Water supply for garden

[Roundtuit]

We're just about to start trenching for the water main to the house; what's best practice for running a supply to the garden?  It's a fairly big plot, and I think something more than an outside tap on the house is in order. 

 

thanks

Andy

[PeterW]

I'm going for a buried IBC or three to provide storage under the patio, and either a submersible pump or a jet pump to provide a rainwater based supply.

 

Not as easy as a water butt, however at about the same price for 3 times the storage it seems a no brainer,

[Bitpipe]

I understand that an IBC will get crushed underground unless protected by some other ground retaining structure - we will have some inside our sunken patio but that has 300mm RC walls around it as it forms part of the basement stairwell construction.

 

A rain-water harvesting tank designed for burial would be a better option.

[curlewhouse]

Personally I've teed off from the house before (in our last house we used to have enough room to stand up under the floors so work like this was really easy to do) into alkathene down to the garden taps so the 1 internal stopcock covered everything, but regs may require something different now and I won't be doing that on the new house as it also means if you get a leak on your outside pipes/taps you have to turn the whole house off until you've fixed it. 

 

I know that the Water authority have to be informed if you plan to lay the outside pipe less than 750mm deep or more than 1350mm deep, but other than that I think as long as you only fit outside taps with double check valves (to eliminate any chance of back syphoning) how you go about it is down to you. I'd be looking this time at teeing off outside the property and putting an isolating valve in so the outside section can be isolated for repairs or turned off in winter if freezing is an issue. 

 

Like PeterW  I'm hoping to utilise rainwater - our scheme is rainwater to small settling chamber then buried IBC (for plant watering) which overflows into our largish pond, which in turn will overflow into our soakaway. I'm squeezing as much as I can out of it for outside use before it reaches the soakaway!  But I'll still be putting outside taps in as on the East side of the country we don't get quite as much rain of course and although we are never on a water shortage in Northumberland (we have the staggeringly huge Kielder reservoir, built to supply a heavy industry which had gone by the time it was built, so we have as much water as we want - hosepipe ban is a term we never hear!)  there are times when ponds and rivers get low. Tend not to need water to wash the cars much - in fact my land rover hasn't had a wash in 3 years!  

Edited August 3, 2016 by curlewhouse

[Bitpipe]

Found this thread on the GBF - to quote...'i buried an ibc for my collection tank . I dug the hole slightly larger than the ibc poured concrete into the base and dropped the ibc with its cage in. then filled it up with water and filled hole with concrete'

[PeterW]

36 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

Found this thread on the GBF - to quote...'i buried an ibc for my collection tank . I dug the hole slightly larger than the ibc poured concrete into the base and dropped the ibc with its cage in. then filled it up with water and filled hole with concrete'

 

Yep thats pretty much what I plan although the hole will be lined with plastic first - more so if I need to get the damn things out then I'm not breaking up concrete ! 

 

They are surprisingly robust even when empty - point loads are the problem and hence why its going below a patio

[Roundtuit]

Thanks.  I'm going to leave rainwater harvesting for a later date - I was thinking more about how and where to tap-off the incoming mains supply.  Perhaps a tee off the main with a DCV, located in an inspection chamber for access?

[PeterW]

It has to have a double check (or two depending on WaterCo) and should be before the house supply or any reducing valves. 

 

Worth dropping it to 20mm MDPE if you have any spare to reduce flow etc. DCV has to be above ground iirc but would need to check 

[Ferdinand]

In our previous 2 acre garden we had a supply in an outbuilding with an extra tap, and rather than run a pipe 750mm under the round, ran a high quality hose buried just under the surface 80m to a standpipe in the veg plot. Just switched it off at the outbuilding in the winter.

 

I'd say make sure it is freezeproof - I think the Yanks or the Canoodians have fancy through the wall taps of some sort so there is none standing in a pipe above ground.

The other option we discussed on BH (*) is your own well. It was touched on here in asides:

If you are on sand or chalk with a reasonable water table, it is as simple as buying the gubbins (pipe with a filter cage) and bashing into the ground with a Post Rammer. Fit a pump and you have 20 cubic metres per day. Clay is a little more difficult, but there are people around who have done it.

 

Sand point well:

 

Ferdinand

 

(*) Love that the acronym for BuildHub is the German for an item of lingerie with a very Germanic innuendo free tone - BustenHalter. I can just imagine another BH - Brunhilde - with a Vorsprung durch Technik  engineered solution.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Ferdinand