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Studio With No Main Water Or Mains Drainage....ideas ..can It Be Done ?


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I dug a four ft. trench from my house to my studio to put in a water line. I did bury a line with heating tape but have not bothered to hook up the sink. I use a bucket of water for hand washing and a couple cloth towels.

I have separate 5 gallon bucket for glaze washings, and I never mix the two. Eventually I will make a slop glaze with the glaze water. I have had some nice Celadon's this way. i also wash my decorating brushes in the glaze water- cobalt, iron, red stain.

After I have washed my hands for a while in the clay bucket, it tends to fill with slip in the bottom and I decant the water to a clean bucket to remove the slip.

In the summer I have a 45 gallon plastic rain barrel, so I use that water. In the winter it is frozen solid.

TJR.

I do know a potter with a sink and a recirculating pump. She says the water eventually smells and she has to drain the system. it is a closed system that does not drain outside.

t.

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Curious to hear opinions on this. I'm in a similar situation, and was planning on running a hose in to supply a sink faucet, with trap/drainage through a hose to the yard. I *think* this should be ok for clay, but was planning to bucket up anything that may have glaze components. Sink goes in next weekend (hopefully), so am actively looking for good solutions!

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I have a large seperate studio with no water.  In the winter I bring in about a gallon of warm water for throwing, but in the summer I just mostly use the same clear water once the slip has mostly settled.  Waste water gets tossed outside on the grass. 

I do some activities (like screening new batches of glazes) in the utility room with a sink. 

I figured out a nice floor cleaning trick for the one or two times a year I clean the throwing area.  I use our carpet cleaner on the concrete floor.  Leaves a clean and almost dry floor behind - no floor drain needed.  It only takes about 2 gallons to clean a very large area. 

Water in the studio is not a necessity at all.  Good luck with the studio set-up.

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Member of the 5-gallon bucket solution, here. I use the old scouting three-pot approach: one bucket for washing dirty stuff, one bucket for rinse, last bucket for final rinse. When first bucket is too dirty, it is dumped and filled with clean water and moved to the back of the line. Simple rotation.

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Hi could you please elaborate? Where do you live ? Cold warm wet dry ? City country? Cuz if you are on a roof in Manhattan w/o water it is differe than your backyard . If drainage is a problem , why is important . Carting water is always a possibility, learning how to economize same , but drainage isn't the same

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this poster is from the UK, i think. i always thought the term "mains" referred to electricity, though.  a little more info would help.

 

my florida studio is in a shed 40 feet from the trailer (caravan) i live in.  there is a water line left over from the original home which i have run to a single faucet in a laundry tub.  the drain runs out from the trap into a barrel lying on its side behind the studio.  the bung hole in the former top, now side of the barrel, is covered with screening mesh to keep mosquitoes out and allow the water to flow out if it ever gets as high as the bung hole.  that is a lot of gallons of water since it is a 55 gallon barrel.

 

warm water comes from a crockpot kept on low and is used as needed to throw.  hot water is brought out from the house and as it cools it is replenished with crockpot water.   

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For folks in the US, please be aware that some states have regulations in place relating to water from a household use being drained into or onto the ground without a permit.  Here in VA it would be considered "greywater" and you are not allowed to simply have it run from a sink into your back yard. Fortunately, I can't imagine they're policing potters dumping buckets of water...yet.

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I've been working out of buckets for over 20 years! My studio is upstairs in our garage with kilns, wheel etc, and after my bisque fire I bring everything downstairs where I glaze everything.  (And again all wash/rinse/clean up is out of a bucket).  And then all glazed ware is carried to my kiln shed for my gas firing.  I look at it as good exercise,  from throwing to moving all my wares.  The hardest part is that the garage is not heated, and living in MN, that makes me take time off from November to late March.  Time to be active at our local art center and teach classes!  Hoping to get in my studio within 2 months...and counting.  :>)  Wouldn't change it a bit!

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hi everyone.. firstly let me thank you for such prompt ,friendly and helpful replies ( how refreshing. I think I am going to like this forum:))

yes i am in the UK . and i meant that i will not have mains water supply or mains drainage.
We are in very early stages of  setting the garage up to use as a ceramic studio and there is no way that funds would stretch to any kind of plumbing, so its great to have my concerns blown out of the water as it were :)

I am returning to ceramics , having been brought up with the use of my fathers pottery studio.
Reallly hoping that  when i get back on the wheel ( i first learnt on a kick wheel and then electric) it all comes flooding back, but it has been a good 30 years so I am expecting I will need a lot of practice.

My father is quite elderly now and his studio is being dismantled. I am hoping that we get the opportunity to do some work together when I get set up.( sadly , time is of the essence i feel )

I never had any experience of glazing ( he always did that) .. but shall inherit some glazing bits and bobs as he made his own .

His studio is literally falling down, but he is passing on his wheel ( which is currently seized up), lots of tools. reclaiming bins etc
I need to try and sell his electric kiln and use the money to buy a smallish toploader.

 I am very excited, and will no doubt be posting quite regularly with lots of questions.

Great to have found you all  :D

.

 

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If your garage has an outside wall you can work with that. If you don't want to bucket water in you can pipe it in or use a garden hose, but don't leave the hose on under pressure unattended. For a drain with or without a sink you can use a 3 bucket drain system attached to each other as settling for clay slop and get a small sump pump for the clean water bucket that has a float switch on it so it turns on and off by itself. It has a garden hose connection on it that will pump uphill even for those of you in a basement. The bigger the pump the better it will pump uphill so consider that when you buy one.

