water suppy for animals - underground tank???

[ejb]

Looking for a sanity check...

I have a small farm, I raise sheep, anywhere from 50-150 at any given time...

My biggest hassle is that I have no water in the barn. In the summer, its not a problem, I can run a long hose (about 300 feet) and keep the animals watered no problem.

Winter is coming (yet again) and I get tired of hauling water from the house to the barn in 5 gallon jugs (hard to believe but yes thats how I do it...).'

Anyway, the obvious 2 solutions are 1) drill a new well near the barn and install pump etc. or 2) trench a line from the house to the barn. In both cases I'd install a frost-free type faucet. Both of these options are expensive - wells and pumps are expensive (I'd guess at least $3500) and trenching to the house would involve digging thru the (paved) driveway, plus making a mess in the gardens around the house - not to mention the possibility of introducing a leak into my 99.9% dry cellar when a hole is drilled for the new pipe....

So anyway, I had another idea: what if I purchased an underground water tank, 1000-1500 gallons, and buried it near the barn. If I buried it deep enough, I would assume it wouldn't freeze (I am in New England), and I could use a relatively inexpensive submersible pump to draw about 50 gallons every 2-3 days. If it ran dry, I could drag out a hose, even in winter, and re-fill it and put the hose away before it froze up. I'd also probably add gutters and necessary piping to the barn and keep it topped off with rainwater that way.....

Anyone see any obvious problems with this solution? I am thinking I might be able to do this for under $1000 and save me a lot of back-aches this winter - not to mention some dough.

Comments appreciated!

 

[Jimbrown]

Should work just fine. I have two plastic storage tanks mine set above ground and have never frozen. Yours might as it stays colder there longer than here. Mine are 550 gal and 1200 gallon. The 1200 gal was about $850.

 

[Inspector507]

When I hauled water out to the garden, I just filled the FEL up and drove out to the garden real slow. Dipped it out with a 2 gallon bucket for the plants.

 

[Rara Avis]

Well depending on where you are in New England...The frostline can get down to 72"+ as it is where I am in Vermont...I took the route of digging a 7ft deep trench from the house well to the primary barn and installed multiple frost-free spigots...When I had a fire sprinkler company investigate the cost of installing a sprinkler system...I was shocked at the cost as it would have had to be a dry system with a buried tank...a deeply buried tank according to them...

 

[MikeD74T]

New England covers a pretty big climate range so you could be a little more specific as to your location. Here, on the NH seacoast, I can get 42" cube totes for about $25. That's just over 300 gallons. If you have electricity in your barn you could wrap a tote in 2-3" of rigid foam & keep it from freezing with an immersion heater. You might even get away without the heater depending on water temp and barn temp. You're still lugging water but not as often. For 300' you could insulate a garden hose along with a heat tape which would keep it from freezing. That shouldn't cost more than about $200. It's not hard to drive a 2" pipe sleeve under your driveway to run a hose thru. Even if you insulated a couple of totes & ran the hose only to fill you'd save time for not a lot of money. MikeD74T

 

[shvl73]

How is the water table there? Would a dug well work for you?

 

[charlz]

Anything in the way (underground) between the house and barn? I wonder what it would cost to have utility contractor or such come out and bore a horizontal hole between the two. Trick where you are is probably getting deep enough.

Seriously ugly but any way to string the hose/pipe overhead with a bit of slope? If coming off a hose bib install a Y at the beginning to drain the initial rise portion of the hose and then the rest will drain to the end. Just a thought.

Charles

 

[cp1969]

Why would it have to be deeper than a septic tank?

I think the frost line around here is 42" but I know the top of my septic tank is nowhere near that deep. I would be surprised if it has more than 24" of dirt on top of it. Maybe the goodies inside act as antifreeze?

Maybe the bottom of the tank being in contact with unfrozen ground is enough to keep the rest from freezing so you might not need to go as deep as you think. Ask a septic installer how deep they put the tanks in your area.

 

[California]

I wonder if the critters keep the inside of the barn warm enough to put the tank in there with them. Maybe on a pedestal just above them, at the warmest point.

 

[Rara Avis]

I wonder if the critters keep the inside of the barn warm enough to put the tank in there with them. Maybe on a pedestal just above them, at the warmest point.

If his barn is anything like mine...even with all of the animals inside all night...I can still see my breath when I go out in the morning...


This is why the animals don't beat me up...
Kalglo Electric Infrared Heaters