BajaNomad - Building a Water Pila

Building a Water Pila

fire - 9-19-2018 at 10:41 PM

Hi there, I am having a 15,000 liter water pila built for me by a friend who has had several built for him

We are building it 1.7 meters tall, 2 meters wide, and 4 meters long.

I am having him put in two pvc threaded pipes at the bottom that can have caps screwed, or replaced with a hose if I want to use gravity to push the water out if ever my pump doesn't work.

We will put a metal hatch at the top that opens/closes on hinges.

Any suggestions / considerations you might have, please let me know

RnR - 9-19-2018 at 11:12 PM

Quote: Originally posted by fire

Hi there, I am having a 15,000 liter water pila built for me by a friend who has had several built for him

We are building it 1.7 meters tall, 2 meters wide, and 4 meters long.

I am having him put in two pvc threaded pipes at the bottom that can have caps screwed, or replaced with a hose if I want to use gravity to push the water out if ever my pump doesn't work.

We will put a metal hatch at the top that opens/closes on hinges.

Any suggestions / considerations you might have, please let me know

Build it bigger.

Water trucks typically have a capacity of 14 to 16,000 liters. In order to receive a full truckload, your pila would have to be empty before you ordered a refill.

You want to have a reasonable reserve in the pila. That way you won't be tempted to wait until the last moment to reorder just so that you can accommodate a full truckload.

fire - 9-20-2018 at 12:07 AM

Thanks for the suggestion!

charliemanson - 9-20-2018 at 05:03 AM

may want to see what size the trucks are first. In your area they only hold 10,000 liters.

Bob and Susan - 9-20-2018 at 05:04 AM

it'll leak///I've never seen a cement tank that doesn't leak
because no one coats them with pool cement

buy plastic tanks so you'll be able to clean them later
and they wont leak

go take a tour of some water tanks and look inside
is that what you want to bath in?

[Edited on 9-20-2018 by Bob and Susan]

BigWooo - 9-20-2018 at 06:23 AM

Building a concrete water pila is a bit risky. Make sure your builder has lots of experience building water tanks that last and don't leak. Find clients he's built for and talk to them. If he's never built a tank before, walk away. If you do it right, a concrete pila will work fine. We have a much larger pila than you plan to build and are perfectly happy with it.

I have a couple suggestions. Wherever the hatch cover will be, build it up a foot or two higher than the top of the tank. Trucks normally fill the tank until something overflows, they don't have any gauges to tell them when it's full. If you have a floor hatch, that will be what overflows. If the hatch is somewhere where you don't want water pouring out, it could be a problem. If you build a register that's a foot or two high to put the lid on, it will overflow out the fill pipe before coming out the lid.

If you can afford it, make the tank big enough to hold at least two full truck loads of water. It's so much easier to order water when you are a full truck low, and still have plenty of reserve to last you until they come. Also, if there is a storm or some reason they can't deliver, you will have plenty of reserve.

We coated the inside of the tank with this product:

http://www.crystal-lok.com/page17/index.us

It's non toxic and seals the concrete. It won't, however prevent leaks from cracks or poor construction.

That said, black plastic tanks mounted on a concrete floor will probably be much less expensive and MUCH easier to maintain in the future. All the pipes are exposed and you can tell right away if there are any leaks. You can build a wall around them to hide them so they look nice and probably still save money.

Since it's harder to tell if an underground concrete tank leaks, I drain my tank ever few years and do a visual inside. I also keep track of my water use so I can tell if it increases for no reason indicating a leak. So far so good. My tank it 14 years old.

bajatrailrider - 9-20-2018 at 06:34 AM

A few months ago I had a concrete one made 4000 gallons. With 1hp pump about 2300 to 2500 us. It was Finnished with cement bond to make it water tight. Done right I have seen them last here over 40+ years. I would not use below ground plastic tanks. As a few guys here had them crack. Mine has a 5in thick reinforced concrete top. That I can drive a truck over. Mine fills with city water.

