The Home Improvements Thread (2)

[Priapus]

In my opinion rain water storage is nice for emergencies only.

If I fill pool and water garden over summer, my 2x 5kl tanks last less than a month. This is in Cape town.

Personally, it makes more sense to find out if a wellpoint or borehole is an option at your house. As that you only need a small 500l tank and fill it up as needed and you won't run out over summer since you can refill it when needed. Also great way to get water into your house for toilets etc without needing too expensive filters which you will need if you want to drink or shower in it.

That's my one concern; I am not sure Gauteng receives enough rainwater to make it practical. I have no intention of supplying the whole house with the water. But for toilets it would save us a bit. I use a fair amount of water for the pool over summer; so there would be savings there. (I'm stubborn and don't want to put a pool cover over the pool..)

A WellPoint or borehole would be a lot more than I think I am willing to spend on such a system. Don't they start at like 50k or so?

 

[Tinuva]

No idea. It's on my long list of things to investigate

 

[WAslayer]

That's my one concern; I am not sure Gauteng receives enough rainwater to make it practical. I have no intention of supplying the whole house with the water. But for toilets it would save us a bit. I use a fair amount of water for the pool over summer; so there would be savings there. (I'm stubborn and don't want to put a pool cover over the pool..)

A WellPoint or borehole would be a lot more than I think I am willing to spend on such a system. Don't they start at like 50k or so?

Gauteng, according to Google receives 700mm rainfall on average every year.. multiply this by the surface area of your roof, to get an estimation of how much water you could expect to harvest or store each year..

So, if you have surface area of 200 square metres on your roof where rain water would be collected from, you would be looking at 140 000 Litres collected per year.. You could probably substract a small percentage for losses, either way, that's a decent amount of water per year..

 

[xrapidx]

The only glue I have found that works is this,

Adhesive all weather EVO-STICK Sticks Like Sh*t clear 290ml

? Excellent adhesion and initial grab ? Can be used in all weather conditions ? Wide service temperature range of -40°C to +100°C ? Low odour

leroymerlin.co.za

I have used it to glue tiles to a wooden wall so I'm pretty sure it will hold some skirtings in place.

They used Sticks like **** to stick our center islands basin to the stone top - its the only thing holding it in place, didn't think it'd stay put - but - four years later its still there.

 

[xrapidx]

Do you guys think installing water tanks to supply garden, pool and general outside stuff is worth it? Not sure we get enough rain to fill up a single 5000L tank?

Just something I have been thinking about a lot, lately.

I'm not sure how a JoJo tank would work for the house and if its worth the investment. We haven't had a water shortage for a long time. But I haven't looked at cost savings either if it would bring down the CoJ bill.

I go through 2500L every 2-3 days watering my garden... 5000L won't last long if you have grass.

Weirdly, I haven't filled my pool once this summer - and it was overflowing two weeks ago - think the rains we've had and the cover really helped this year.

That's my one concern; I am not sure Gauteng receives enough rainwater to make it practical. I have no intention of supplying the whole house with the water. But for toilets it would save us a bit. I use a fair amount of water for the pool over summer; so there would be savings there. (I'm stubborn and don't want to put a pool cover over the pool..)

A WellPoint or borehole would be a lot more than I think I am willing to spend on such a system. Don't they start at like 50k or so?

Borehole = expensive.

Wellpoint = cheap. You can do it yourself - or - probably have it done for R3k to 5k. With a well-point though, you need to find water before about 12m deep.

We have a wellpoint - wouldn't have a garden with out it.

 

[Priapus]

I go through 2500L every 2-3 days watering my garden... 5000L won't last long if you have grass.

Weirdly, I haven't filled my pool once this summer - and it was overflowing two weeks ago - think the rains we've had and the cover really helped this year.


Borehole = expensive.

Wellpoint = cheap. You can do it yourself - or - probably have it done for R3k to 5k. With a well-point though, you need to find water before about 12m deep.

We have a wellpoint - wouldn't have a garden with out it.

Is there a way to determine if I could have a WellPoint without spending too much, that might make it worth while.

So, maybe two 5000 JoJo tanks then? Do I need to have a pump if I am using it with a garden house?

 

[Priapus]

Gauteng, according to Google receives 700mm rainfall on average every year.. multiply this by the surface area of your roof, to get an estimation of how much water you could expect to harvest or store each year..

So, if you have surface area of 200 square metres on your roof where rain water would be collected from, you would be looking at 140 000 Litres collected per year.. You could probably substract a small percentage for losses, either way, that's a decent amount of water per year..

When put like that, yes that's a fair amount of water. Not sure how I would collect it from the roof - most of its pitched and some one area flat (About 50sq)

 

[SAguy]

Is there a way to determine if I could have a WellPoint without spending too much, that might make it worth while.

So, maybe two 5000 JoJo tanks then? Do I need to have a pump if I am using it with a garden house?

I have 2 x 5000 tanks, you'll need a small pump yeah. If it's just for a hose then the small JoJo 0.37kw pump does ok. I'm in the process of removing my little JoJo pump now for something a bit bigger, but it did well for a couple of years.

 

[Lupus]

Do you guys think installing water tanks to supply garden, pool and general outside stuff is worth it? Not sure we get enough rain to fill up a single 5000L tank?

Just something I have been thinking about a lot, lately.

