no water source in garage: ideas?

[tomd]

how about a thread discussing shops without (or with) tap water

my shop build is 300 feet from my house, and for various reasons, I will not be running a water line to it.

so for those of you WITHOUT water, what do you use for hand cleaning, and other water needs (welding, parts clean, etc) Do you regret not having water and any suggestions for shops without water? Anyone keep a bucket around for water needs?

side note: I am considering/researching a driven point well, but thus far local well experts says the soils are not suitable for this. I am only 10-15 feet from the water table, but the soils are clay and silt.

 

[rburke65]

No solutions for you here, but I feel your pain. I have a pole barn 200' from the house and for 20 years I had no water. The best thing I ever did was to trench from the house to the barn and run a line. Pain in the ****? YES. But I am glad I did. The plastic line is inexpensive. Don't know where you are located, but hydrants are also inexpensive.

 

[billspit]

There are legal implications with installing a well. It typically has to be done by a licensed and certified well driller and often requires a permit. Thats $$$. But, I did have a neighbor once who installed his own well using a hydropunch. Basically a steel rod with threaded end that is connected to a water hose. The water jet coming out the end the bore hole. He went a little over 22 feet and as far as I know, he was able to water his lawn. A well this shallow would go dry with any from of a drought though.

I would opt for a small storage tank and small pump. Refill it as needed.

 

[rieferman]

I'll be installing a rain barrel just outside my overhead door to my barn. For rinsing hands off etc. this is fine for my purposes. I keep a mini-fridge stocked with water bottles for drinking purposes.

 

[tomd]

great ideas so far, thanks.

I might combine ideas from above: put a rain barrel (attached via downspout) underground as a storage tank, use small pump to sink. Since I live in Wisconsin, winter use will be limited unless I put the tank below frost line.

 

[Bevis]

I teed off my house line. Not only do I use it for handwashing, But I also have a shower head installed. If I have been out working and get nasty, I can shower off/ cool off real quick, before going into the house.

 

[Jack Olsen]

A garden hose and a tank?

 

[Train]

I don't have water installed yet but plan to so what I'm doing now is very temp, meaning it's quite a hack. It's also just for hand washing. Old laundry tub on legs, drains into a bucket. Shelf across the back has a couple old laundry soap jugs, the kind that have a tap and lay on their sides. First I use hand cleaner then rinse them with the water. Now if I was going to make this more permanent I have a large water resevoir, maybe 50 to a 100 gallons and use a small submersible pump hooked to foot switch for on and off.

 

[KCarGuy]

I was also thinking of a Rain Barrel set-up.
One that feeds a wall mounted sink (that i already mounted)

otherwise, I would hook up a Quik-connect fitting outside my garage to the garden hose.

 

[dankicksass]

Gojo Cherry red hand cleaner does not require water.

 

[5lima30]

I'm in the same situation as you are. What I plan on doing is going with a (2) rain barrel set up which should work good with my metal roof. What I don't know yet is how well it will work in the winter. Worse case scenario it would be easy to winterize by draining it.

 

[NUTTSGT]

May I ask why you don't want to trench a line for water to your garage or is it a sore subject? I trenched a line, one of the best things I did for my garage.

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Gojo does not need water X2.

It would be nice to know where you are located. Freeze concerns etc.

300 feet is not that far.
If you can go shallow, you could use an rpz, isolate the clean source and shallow trench a line in irrigation hose or copper. If you run it in hose not potable, if you run it in coper or water safe material, possibly is.

 

[henrysgarage]

I intend to use a rain barrel and have it fed to an existing sink that will double as my parts washer.

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Problem with the rain barrel is that it will smell like swass and so will you when you use it. You'll have to shock it to keep the bio down in it.

 

[Shadowdog500]

I plan to make a portable sink in my garage. I found a water cooler at a church bazaar a week or two ago for $5. Cleaned it up in and out with bleach! The hot is great for washin things and the hot and cold together are the perfect temp for washing hands.

So far this is my prototype hand wash station! Eventually I will hook a T to the hot and cold water drains on the bottom of the unit and will connect that to a foot switch. I also plan to get a small sink with a trap that feeds into a 5 gallon water bottle.

