snow 2-3 times a year that melts in 2-3 days is all I would want.