I'm not sure how a JoJo tank would work for the house and if its worth the investment. We haven't had a water shortage for a long time. But I haven't looked at cost savings either if it would bring down the CoJ bill.

A friend used to harvest rain water and even in the days we got less rain, he filled 2 of those. Sure he used it all up by end of winter.

 

[Priapus]

I have 2 x 5000 tanks, you'll need a small pump yeah. If it's just for a hose then the small JoJo 0.37kw pump does ok. I'm in the process of removing my little JoJo pump now for something a bit bigger, but it did well for a couple of years.

Okay that's not bad then. I don't mind the size of the pump too much, to be fair. The pool already runs off the solar and that is a 0.75w pump.

Why are you upgrading the pump.

I'd need a bigger pump if I wanted to use the high pressure washer off it, correct?

Ideally, all I want it for is to water the garden, fill up the pool and general gardening stuff - fish pond refill etc.

A friend used to harvest rain water and even in the days we got less rain, he filled 2 of those. Sure he used it all up by end of winter.

That's interesting- did he manage to fill them more than once during the summer months?

 

[Tinuva]

My tanks can fill in a single day's rain. Like they fill up quicker than you think. Just don't last long when used.

 

[Lupus]

Okay that's not bad then. I don't mind the size of the pump too much, to be fair. The pool already runs off the solar and that is a 0.75w pump.

Why are you upgrading the pump.

I'd need a bigger pump if I wanted to use the high pressure washer off it, correct?

Ideally, all I want it for is to water the garden, fill up the pool and general gardening stuff - fish pond refill etc.



That's interesting- did he manage to fill them more than once during the summer months?

He did yeah, he was looking at expanding, but then got a job offer overseas.

 

[Priapus]

My tanks can fill in a single day's rain. Like they fill up quicker than you think. Just don't last long when used.

So probably not goo to run an irrigation system off. But 10k Litres should be enough to cater the water needs of the garden for a bit. Depending how low the pool gets.

 

[alqassam]

Went through this exercise recently.

My water bill between 2.5 and 6k a month.... Drilled a borehole 102m deep + JoJo + pump (2 x 1.5kw inverter pumps) + filters = a shitload of money.... Did most of the install myself.

Should pay back in 2 to 3 years and then free water basically. Maintenance will be the filtration and water testing every 8 to 12 months. That's still less than 1 month of water usage so pretty happy. Only issue is water is very hard so might need to add a softener system in.

Depending on the side of your house and water usage you could get away with much smaller pumps. I basically had to get the biggest pump as we have 5 bathrooms and 3 more in the cottages. And irrigation at some point when I recover it.

 

[alqassam]

I'm still going to use the free 7kl given by municipality for pool refills as Im happy with the chemistry.

 

[Priapus]

Went through this exercise recently.

My water bill between 2.5 and 6k a month.... Drilled a borehole 102m deep + JoJo + pump (2 x 1.5kw inverter pumps) + filters = a shitload of money.... Did most of the install myself.

Should pay back in 2 to 3 years and then free water basically. Maintenance will be the filtration and water testing every 8 to 12 months. That's still less than 1 month of water usage so pretty happy. Only issue is water is very hard so might need to add a softener system in.

Depending on the side of your house and water usage you could get away with much smaller pumps. I basically had to get the biggest pump as we have 5 bathrooms and 3 more in the cottages. And irrigation at some point when I recover it.

That's quite a system you have there. I think I might want to start small. Maybe get 2 x 5000L JoJos and a pump and use the roof to collect water. Not sure how you do that though? I have gutters, I could re-direct the flow of water to the tanks?

Could I attach an irrigation system to the tanks with a big enough pump? Or would 2 x 5000l run out quick like that?

 

[Priapus]

Another question - should the tanks be placed at right next to the house? I guess so if I am using the roof to collect water.

 

[SAguy]

That's quite a system you have there. I think I might want to start small. Maybe get 2 x 5000L JoJos and a pump and use the roof to collect water. Not sure how you do that though? I have gutters, I could re-direct the flow of water to the tanks?

Could I attach an irrigation system to the tanks with a big enough pump? Or would 2 x 5000l run out quick like that?

I increased my pump to a LEO MAC550, which is a bit bigger than my little jojo pump. I increased as my JoJo pump can only handle about 2 or 3 pop up sprinklers. I have a small garden and run the pump about 30 minutes a day, 10 000l lasts me most of summer with a couple of summer rains here and there to help out.

I only have one gutter section filling my tank, would like to block off one of my other downpipes to get more water coming the way to my tank. I'll have to of course keep a close eye on the gutter if I block off that downpipe, but will see how it goes during some heavy rain and take it from there.

 

[alqassam]

That's quite a system you have there. I think I might want to start small. Maybe get 2 x 5000L JoJos and a pump and use the roof to collect water. Not sure how you do that though? I have gutters, I could re-direct the flow of water to the tanks?

Could I attach an irrigation system to the tanks with a big enough pump? Or would 2 x 5000l run out quick like that?

If you have normal gutters most irrigation or builders have the kits to connect to the gutters most out it directly under the gutter.

Measure how much water you use

 

[Smokey mcpot]

Another question - should the tanks be placed at right next to the house? I guess so if I am using the roof to collect water.

I did a house where the tanks were placed in a corner quite a distance from the house. They did have some things around the house which kind of hid the pipes running across the yardw