Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Hi All,

I did a little house out on Bainbridge Island yesterday that is about 40' from a 40' tall municipal water tower. You can understand why I was a little puzzled when pressure in the home was akin to a that seen in a 50 year old home plumbed with galvanized pipe occluded like my veins.

The kicker is that all of it, from the meter in, was either plastic or copper. It was a do-it-yourselfer system. Service line is 3/4 inch and that close to the tank probably should have been slammin'. I couldn't get to the secondary shutoff valve for the system because the homeowner had placed a single wooden step up to a wood porch over the top of it and it would have required that I disassemble the step in order to get to it. No way was I going to do that. I suspect though that the secondary shutoff may not be a full-bore valve.

Any other ideas out there?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Posted

Mike,

Did you tap on the side of the water tank to see if it had any water in it? [:-eyebrows]

There are abandon water tanks all over the country that still get a paint job every now and then.

As for the problem, you mentioned "homeowner" work. I'll bet the nimrod was capable of almost anything. Even something that none of us have ever seen done before.

George

Posted

Hi,

That was me making that post. I was doing some testing under a test name and didn't realize that I'd not reassumed my regular (ugh) identity. (You guys keep busting my chops and I'm going to replace my icon with my ring-face profile photo again.)

George,

The tank is full and actively in use. The water company guys were there at the time of the inspection doing maintenance on the tank and grounds, so we asked.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Posted

Mike...

It takes about 34 feet of fresh water to exert 15 psi (from my diving days). I don't know where the top of the water in the tower was in relation to the home but if all you are using is gravity don't automatically expect fire-hose pressure.

The problem may be that the home is too close to the tank. Recommend moving the house down the hill a 100' or so. That will give you another 45 PSI.

Posted

Man!

Why didn't I think of that? (Danged sneaky competitors - always trying to get me to tuck my head up my butt and make wacko recommendations, so word gets around I'm deranged. Hah! Fooled 'em. I've been deranged for years! I even think like Zippy!)

OT - OF!!!

M.

Posted

Yep, went to Whidbey Island today. I like it over there. Maybe I'll go down to the naval air station and see if they'll hire an old retired grunt.

OT - OF!!!

M.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...