BigWooo - 9-20-2018 at 06:59 AM

I didn't even think about having a tank filled by city water. I'm so used to having trucked water, didn't even consider it. In that case you wouldn't need such a large tank.

bajatrailrider - 9-20-2018 at 07:16 AM

I'm lucky I over built it. I frist put above ground 4 plastic tanks total about 850 gal. The last 8 years the city water could barely climb 5 feet to enter tanks . Causing me headache to call water truck. So my tank below ground now. I have city feed pipe 2 feet below ground level. It is normal in city to shut off all water in summer months. For 2 to 3 days and only turn water on for one hour. For the last two weeks it was off because broken pump 8 days. My garage tanks still full and under ground tank went down 4ft. So still had 4ft full and garage tanks. So costing little more was smart thing to do. As keeping the lady of the house happy.

bajagrouper - 9-20-2018 at 07:28 AM

Funny how in different parts of the country different names, Here in Jalisco a pila is a cement stand alone thing to wash clothes, it is like a double compartment sink...A tinaco is the black tank on the roof and I have a 27,000 liter cement cisterna underground........

chippy - 9-20-2018 at 07:47 AM

Quote: Originally posted by bajagrouper

Funny how in different parts of the country different names, Here in Jalisco a pila is a cement stand alone thing to wash clothes, it is like a double compartment sink...A tinaco is the black tank on the roof and I have a 27,000 liter cement cisterna underground........

Same down here in southern Jalisco/Colima. A cistern is called an "aljibe" down here.

David K - 9-20-2018 at 07:54 AM

Quote: Originally posted by bajagrouper

Great observation.
English is full of variations like this... between countries (such as Fries vs. Chips or Gasoline vs. Petrol or Trunk vs. Boot) and within a single country (such as Soda vs. Pop or Sofa vs. Couch or Sub vs. Hoagie).

ehall - 9-20-2018 at 08:24 AM

Quote: Originally posted by bajatrailrider

I'm lucky I over built it. I frist put above ground 4 plastic tanks total about 850 gal. The last 8 years the city water could barely climb 5 feet to enter tanks . Causing me headache to call water truck. So my tank below ground now. I have city feed pipe 2 feet below ground level. It is normal in city to shut off all water in summer months. For 2 to 3 days and only turn water on for one hour. For the last two weeks it was off because broken pump 8 days. My garage tanks still full and under ground tank went down 4ft. So still had 4ft full and garage tanks. So costing little more was smart thing to do. As keeping the lady of the house happy.

Smart man.

bajatrailrider - 9-20-2018 at 09:04 AM

Thank you ED. No matter what anybody calls it. For me its just water tank in the ground. That works .

pacificobob - 9-21-2018 at 08:04 AM

i have 170,000 liters of underground water storage. they are 10k liter rotoplas tanks in concrete block vaults. i considered a concrete tank arrangement, but when the soil moves, cracks will appear.... unless it is built like a swimming pool with a chitload, of rebar and concrete.($$$) the 10k liter tanks are around $1000 to $1100 usd.

Bob and Susan - 9-21-2018 at 11:42 AM

Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob

i have 170,000 liters of underground water storage. they are 10k liter rotoplas tanks in concrete block vaults. i considered a concrete tank arrangement, but when the soil moves, cracks will appear.... unless it is built like a swimming pool with a chitload, of rebar and concrete.($$$) the 10k liter tanks are around $1000 to $1100 usd.

i need a picture of THAT!!!

170,000 liters of water!!!
17 - 10,000 liter tanks
thats ALOT of water storage

you MUST have a "water-field" out back

my one 2500 liter tank cost me $1100usa

the problem with too much water storage is you STILL have to fill them and a water truck is 10,000-12,000 liters

my pool is 30x16 and holds 16,000 gallons of water

when i drain it it cost me $600 to fill it again with fresh water

pacificobob - 9-21-2018 at 03:54 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Bob and Susan

Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob

i have ejido water rights. part of the land purchase.the water arrives via a 6 inch pipe every wednesday night. i use that much water every week to irrigate my huerta. cost is $25usd@month. sweet eh?

