I needed to replace the 50 year old steel water tank due to it rusting through and being on it's last legs. Initially I was just going to put two new poly tanks right next to the existing tank. My friend came by and said, "why not put it up on the hill and get some gravity pressure?"
My friend is actually quite good with his Bobcat and cut a VERY steep road up my hill behind my house and carved a nice 10 x 20 pad to place the tanks. He then did the main 160+ foot trench with the 'cat and got me wholesale pricing on the PVC through his pool business.
I'm happy with how it turned out, since this was my first time doing a large water project like this. I've sweated copper and run sprinklers and controllers, but nothing on this scale. Now I have enough pressure (35 PSI at the main house, and better than 40 at my rental house) that I don't need to use the pressure pumps and tanks at each house. I was getting seriously tired of hearing that pump kicking on and off. I just need to insulate the exposed piping and fill in the trenches. Anyway, I'm pretty stoked and here's the obligatory pics to prove that it happened.
Here's the road looking down towards my ranch style house. My buddy Dan found some nice clay as he dug the pad and he used that to create a solid road. It's just about too steep to walk it.
Dan used a laser level and made the pad +/- 1".
The Bobcat made quick work of hauling each of the 3000 gallon tanks up the road.
The trench.
Water tanks in place with fill pipe and float switch conduit.
I made the manifold so that it can charge a fire hose with either 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 NH hoses. I also put a ball valve for each house and another on the old steel tank to use for fire as long as it lasts.
You can just see the tanks waaaay up on the hill. I think I have about 80 feet of elevation above the house.
My friend is actually quite good with his Bobcat and cut a VERY steep road up my hill behind my house and carved a nice 10 x 20 pad to place the tanks. He then did the main 160+ foot trench with the 'cat and got me wholesale pricing on the PVC through his pool business.
I'm happy with how it turned out, since this was my first time doing a large water project like this. I've sweated copper and run sprinklers and controllers, but nothing on this scale. Now I have enough pressure (35 PSI at the main house, and better than 40 at my rental house) that I don't need to use the pressure pumps and tanks at each house. I was getting seriously tired of hearing that pump kicking on and off. I just need to insulate the exposed piping and fill in the trenches. Anyway, I'm pretty stoked and here's the obligatory pics to prove that it happened.
Here's the road looking down towards my ranch style house. My buddy Dan found some nice clay as he dug the pad and he used that to create a solid road. It's just about too steep to walk it.
Dan used a laser level and made the pad +/- 1".
The Bobcat made quick work of hauling each of the 3000 gallon tanks up the road.
The trench.
Water tanks in place with fill pipe and float switch conduit.
I made the manifold so that it can charge a fire hose with either 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 NH hoses. I also put a ball valve for each house and another on the old steel tank to use for fire as long as it lasts.
You can just see the tanks waaaay up on the hill. I think I have about 80 feet of elevation above the house.