Chris

 

[59 wagon man]

Problem with the rain barrel is that it will smell like swass and so will you when you use it. You'll have to shock it to keep the bio down in it.

not true at all if done properly it can easily be made pure enough to drink with no smell

think of it this way the way you drill,dig,pump,whatever from the ground is the same rainwater that dripped from the sky but without passing thru all the chemicals and **** we put into the ground

in addition for those that are way out you might think about storing a decent amount for fire protection

 

[mrobins297aaa]

300' is not far, I have some sprinklers lines in my front yard that are over 500' and they work ok

here's the setup I have. I'm 170' from the house and I had to trench last fall to put in my 100 amp electrical so I ended up putting 2 water lines in the trench one for well water (not shown its on the outside of the wall with a hose bib) and one with soft water. the laundry tub drains into a dry sump on the other side of the wall........its kinda messy there I'm trying to get everything off the floor so I can epoxy-coat this weekend......its nice having hot water to wash up with.........works great

 

[Frank The Plumber]

not true at all if done properly it can easily be made pure enough to drink with no smell

think of it this way the way you drill,dig,pump,whatever from the ground is the same rainwater that dripped from the sky but without passing thru all the chemicals and **** we put into the ground

in addition for those that are way out you might think about storing a decent amount for fire protection

True that you could treat it to drink, but you would have to treat it and it is going to get leaves and bugs and bio stuff in it and if you get into it after a while it will get stinky. I have a rain barrel, you can't get near it if you don't put in some shock or bleach. The mosquitos are brutal if I leave it untreated.

 

[59 wagon man]

1- do you have any kind of prefilter or first run off filter?
2- is the tank sealed tight where the pipe enters?
3-is the tank painted or opaque?
4- a small biofilm on the bottom is okay
5- for cleaner water you want a floating pickup approx.1 ft below the surface
6- the water should not drain directly towards the bottom of the tank but should go close to the bottom and then turn towards the surface leaving the biofilm on the bottom undisturbed

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Man, I'm just using it for flowers, I turn on the hose if I'm going to get all technical about it. Like I said 300 feet is not so far.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Rain barrel, buy a bucket of swimming pool tablets and drop one in every so often.

Depending on where in WI you are located, the frost line can be fairly deep and trenching for a water line would be an issue. Its not a matter of a ditch witch and a 20 inch deep trench up there.

I have a friend near Plover, he is in a sandy soil basin that forms that area, and driving a well point is easy. If you are out of that area, with the clay soil, it is more difficult, but as someone previously noted, a "water drill" would work. First make a hole as deep as possible with a hand post hole digger, then go from there.

Charles

 

[NUTTSGT]

Brilliant. I never thought of a tankless heater that runs off of LP.

 

[lwillson]

I was in the exact same predicament. Too far to trench water in, and even if I did, what to do with the waste water?

I made a small cabinet, just large enough to be a sink/computer case. The sink is a stainless bar sink, with a stainless piece of pipe for the water to come out. I used 2 5gallon pails, one for clean water, one for waste water. I installed a 12v bilge pump in the fresh water pail, and it gets powered from a wall adapter when the foot pedal is pushed. I also put in a hand pump for hand cleaner. I just added a piece of hose, and extended it into the hand cleaner jug

5 gallons of fresh water lasts me about 2 months if its only used for hand washing. I use it the odd time to wet a rag to wipe something down, but if I am doing any amount of washing, I will get a pail of warm water from the house.

There is no heat in the water, so the temperature is whatever room temperature is. Please excuse the cleanliness of the cabinet. It really didnt look that dirty when I took the picture

 

[mrobins297aaa]

Brilliant. I never thought of a tankless heater that runs off of LP.

Thanks, i seen a guy on u-tube using one that he had hung on a fence with a shower head attached, ran on "D" batterys so it could go anywhare and work. like something you could use for camping.

Mine runs on 110 v, thats better for me

i was just going to run a hot water line from the house but besides the 170' to the house it was another 80' to the hwh so I thought i'll have empty the hwh before the water gets hot.

 

[flatwins]

Great thread. I'm going to trenching to replace the electrical line with heavier stuff so I might as well run some plumbing too!

 

[Delta74]

could get a portable hand sink, they are self contained, built in water heater and pumps holds 10 gallons at a time and just plug into a normal 110 volt outlet ( sorry just had too ), there not cheap but do work well.

http://www.allportablesinks.com/

 

[CaptainRay]

My shop when completed will be about 275 feet from my house... not very practical running a line from the house, trenching in rocky soil is tough and expensive. Wouldn't have much water pressure after running it that far anyway.