Bob and Susan - 9-21-2018 at 04:42 PM

so you have 10 "full pools" storage of water at any time

picture time

pacificobob - 9-22-2018 at 06:10 AM

a photo of the last 10 tanks being installed

tanks.JPG - 46kB

Bob and Susan - 9-22-2018 at 06:21 AM

wow...

fire - 9-22-2018 at 08:45 AM

Having lots of water in the desert is not a bad idea!!!

ncampion - 9-23-2018 at 01:24 PM

Does anyone know what the lifespan of a standard black Rotoplas tank is?(5,000 l) I hope it's a long time as mine are now 9 yrs. old and I hope to never have replace them in my lifetime. (They are shaded at all times)

Bob and Susan - 9-23-2018 at 03:29 PM

15 years

KylesBahiadrean - 7-23-2020 at 04:06 PM

I’m a water treatment guy. what’s the long term storage plan for that much water? and what’s the long term disinfection plan? Do you live down there full time ? I’m just curious I always thought people kept the amount of water to a minimum because of storage and disinfection problem.. like legal advice I will not give any information or solutions to these problems cause I don’t want it to come back to me later...

RFClark - 7-24-2020 at 01:11 PM

When I was working near Roserita Beach years ago I had a chance to see how Mexican tract builders do water storage. They dig a round pit and put a round plastic tank in it. They built a block wall around the tank and poured the garage slab over it with a hatch to gain access. The tank was 7K to 10K L.

When we built our house we did much the same thing. We dug an 8’ round hole 6’ deep. Cleared the rocks out to make a sandy bottom and grouted around the tank with cement, filling the tank as we grouted to balance the pressure. We placed 3 courses of 6” concrete block around the tank to bring the top level with the dirt around it and poured a patio slab with a hatch over the access hole in the tank.the house is raised with the patio under the front half. 10 years with no problems and the water stays between 85F and 70F. Worked so well we put a 2nd one in the garage floor. We can transfer water when necessary. The garage is the fire reserve tank.

2 of us use 400 gal/week and our truck hauls 400 gal. The well is 8-9Km north and water costs 100 pesos a load.

RFClark - 7-24-2020 at 01:27 PM

Water treatment guy.

We have sulfur and Iron in our water. We treat that in the storage tank with H2O2. We transfer to a smaller 400gal tank for use. We bubble the small tank with Ozone daily and add bleach every couple of weeks. No iron or sulfur problems and no water quality other than a Chlorine smell.

The Water is very hard 3000 ppm dissolved solids but the water is reasonably soft. Wells near the beach have lots of salt even miles back there’s some. No one drinks the stuff!

The above description is for discussion only I’m not qualified to offer advice and your results may be different than ours!

David K - 7-24-2020 at 01:40 PM

If you are lucky enough to buy a lot at Playas Pacificas, you won't worry about water! Rob gave me a tour of the facilities at his Rancho La Aguja development.

Note the "with water" part!

[Edited on 7-24-2020 by David K]

KylesBahiadrean - 7-24-2020 at 07:51 PM

Quote: Originally posted by RFClark

Water treatment guy.

We have sulfur and Iron in our water. We treat that in the storage tank with H2O2. We transfer to a smaller 400gal tank for use. We bubble the small tank with Ozone daily and add bleach every couple of weeks. No iron or sulfur problems and no water quality other than a Chlorine smell.

The Water is very hard 3000 ppm dissolved solids but the water is reasonably soft. Wells near the beach have lots of salt even miles back there’s some. No one drinks the stuff!

The above description is for discussion only I’m not qualified to offer advice and your results may be different than ours!

Hey I wasn’t expecting that at all..I expected “we just filter it”

Good job honestly..

RFClark - 7-24-2020 at 11:00 PM

We filter it too! Water is very important in the desert! I think most just add bleach and filter it. You’ll discover that a lot of us do all of our own utilities and road maintenance as well. It’s common to separate gray water and use it for irrigation as well.

JDCanuck - 4-11-2022 at 06:11 AM

Found this thread after my newer post on rainwater recovery and use as I didn't know what a "Pila" was. Thanks to Pacificobob for posting his pics, looks like this may be the best way to accomplish what we are looking for.

JDCanuck - 4-12-2022 at 08:53 AM

Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob

a photo of the last 10 tanks being installed