Water Storage

He's looking at that option as well.
I had him looking at the county gis site tonight,, told him to look around on there and he might find some useful info.
Also told him to talk with a couple local well drillers and see what they say .
He knows a few water well drillers ,, he said he'd talk to them about it.
He's out there in that oil, fracking business,,, I told him he's partly to blame for his problems,,,,

 

From the sounds of it, a cistern would solve his problem and give him water when the pump is off.

What isn't making sense is why they are limiting their usage unless, they got a leak. Now, we had a leak and couldn't find it. The electric bill took a major jump which told us something was wrong somewhere and the houses at the end of the waterline cisterns weren't getting a complete fill. We also tried limiting usage too but that didn't really help. It was fairly costly to find it and fix it. We had to use hydrogen gas to find the leak. Pretty damn cool! The guy tapped into the line, inserted the gas and had a sniffer to find it.

 

I'll mention some of that to him and see what he can find out . Thanks for all the input.
I told him to just go buy 10-20 acres ,, I'd build his house for him ,, sale me an acre or 2 somewhere on the secluded side and I'd build me a little smal house and a 2000+ sq ft garage ,, I'd be in heaven then .

 

Yes I've considered a few spots ,, but at my age ,,I don't have the money or energy to be building a perfect spot ,, I'm just looking for a comfortable little spot to wrench on hobbies and sell a bird house or 2 for spare change .
Then I think of the work involved in moving and building and all of that ,, I think I'll just stay put .

 

Yeah, moving is a big deal. I never realized it before as most of my life I lived out of a suitcase but now, I've been here 10 years, and I cannot even begin to imagine the work it would take to move. The stuff one collects in just a decade is amazing!

Having said that, we're considering it as can't get the niece and her family here due bull$hit immigration policies and if something was to happen to me then the wife has no one here; she certainly couldn't handle the property herself, and the complexity of America society (taxes, investments, regulations, etc.) would eat her alive. Anyway, we are going to go visit in late summer, look for an apartment, and discuss the future.

 

Too many people know too little about the guts of a house to even ask questions about the construction. Even with full builder disclosure and an inspection they still don't know enough to see the current deficiencies or future problems. What kind of lumber was used in the frame? Treated or untreated? Dimensions of studs and joists? 16" centers or 24"? Type and placement of plumbing and electrical? Size of the HVAC? Also, the reliability of utilities? All of these and more must be considered before you start asking questions about the local schools and getting excited about the flooring, kitchen, bathrooms and walk-in closets.
When my parents built their home 65 years ago, the plans called for just 1 or 2 electrical outlets per room. My father told the contractor that he wanted an outlet on every wall and a heavier gauge wire run despite the extra cost. Glad that he did because even with the extra outlets we use a lot of power strips. Also, my father always wished that he had made the crawl space bigger.
My Grandfather was a plumber/pipefitter/steamfitter, and he ALWAYS checked the water and plumbing of a house. He wanted to open multiple outlets and check the water pressure. He looked for staining from minerals in the water. He checked for bad smells, discoloration, floaters, and finally taste. He also, checked for good drainage and flushing.
My father said that you had to build at least two houses to get one right. Your friend might have to buy and sell a few houses in order to get a good one.

 

Now, this ^^^^^ is spot-on! So true!

 

He should only need to worry about his drinking water supply.

Trying to store enough water for laundry, showers, toilets, is a fool's errand ... who cares if it's a little bit high in arsenic?

When you consider that, he shouldn't need such a large tank if he plumbed only his sources of drinking water to that tank, you're not going to drink 1000 gallons a month.

Or, get a water cooler and have bottled water delivered, like they do in offices. They do that for residential, too.

 

You're definitely spot on about folks not knowing what to look for in a house. Around here ,, and I think it's country wide ,, electrical outlets are required every 6 ft ,,
One of the last houses I built ,, the wife said when they decided to buy the house ,, she had a tablet , and a pen ,, and was going to walk the house and make a list of things to fix or address . She said her and her husband had bought plenty of houses over the yrs ,, and that house was the only one she's ever seen,, that she could absolutely not find 1 thing wrong that needed addressed . But , as it is ,, a lot of folks only look for what the eye can see ,, not structural, electrical, plumbing , or mechanical .
I'm no expert ,, but I don't like leaving something undone if I see it . And if I can't fix it ,, I'll make the subs fix it .
That being said ,, the guy texted me earlier and said the hoa will not allow him to have his own well drilled .
I told him to talk to a lawyer and see if he can sue them to buy his house as they are not living up to the job of supplying him and his family with safe and abundant water . Told him it's a longshot,, but worth a shot .

 

True ,, that's why I told him we could run the clean water to just the critical areas ,, mainly the kitchen .
But he said they're cutting off his supply during times that is convenient for his showering times.
I know ,, change your schedule,, but it's not always that easy ,, or right that a neighborhood is going to dictate your schedule. Kinduv like being a mouse in a cage .
JMO

 

If I was stuck in this situation, I would install a tank of around 600 gallons to act as a buffer when the water gets shut off, that way you never run dry. I would also have bottled water brought in for consumption purposes, and run the tap water for everything else, this is likely the cheapest and simplist solution to this issue, I wouldn't over think it, and besides, the bottles water is gonna be way better, and you can have it blended like we do here, add alkaline, and any other healthy minerals to your drinking supply and your golden! The tap water should be fine for general uses, as long as you don't drink it!
You can get custom water tanks that sit against a wall and don't take up a bunch of space, or you could install several in series in an attic to spread the load, a bonus here is gravity is going to save you power when you only have to pump the water in, and not down, and besides, the community pump should charge your tanks with out issue anyway, so it's a win win!

