I'm looking to put up a polytunnel in part of the garden that,
although less than 10m from the cottage, I cannot get water to without
significant engineering,

I can see two options at the moment and would be interested in any
comments.

I can tap off the mains feed to the water tank in the attic, run an
MDPE pipe over the wall head, down the 3m high wall, put a suitable
drain point at its foot and then under ground to the polytunnel.

The second is the one I would like to try to implement but cannot see
my way round some of the complications. The cottage is nearly 60ft
long and requires a new soakaway for the rones on that side of the
roof anyway (no mains drainage) - logic says that there would be more
than enough water, but I am having difficulties seeing how the storage
and watering in the tunnel would work and also how to get rid of the
excess water during the winter (and summers in Scotland!).

Thanks for any assistance

Rob

Rob G wrote in news:7be1a184-0cc5-4af9-9e13-
:

I'm looking to put up a polytunnel in part of the garden that,
although less than 10m from the cottage, I cannot get water to without
significant engineering,

I can see two options at the moment and would be interested in any
comments.

I can tap off the mains feed to the water tank in the attic, run an
MDPE pipe over the wall head, down the 3m high wall, put a suitable
drain point at its foot and then under ground to the polytunnel.

The second is the one I would like to try to implement but cannot see
my way round some of the complications. The cottage is nearly 60ft
long and requires a new soakaway for the rones on that side of the
roof anyway (no mains drainage) - logic says that there would be more
than enough water, but I am having difficulties seeing how the storage
and watering in the tunnel would work and also how to get rid of the
excess water during the winter (and summers in Scotland!).

Thanks for any assistance

Rob





Most people, I think, would simply run a length of hosepipe from the
outside tap! After all a polytunnel is a temporary arrangement. You can
also get a twin tap adapter if you are worried about having to use your
hosepipe for the rest of your garden. Turn it off when you don't need it.
I suspect it's not that easy.

Baz

On Oct 7, 2:17*pm, Janet wrote:
In article 7be1a184-0cc5-4af9-9e13-e93eea4c96c9
@y6g2000vbb.googlegroups.com, says...











I'm looking to put up a polytunnel in part of the garden that,
although less than 10m from the cottage, I cannot get water to without
significant engineering,

I can see two options at the moment and would be interested in any
comments.

I can tap off the mains feed to the water tank in the attic, run an
MDPE pipe over the wall head, down the 3m high wall, put a suitable
drain point at its foot and then under ground to the polytunnel.

The second is the one I would like to try to implement but cannot see
my way round some of the complications. *The cottage is nearly 60ft
long and requires a new soakaway for the rones on that side of the
roof anyway (no mains drainage) - logic says that there would be more
than enough water, but I am having difficulties seeing how the storage
and watering in the tunnel would work and also how to get rid of the
excess water during the winter (and summers in Scotland!).

* *You can buy large second hand liquid tanks to collect the roof water;
place your tank on a raised support ( like stacked old railway sleepers
or paving slabs) for gravity water feed to the polytunnel. Then, outside
the bottom end of the polytunnel, dig an underground soakaway to
disperse the excess water.

* * We've DIY'd both ourselves, no big deal either in cost or labour.
IIRC our simple, cost free and highly efficient soakaway model was
borrowed fromwww.pavingexpert.

http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain08.html

* * Janet (Scotland)

Hi guys - thanks. Baz - an outside tap is just not possible; I know
that sounds daft, but with 3ft thick walls and the nearest mains pipes
being in the attic, you might get the idea that anything else is
easier. The shortest route to the outside tap would be to shoot an
arrow over the house roof and pull a hose over.

Janet, (in God's country) - I would like to explore your ideas a bit
more. You don't live near Edinburgh do you ? I'd written several
questions on this which had to be scrubbed as I then realised that you
must be direct feeding the water off the rones into the tank. My
tunnel will be 10m from the house and I don't see at the moment how I
would be able to get a gravity feed storage system with that
intervening distance.

I've seen the soakaway systems in Paving Expert - what did you use for
the soakaway? The professional 'chambers' aren't that expensive, but
I'm all for the low cost version ! I'm going to have to get a mini
digger in anyway as there is a large mound of earth to be levelled so
holes and trenches are going to be just an extension to the exercise.

Cheers
Rob

" Hi guys - thanks. Baz - an outside tap is just not possible"

I do not agree that a poly tun is a temporary structure( as somebody
commented above) and it should therefore have all necessary
services done proper !

Mains water would be the simplest, but not necessarily the cheapest without
rainwater supplies
augmenting supplies. You should consider T- ing off the existing underground
pipe at some convenient point
on your land and taking a supply in standard blue feed pipe underground to
the tunnel . A buried stop cock should be incorporated
just before the pipe rise in the tunnel for winter isolation and servicing
purposes. The "plumbing" for this is simplicity itself.

I would always consider mains leccy to be an asset as well - the overhead
method is deffo then best and cheapest.
Not always practical though agreed. Burying cable can be a bit of a pig -
regulations part xyz and all that !!

If you go down the road, of rainwater storage supplies then a pond pump is
perhaps the best means of aiding propulsion,
as water storage height factors are considerably reduced.

Regards
Pete - Nanneys Bridge Nursery, Cheshire ( retired )