A lot to ponder: Water Collection Systems

Today, Julie and I went to visit Dan Illich, our neighbor bordering us to the South on 53rd Ave.  First of all, Dan is quite possibly the nicest man we've ever met.  He sadly lost his wife to cancer not long ago, but he's always the most pleasant and welcoming man, even when we're there to ask him to sign a waiver.

Anyhow, Dan showed us his neighbor to the South who has a huge rain collection system that captures rain water in a 1000-gallon (or more) tank, that they can then use to water plants during dry times in the summer.

This got us to thinking and looking into the matter a bit...something I've thought of a good bit before, but haven't really looked into the details.  The basics we need to consider:
- Location
- Homemade or Manufactured
- Size

The location is pretty easy.  Underneath the deck at the home will be a very awkward space.  There's a 5' concrete wall patterned after the deck above, and hollow in the middle.  Then, another 8' to the deck above.  It would be an ideal space to hold something like a water basin.

So, first thing we did when we got home was to look at the plans and verify that a water tank would fit there.  What do we find?  There's already one in the plan!  Unfortunately, the one on the plan is required by the city as a  "Detention Cistern".  The city requires these to slowly release water, rather than have all of the rain water storm the sewer system at once.  See their specifications here.  But, at least it verified for me that the location is correct.

Second, homemade or manufactured.  Well, the required one from the city will probably have to be manufactured, but I'll check on that.  1000-gallon tanks cost over $1,200 and come in a variety of shapes and sizes including tubular, rectangle, and bladder style.  I kindof like the bladder style ones.  Regardless, they're pretty expensive.

A great site for looking at all kinds of tanks is: gototanks.com. Also, for my own reference, this one's a little cheaper.

Homemade ones are intriguing.  My biggest concern is if the City will let me do it, but they can be very inexpensive.  According to this website, you can get all of the plastic tanks you want for free!  The trick would be trying to engineer them together into a single system.  I assume we'll need a small water pump, too...

In sum, I really want a big rain collection system.  So size = big.

Next Up: Round 4 Permit Submission.