 

Very good ideas ,, I like these suggestions.
Not knowing the times they kill his water ,, I'm going to have him check his water usage at the meter ,, and see if he can calculate what his usage could be during the outages ,, and estimate his kitchen/drinking usage .
Thanks Ura-ki ,, pretty good ideas. Sometimes overthinking things can mask the simple cures .

 

Glad to help! I always think of R.V. water usage when looking at these types of issues, then tune amd tweek from there, most R.V.s don't pack all that much water, simply because of the weight involved, usually only a couple hundred gallons at most, so,........
Figuring actual consumption vs general need will go along ways in deciding how much storage one might need, and because your in a fixed location, and maybe looking at an extended outage, I would double or double plus half the maximum normal consumption!
From there, a couple larger cysyerns under ground might be another usable option for larger usage volume against extended outages! Might not be needed in this case unless those outages become longer and or more frequent!

 

It's ridiculous they cut off his water. No, that's not an easy work-around by scheduling.

If you have to be at your job in the morning the boss doesn't want to hear "I had to wait for my water to come on so that I could take a shower." What's he paying for?

The 600 gallon tank and the bottled water for drinking look like the best work-arounds since he can't drill his own well. 'Course he probably didn't get the water rights with the house anyway.

I'd be looking at suing too.

 

Just another good reason not to have anything to do with a HOA. I'm surprised that the members of the HOA haven't revolted, but the leadership might have them all cowed.

 

Not siding with the HOA but have lived in West Texas. Might be a lot more to the story than we are hearing or he understands. A lot of houses were built with known bad water and in a short time pulled off the relatively good surface water and the recharge rate due to lack of rain makes the problem worse. Fracking and gas production hasn't made the problem easier. When you can drive for 20 miles along side and thru a dry lake with a few hundred feet of salt or drill thru a few hundred feet of salt, no amount of filtering is going to make it better. Real problem, and building more houses is going to make it worse, is that the houses aren't worth much without water and their may be no easy solution to that problem. Holloman AFB in New Mexico has messed up the water under the base and pumps it from miles away. West of the base is White Sands and it was formed by the surface water evaporating and leaving the solids behind. It can only be used after distillation. Some of the highest pollution levels in the world for the so called forever chemicals are found on and near the base. They pump water from as far as 35 miles away.

New research examines PFAS contamination at Holloman Lake in New Mexico

We always take the view that a problem can be solved. We have pushed technology to the point, Chernobyl for one example, may have no real effective solutions.

Alamogordo pumps a lot of their water from the mountains to the east of them, 80 miles away. The subsurface water at Holloman has never been usable.

PFAS/PFOA | Alamogordo, NM

Short answer is your friend may have to have to bite the bullet and sell at a loss or use the limited water for non potable uses and buy drinking water. Worst possible outcome is that he "bought a house" next to the local version of the Love Canal in New York.

My brother in law bought a unit in a home owners condo. Five years into the nightmare he bailed. The common well failed and the ground water was not sufficient to just drill a new well. The septic system failed, too small a leach field, the "common" area had a mortgage on it with the HOA on the hook for payments and the roof wasn't built correctly and needed massive repairs. Of course the builder had filed for bankruptcy and the real estate people were held blameless and the building inspector was long gone. Sometimes there are no easy answers..

 

Easy enough
330 Gallon Reconditioned IBC Tote Tank | NTO C330

 

Have used IBC tots for greenhouse. Got used ones that had food in them. While the plants don't care, the plastic held traces of the taste for quite a while. New are quite expensive, used were about $100 and well worth the money. Filled them with a hose and used a dc motor and a float sw to refill greenhouse supply tanks. Worked very well. They make a hand pump that will pump water and pressurize it. With IBC above toilet etc, could have "running" water with no power. With solar and dc pump to fill IBC, could run off grid and have a couple hundred gallons of storage that needed no power to run, just to fill. Had best luck with totes that had alcohol in them used to make vinager as it had food grade and no taste. Paid $100 each with a valve and a tank lid. Drilled the lid and tapped it fill and got a cap and tapped it for outlet.

Craigslist had some metal totes, plastic liner, that sounded great. I have also got plastic barrels with removable lids that seal to store fertilizers that absorb water. Work great with a liner and desicant and were relatively cheap and much better than a garbage can for long term storage. If sealed with silicon they could probably be cached for long term secure storage. Much more resistant to ultra violet effects than a standard 5 gallon bucket that lasts about 2 years in greenhouse exposed to heat and sun.

LifetimeHybrid Outdoor Metal&Poly Potable Water Fuel Tanks:Light Block - farm & garden - by owner - sale - craigslist