lets talk water towers

[jetboat]

I have some property we only use on the weekends, sometimes for a week (at most) during the summer. We have a small 2 room cabin with a shower,sink and toilet. Currently we have a 12' deep 4' wide hand dug, brick lined well from the '30's that we use as our main water supply. We looked into having a new well drilled, for a 100' deep well (just the hole in the ground no pump, hookup etc) we are looking at $3300, if we wanted the hookup and punp its about $7000. Rather they hit water or not its $3300 per hole because after 12' you are in solid limestone.

As a more cost effective method, I was thinking about building some form of water storage like a water tower. The people up the road were unable to find water on their property and have a comercially made tower but, it was as much as the well would be. My thought is to get a 300g ag tank, sink 4- 6x6 posts, build a platform and call it done. Maybe Im over thinking it but, it seems to me there has to be more to it. Opinions? experiences?

 

[imgone52]

I see two concerns right off. First, remember water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon plus the weight of your tank. Make sure your platform can handle the load. Second, keep in mind your use of water (gallons / time) This is important so you don't end up with a lot of water sitting in the tank exposed to sunlight and going bad on you. Good luck with your project.

 

[jetboat]

it would definatly have to be enclosed so no light would get in. Weight is definatly a concern but, I havent found any good info on the load bearing of lets say a 6x6 vs 8x8 etc. A 300 g tank would be about 2400# plus tank.

 

[BHD]

link for water tower plans,
Water Towers - Engineered Plans for Wood Towers

at one time most ever farm had a small water tower,

the attached picture is of lowering a windmill at my uncles farm, but in the picture is the water tower/ tank, it has a ceder tank in the upper half and this one at one time I think had a windmill on top of the building,

they also had windmill towers with tanks in them,

If you have any slope and extended property one can just set the tank up on the hill, one can use the the same pipe to pump the water up in as it comes back down it,

On my farm, have a twenty foot tall tank and basically use out of the top segment, but do have a pump and can use all of it, if needed,
(the picture is of pulling the pipe out of the well, but you can see the tank in the picture, (the inside of the tank is epoxied with a commercial tank coating for water towers/storage tanks).

 

[SimS]

JetBoat;

Is the current well not supplying enough water?

If not, where do you plan to get the water for the water tower?

I think I missed something from the OP maybe.

SimS

 

[vtsnowedin]

To get technical about it water weighs 8.33 ponds per gallon or 62.4 lbs per cubic foot. To include the tank figure tank and water at about ten pounds per gallon. To make a shower spray decent you need about ten psi which you can get by putting the bottom of the tank 23 feet above the shower head. You get .433 psi for each foot of height of water column. If it is a closed tank where dirt and algae spoors can't blow into the water I don't think it will go bad even if in the sunlight. In Africa they put dirty water into two liter clear pepsi bottles and leave them on a hot tin roof for a week to kill the bugs.
How are you going to fill the tank from the well?

 

[dusty3030]

Instead of tower just use a on demand electric pump to draw from the tank. Shallow well pump or a boost pump ain't expensive. Would be set up just like an RV works just a little bigger scale. Lot easier and cheaper to set up.

 

[jetboat]

BHD... great link!

the current well can produce fine in spring and fall but, during mid summer or extended dry periods we have to rasion the water. My thought is to fill the tank first thing in spring when water levels are high and then maintain the tank level slowly over the course of the summer. We are usually only there on the weekends so, we could set it up so that it slowly fills during the week while we aren't there and then is ready for the surge of use on the weekend.

 

[jetboat]

I guess it really doesnt have to be a tower... just a storage tank. See, Im over complicating things again. :thumbsup:

 

[vtsnowedin]

I guess it really doesnt have to be a tower... just a storage tank. See, Im over complicating things again. :thumbsup:

Well if you have reliable power when your there it would be just as easy to run the pump whenever you needed water. You could even put in a 1000 gallon precast concrete tank and have one he** of a cistern to pump out of.
Might be cheaper to call it a septic tank when you order it.