I have a spring that flows out of the side of a hill where I cut it down to level the ground off. The spring runs after a rain, lots and lots of water.

Since I have to dig trench drains to get the water away from the shop slab, I thought about getting a metal 500 gallon septic tanks at the hardware store in town. Burry it in the ground and rig up a submersible pump, which I already have... water flows into the tank, fills it up when it rains and overflow goes down the hill. I wouldn't drink it although it's spring fresh.. would be good to have a pressurized water system for cleaning up things etc... Plenty of water, stays fresh, it won't freeze underground in winter, stays cool in summer and it's always available.

 

[rieferman]

nice solution lwillson!

 

[TEXACMAN]

At work we have a 50 gallon plastic barrell with a 12v pump mounted on top for washing coils etc... We just put it in our truck empty ,fill it and take it to our jobsite. You could mount one on a dolly or make a small trailer fill it and take it to shop . maybe use a small 115 v pump? Seems like Northern tools has several different pumps.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

My shop when completed will be about 275 feet from my house... not very practical running a line from the house, trenching in rocky soil is tough and expensive. Wouldn't have much water pressure after running it that far anyway.

Given a decent sized pipe, say 1", you would not have any measurable pressure loss. I'm over 300 ft from the street on a 40/60 psi community well system, I'm about 1500 ft from the well on the end of the line and as I said, about 300 ft from the street main, a shared 1" that I and the neighbor's house is supplied with, and I never see any pressure losses.

Charles

 

[bradweingartner]

Getting water there is fairly trivial. Trench or not.

But what the heck are you going to do with the water once it's contaminated?

My garage has no water. It's only about 20 feet from the house and I've considered running it at few times. But the sewage concerns me. So for the past 10 years I've done alright using Gojo without water (it's not necessary), and lots of old worn out clothes as rags!

 

[jbs]

This stuff works pretty well, but isn't really that economical. We use it occasionally when camping.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002SEL8X4/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[mrobins297aaa]

Getting water there is fairly trivial. Trench or not.

But what the heck are you going to do with the water once it's contaminated?

My garage has no water. It's only about 20 feet from the house and I've considered running it at few times. But the sewage concerns me. So for the past 10 years I've done alright using Gojo without water (it's not necessary), and lots of old worn out clothes as rags!

At the last house I lived at I had water but no drain, I just used a five gallon bucket under the faucet. If your only washing hands you'd be surprised how little water you'll use. Then when the bucket is near full just dump it outside.

it sure beats no water

 

[JeremyManning]

rain barrel connected to eavestrough if you have them

 

[gnxtc2]

Since there never was water to the building, I take it that there is also no sewer. What do you guys do with the gray water?

Billy T.
[email protected]

 

[NUTTSGT]

Most peole will just run a field tile out away from the garage.

 

[slimpickins]

I just had a water line installed to my shop using horizontal drilling (not cheap). You can see some pics of this installation in my garage thread (in my sig line).

The other consideration is the sewer side of the system. In our area, if you start installing water, then the Health authorities are going to come to see that you have a proper sanitary system setup. Washing hands and the odd shower is fine, but definitely no toilet without a septic tank.

Before I ran the deep line, I also considered running a shallow trench and using it seasonally.

 

[aribert]

First posting on this board.

My workshop garage is at my former residence (the bachelor pad), now a rental that is 10 miles from home. I haul the water in 1 gal jugs (I put a fraction of an ounce of bleach in each gal jug when filling). I have a square 4 gal bucket above my laundry tub (slop sink) that is in a corner of the garage. The square bucket was originally a cat litter container (mounts compactly against the wall). A very small ball valve (1/16 or 1/8 NPT) is used to control the water and a 5 gal bucket below the sink with a 2 or 3 gal bucket inside of it is the drain. The grey water is taken home and flushed down the toilet (tends to leave a grey ring that requires immediate toilet bowl cleaning or SWMBO points it out to me). I have been putting up with this for 17 years - not ideal but beats not having a shop - I could not convince my wife to move far enough out into exurbia where we could afford the land so that I could have a pole barn/shop. For other necessities in life, I have a camping toilet behind a cardboard partition in another corner of the garage.

 

[CoyoteLL]

Can you explain field tile? Is this a septic type design with a perforated pipe and no catch basin? Of course, you wouldn't want to dump chemicals, but gray water would be fine.