Rain Harvesting Cisterns, Part II
File under: "Listen to Your Wife"
A couple weeks ago when I was working on the first post in this series, my wife suggested that I make this a multi-part series. Believing I had it covered in one post, I went forward with my plan and wrote the longest post thus far for this blog.
The cisterns did indeed fill up just as planned and everything was working beautifully until- in the middle of the night- we heard a sound that was unmistakably that of wood settling against wood, echoing through our walls. I went outside in the dark and rain and just opened up all the valves to drain the tanks as quickly as possible. You see, I had attached the back of the platform to the house using a 2x8, lagged to the 2x4 studs that were holding up my house. The 2x6 joists were fastened to the 2x8 with long screws and resting on a 2x2. I suspected that the 2x2 had given way under the weight of the tanks and the tanks were starting to collapse into my house.
I was right. Funny thing is, I'm the guy who always over-engineers his projects! Not this time, I guess...
So last week I sawed apart the plumbing and pulled the cisterns off the platform so I could rebuild there in the mucky mess that was still soaked from almost 700 gallons being dumped on (already saturated) pretty much level ground. My plan was to make sure everything that was bearing a load was sitting on a beam that was sitting on a post and footer.
First, I dug holes by the foundation and attached welded wire to the
foundation with masonry nails, then drove rebar into the bedrock (our house sits on a quartz field) to insure stability. I poured concrete in these holes to 2" above the foundation and left the slightest slope away from the house as I smoothed and leveled the top to accommodate the 4x4 posts.
I notched the 4x4's to fasten to the joists at the corners and also to carry the 2x6 beam that would carry the joists, and that took care of the back. Now the weight of the tanks will be carried by the beam through the posts into the footers, instead of relying on some lumber fastened to our house.
The front was easier: Since I already had posts, I just hung a 6x6 beam on them, then used 2x4 scraps, fitted tightly between the beam and the footers.
Just for good measure, I went ahead and fastened some deck board scraps underneath the joists diagonally to give the structure extra rigidity, then I put everything back together.
I used 3x3 rubber flex connectors to reassemble the inlet plumbing. This should make it simple to take tanks down should I ever need to service the system again.
As it turns out, Melanie is right (per usual), and I managed to pull another post out of this when I probably should have gone into more construction detail in the first place, thereby likely forcing a second post. Hey- we've still got the pump and the siding to install, so I suspect there'll be a third post once we get to that point.
Today it's raining, and heavy storms are expected. If we get a full inch of rain it should test my new structure. I'm certain it'll be fine, but I look forward to seeing it in action.
A couple weeks ago when I was working on the first post in this series, my wife suggested that I make this a multi-part series. Believing I had it covered in one post, I went forward with my plan and wrote the longest post thus far for this blog.
The cisterns did indeed fill up just as planned and everything was working beautifully until- in the middle of the night- we heard a sound that was unmistakably that of wood settling against wood, echoing through our walls. I went outside in the dark and rain and just opened up all the valves to drain the tanks as quickly as possible. You see, I had attached the back of the platform to the house using a 2x8, lagged to the 2x4 studs that were holding up my house. The 2x6 joists were fastened to the 2x8 with long screws and resting on a 2x2. I suspected that the 2x2 had given way under the weight of the tanks and the tanks were starting to collapse into my house.
I was right. Funny thing is, I'm the guy who always over-engineers his projects! Not this time, I guess...
So last week I sawed apart the plumbing and pulled the cisterns off the platform so I could rebuild there in the mucky mess that was still soaked from almost 700 gallons being dumped on (already saturated) pretty much level ground. My plan was to make sure everything that was bearing a load was sitting on a beam that was sitting on a post and footer.
foundation with masonry nails, then drove rebar into the bedrock (our house sits on a quartz field) to insure stability. I poured concrete in these holes to 2" above the foundation and left the slightest slope away from the house as I smoothed and leveled the top to accommodate the 4x4 posts.
Just for good measure, I went ahead and fastened some deck board scraps underneath the joists diagonally to give the structure extra rigidity, then I put everything back together.
I used 3x3 rubber flex connectors to reassemble the inlet plumbing. This should make it simple to take tanks down should I ever need to service the system again.
As it turns out, Melanie is right (per usual), and I managed to pull another post out of this when I probably should have gone into more construction detail in the first place, thereby likely forcing a second post. Hey- we've still got the pump and the siding to install, so I suspect there'll be a third post once we get to that point.
Today it's raining, and heavy storms are expected. If we get a full inch of rain it should test my new structure. I'm certain it'll be fine, but I look forward to seeing it in action.
Comments
Post a Comment