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fire
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Building a Water Pila
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
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RnR
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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
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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.
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fire
Junior Nomad
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Thanks for the suggestion!
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charliemanson
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may want to see what size the trucks are first. In your area they only hold 10,000 liters.
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Bob and Susan
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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]
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BigWooo
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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.
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bajatrailrider
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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.
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BigWooo
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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.
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bajatrailrider
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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.
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bajagrouper
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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........
I hear the whales song
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chippy
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| 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........
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Same down here in southern Jalisco/Colima. A cistern is called an "aljibe" down here.
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David K
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| 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........
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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).
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ehall
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| 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.
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Smart man.
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bajatrailrider
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Thank you ED. No matter what anybody calls it. For me its just water tank in the ground. That works .
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pacificobob
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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.($$$) the
10k liter tanks are around $1000 to $1100 usd.
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Bob and Susan
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| Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob | | i have 170,000 liters of underground water storage. they are 10k liter rotoplas tanks in concrete block vaults. i considered a concrete tank
arrangement, but when the soil moves, cracks will appear.... unless it is built like a swimming pool with a chitload, of rebar and concrete.($$$) 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
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pacificobob
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| Quote: Originally posted by Bob and Susan | | 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
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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?
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Bob and Susan
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so you have 10 "full pools" storage of water at any time
picture time
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pacificobob
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a photo of the last 10 tanks being installed
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Bob and Susan
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wow...
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