MDarg

Ironically, that isnt an attention grabbing header, its mostly true. I am on a Firebase in the middle of the desert in Afghanistan. We are building it almost from the ground up (the only building we have is a old nearly blown-up school house) and we are in desperate need of some guidance on the best way to do our plumbing system. This is going to be a ever building thread so let me tell you what we have right now.

From the Afghani contractor we have a 1000 gal grey water tank, 500 gal fresh water tank, a water heater (on order) and a water pump (on order). For fixtuers we have sink basins and pedastol (sp?). The sink drains are done using flexible piping with a non-threaded open end. We have ball-joint style faucets. I do not yet know the diameter of each of them (will post in my next message).

== Fresh tank ==> Pump ==> Waterheater ==> Showers ==> Sinks ==> Grey Water

The freshwater runs only to the showers and the grey water lines are coming from the showers and the sinks.

Using a straight line style of system that I crudely drew above. The showers and sinks are all outside and there is no need to put any corners in the system. We are about to order our second set of plumbing supplies and I am looking for some reccomendations to start.

1) Since we only have to live here for a year, is using rigid PVC piping doable? If so, what diameter should i be using? I considered 3/4" for the supply lines and 1/2" or 3/4" for the shower lines. and 3/8" for the sink grey water.

2) If we cant get a water pump, using a gravity fed system, what are all the variables I would have to consider other thank height of the tanks and height of the shower head.

Thats about it for now, if I could get feedback on the system and then the two questions I would appreciate it. Also, any tips, considerations and safety reccomendations you have would be awesome. We dont have any building codes out here and the highest level of authority we need to build is our 1SG.

Thanks in advance for the help guys, the smell is getting horrible!

~matt

(ps. i am a novoice plumber. the simpler terms the better)

hayewe farm

If you try a gravity feed system, how are you going to get the water to the tank?
I would think the one thing you wouldn't need is a water heater if the supply tank is in the sun, isn't it extremely hot there? Plus how are you going to prevent it from heating if there is no water? If you use a pump system you will need a pressure regulator of some kind to control the pump. I would think a tank on the roof to heat and store the water gravity feed 3/4" to bath room with 1/2" to shower and sink. Use a simple pump and hose to fill the tank.

nap

Come on. They're military and they do it just like all other mil units; they grab the newbie, hand him a bucket and tell him to fill up the tank while everybody else is on sniper watch. Geesh!!

I can't offer a lot but I like to take a minute and say thanks to all the mil guys, now and past and future. I never had to be one and I do appreciate it. Dad and several uncles were WWII Navy so I do hear a bit of things since dad was on a ship that got sunk from under him. I grew up just a bit too young to have had to go to Viet Nam but a lot of friends did.

war sucks from what I hear.

Along the lines of not being able to offer you anything about the plumbing, other than a question about; why a grey water tank? Are you saving it for something? Can you dig a drywell? That's a grey water tank that got used for target practice and then buried.

anyway, back to not offering anything;

since the holidays are coming up; is there some group that does good with sending something from back here to lighten the spirits a bit. I don't mind donating but don't want it wasted.