Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 14, 2008 8:06 pm I have a question for anyone who's put in a retention tank as we're having problems. When we first moved in the water in the toilets and washing machine looked like normal clear water. We (very ignorantly) thought the retention tank was working well. Then a few weeks later after a big down pour of rain I flushed the toilet and heard an incredibly loud noise through the walls of the house which lasted about 20-30 seconds. I flushed the toilet again and heard the same noise. I flushed it a third and fourth time - same noise, but by now the water in the toilet was starting to change colour. It was a horrible muddy brown colour. We thought we'd been using the tank water for weeks and that our $40k must have included a filter. But clearly up until 4 toilet flushes ago we had been using town water and only now were we starting to use the retention tank.
So I turned it off and haven't used it since. We've arranged for our builder to come out about the noise but we're not sure what the situation is about the filter. At the moment our front yard is still a building site, so granted we recognise a lot of loose dirt etc has been falling into the open grids. We are happy to clean it out once the landscapers have finished. But even so, surely it's still going to get dirty over time and leaves etc will fall into it. Basically this is not water we want to be washing our clothes in or have sitting in our toilets and we wanted to ask if anyone has had any similar issues? Surely we didn't just pay $40k for something that's going to stay shut off, because until I'm assured it’s a clean water supply I'd rather stick to town water. Any comments are welcome. We are loving living in our new home ! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... &start=315 Re: Retention Tank problems 2Sep 24, 2008 6:15 pm Hi Rikster,
I am going through the whole OSD saga as we speak and a few things are fresh in my mind. Filter would be only stop solids, small stones leaves twigs etc. from getting into the system. Most likely cause of the dirty water is that they have left the tank dirty before they sealed it. The should have cleaned it out thoroughly before sealing. As for the noises probably unmatched pressure causing water hammer (I think thats what they call it) which the Builder will need to fix before you bust a pipe. Did you get the house builder to do your OSD construction or another builder after house was handed over. My builder initially told me no they wouldnt do it, now they are offering but I am waiting on costs. Have allowed a good chunk of cash for this but unsure what the quote will be. Did you have to pay extra due to hitting rock? Re: Retention Tank problems 3Sep 28, 2008 12:08 am Hi Cfham, thanks for your comments.
In answer to your questions, our builder did our tanks which is handy as we intend to add it to our list of "maintenance issues @ our final 13 week inspection (in addition to the noise and dirty water issues, it now looks like our tank leaks). The excavators did hit Rock when digging the two metre deep hole - cost us about 5k, which apparently isn't bad for this (Ku-ring-gai) area. Does your council require you put your retention tank underground or do you intend to put it at the side of the house? Our council specify underground, which increased the cost as the only logical place was under the driveway. This meant it had to be strong enough to hold vehicles. Good luck with your tank, would love to hear how it all goes, once you've finished. Cheers Rickster We are loving living in our new home ! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... &start=315 Re: Retention Tank problems 4Sep 29, 2008 11:08 pm On site detention was part of our contract for the land so I knew we would have to do something. Council requirements were as per the Parramatta River Catchment guildelines. Little did I know that we would have to build a 35cubic meter tank to house enough water to fill your average sized pool. 8mx3mx1.5 deep. We even had to take into account drains in our street and what would happen if they were blocked. Just sounds like a good way for council to not get sued when your house floods due to their poor maintenance. Our designer tried to reduce the depth to avoid rock but who know what ****** under the ground. We put the OSD on the side of the house as it will be grassed over. We chose underground so it would be out of site.
I remember from our very first contract signing the builder saying that the OSD would just be rain water tanks to store water, they didnt tell me until our DA was signed off that I would have to organise OSD under a separate DA. So we wasted a month getting the design and another month getting approval. Then I found out just by looking at other DAs and talking to others that the house builder 9/10 submits the OSD design with the building plans and would also normaly do the construction. When I asked the builder why they not done this for me they had no answer. So now I ask them can they build it and they say sure. Typical miscommunication between myself and the builder. So what size did you have to put in? I am really hopeing that costs come in somewhere around the small new car price. Maybe Toyota Corolla price. If its more then I'll have to go back to the mortgage broker. Its amazing that havent even started building yet and the contingency fund is already dried up. Re: Retention Tank problems 5Oct 07, 2008 8:26 pm Rikster,
Bad news... My builder will not build the detention tank...I have to organise for this to happen after hand-over. Not the end of the world BUT they baulked when I asked if they are saying that the tank COULD not be built in the current location or just THEY could not built it in this location... Their response after a few days... my final drawings are being prepared... Um hello.. what about my OSD... so still waiting on follow up. The ordeal continues... Q. How for away from your slab were your tanks installed. Re: Retention Tank problems 6Oct 08, 2008 6:25 pm cfham Rikster, Bad news... My builder will not build the detention tank...I have to organise for this to happen after hand-over. Not the end of the world BUT they baulked when I asked if they are saying that the tank COULD not be built in the current location or just THEY could not built it in this location... Their response after a few days... my final drawings are being prepared... Um hello.. what about my OSD... so still waiting on follow up. The ordeal continues... Q. How for away from your slab were your tanks installed. Bugger........ I"m guessing there aren't many companies who specialise in building detention tanks (not that I'd have a clue). So does this mean you'll need to project manage the seperate companies (e.g Company to excavate, plumber for sewer work, bricklayer to build tank, concrete company to lay slab and come back and do lid etc etc). Sounds like a headache. Then at the end if there's a problem (e.g it leaks like ours does) who do you point the finger at? Tricky. Good luck. Please keep us updated. Our tank is probably around 6 metres from our house. Why do you ask? We are loving living in our new home ! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... &start=315 Re: Retention Tank problems 7Oct 09, 2008 1:02 pm I'm sure this depends on where you live, but our council requires OSD details are submitted with the DA, not a separate DA.
Here, I needed a hydraulic engineer to draw up plans and calculations to show the size, placement, and plumbing for the tank that ware dictated by site conditions mainly. This was organized by the builder, but I could have done it myself and had the builder submit it with their DA. Our builder will take care of building our tanks, but I can do it separately too. Our tanks shown on plan are about 1.8 metres from our slab. Greg You just need the gutter and downpipe sizes to be compliant with the NCC for the roof area harvested and have the downpipes connected to a LPOD. You need to ask your… 1 3279 I am not a brick expert, but rendering would be 1 option, it would be costly to do the entire house though.... 2 6125 Hi all, has anyone been ask to do the weeds in their property while in the middle of build? We are under the impression that they are in control of the site while they… 0 975 |