Yet another drainage problem

[Anna Kettle]

I am designing myself a small plasterer's yard and thought I would run my ideas past you all to see if there are any holes in my plan

The floor will be made of cement slabs which are cemented together to provide a fall towards the centre

Below the floor level in the centre I will put a trough which will catch mortar from the slurry which I sweep towards it and allows the water to overflow. At the end of each session I will empty the trough of solids

The trough will need to be resistant to UV and being bashed around and should have an overflow vent near the top. An old ceramic sink maybe

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[Chris Bacon]

Hm. The cut off bottom of a plastic barrel, maybe? Cheap, also if you get a build up of stuck-on muck, you can bend it. Overflow is easy, cut a hole in it and use plastic fittings.

[John Rumm]

I presume the intention is to allow the solid matter to settle out before sending the water to the drain?

I would have thought it would need to hold the slurry for a while to allow it to settle, rather than having a continous flow through it. Having a drain at a fixed place may also prove trickey since it will only work when full - but the level of solids in the tank may be much lower. Perhaps you need some form of sliding side so that you can set the level that water is drawn off?

[Owain]

Roadside gutters drain into big plastic barrel-like sumps to catch the leaves and suchlike before connecting to the main drains. Not sure about UK stable as they're normally buried. But an amble round a big below-ground drainage merchants might provide some inspiration.

Owain

[Anna Kettle]

Flexible might be helpful too for if it gets so crudded up that I want to replace it without moving the slabs. Now I've started thinking about VERY flexible, like a binbag. No maybe thats just too tinny, but something that will easily fold up to come out and is readily available to do replacements ... hm

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[Anna Kettle]

Yes

Would be lovely, but moving parts and mortar don't go together very well cos very soon the moving parts don't. Maybe I could organise a siphon to draw off the water and decant it onto my new neighbour's garden which conveniently is a couple of feet lower than mine

Anna ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[Owain]

I'm thinking of something like a super-charged cement-mixer (without the baffles inside) that instead of churning things together centrifugally separates the solids from the liquids.

Owain

[John]

Try a beach centrifuge