Dale          

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Curious to hear opinions on this. I'm in a similar situation, and was planning on running a hose in to supply a sink faucet, with trap/drainage through a hose to the yard. I *think* this should be ok for clay, but was planning to bucket up anything that may have glaze components. Sink goes in next weekend (hopefully), so am actively looking for good solutions!

There are a couple of youtube vids on how to build a clay trap. Two buckets inside a large plastic tub that eventually drains out.

A hose wouldn't work for me as it would be frozen solid for six months. I did once mix glazes in my backyard with a hose. I dumped the rinse water on the grass thinking that there would be all kinds on great minerals for the grass. Killed it.

T.

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I've been working out of buckets for over 20 years! My studio is upstairs in our garage with kilns, wheel etc, and after my bisque fire I bring everything downstairs where I glaze everything.  (And again all wash/rinse/clean up is out of a bucket).  And then all glazed ware is carried to my kiln shed for my gas firing.  I look at it as good exercise,  from throwing to moving all my wares.  The hardest part is that the garage is not heated, and living in MN, that makes me take time off from November to late March.  Time to be active at our local art center and teach classes!  Hoping to get in my studio within 2 months...and counting.  :>)  Wouldn't change it a bit!

Diz;

You should come visit me. I am 500 miles north of you. I have a two car garage, 6 inch insulation, R50 in the ceiling, hydronic[anti-freeze] heat in the floor. Heats always on and I am always working all winter.

In the summer we hit the beach and I garden.

Tom.

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If your garage has an outside wall you can work with that. If you don't want to bucket water in you can pipe it in or use a garden hose, but don't leave the hose on under pressure unattended. For a drain with or without a sink you can use a 3 bucket drain system attached to each other as settling for clay slop and get a small sump pump for the clean water bucket that has a float switch on it so it turns on and off by itself. It has a garden hose connection on it that will pump uphill even for those of you in a basement. The bigger the pump the better it will pump uphill so consider that when you buy one.

Dale

This is almost *exactly* what I had planned, attached to the sink, only was thinking I'd use two buckets instead of three. Do you find you need that third bucket? Are they all 5 gal, or can you get away with something smaller?

 

And thanks for the tip TJR. I built a DIY trap in my last apt, but it's been ages and definitely in need of a refresher!

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tb;

There are drawings on youtube, and guys[plus women] have built these. The best one I have seen is two square 5 gallons pails inside one of those big lidded storage plastic containers. Drain water into first bucket. It is attached to the second bucket with 1.5 inch PVC Pipe. [the black stuff. The second bucket drains into the big container. Then you can either have your sump pump drain that, or a P trap than drains out to your sewer/yard, whatever.

TJR.

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tb;

There are drawings on youtube, and guys[plus women] have built these. The best one I have seen is two square 5 gallons pails inside one of those big lidded storage plastic containers. Drain water into first bucket. It is attached to the second bucket with 1.5 inch PVC Pipe. [the black stuff. The second bucket drains into the big container. Then you can either have your sump pump drain that, or a P trap than drains out to your sewer/yard, whatever.

TJR.

Ahhh, must not have had enough coffee this morning! This is essentially what I did before--I just made the connection that the tub is the third bucket. :) Will have to do some noodling. With a sump pump, that may be an easier approach than what I was thinking.

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I don't currently have a sink, but it's in the plans.  I have a basement studio, that the previous owner used as a wood shop.  He always thought ahead on everything, and if he even thought he might want to put something in someday, he put in the necessary components.  So I can easily run a drain, and waterlines to a sink, quite easily.  

 

For now, it's a short walk to the utility sink, in the laundry room, to get water.  My throwing water, and other such "slop", goes into a large lidded bucket.  Once it gets full of slip, I decant the water, as others have stated.  The slip is then mixed to a good consistency and pour into a plaster mold, to dry and be reclaimed.  

 

Once I do get a sink put in, I plan to get a Gleco trap.  Easy to know when it's full, and easy to clean.

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Oldlady, the crockpot idea is brilliant!

 

I'm a member of the bucket brigade too...no plumbing in the studio. I do glazing in the house, so I only have to deal with clay in the buckets. I use the slop at the bottom of the bucket for slip and reclaim, and each clay type gets it's own bucket or 2, labeled on both bucket and lid.

 

Somewhere on CAD there's a video of a potter who made a self contained sink...

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Someone else mentioned using a carpet cleaner and I'd like to second that although I hadn't thought of using it in the clay studio.  Last time I used my steam cleaner, I decided on a whim to "mop" the kitchen floor with it and was surprised how well it worked.  Water container on the top cleaned the floor and was sucked into a dirty water container on the bottom which I emptied when I was done.  Brilliant!  Seems to me it ought to work great in a clay studio.

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Bucket brigader here too.  I have a hose hook up outside my garage so I can refill my buckets as they evaporate.  I just scoop the slop out of the bottom of my main bucket back into one of the plastic bags the clay came in.  I add a bunch of dry scraps, close it up, smooth it around occasionally and eventually it is reclaimed clay.  Then my bucket gets more water and is cleaner again.  I like the carpet cleaner idea.  I wonder how long repeated studio cleanings would take to break one of those.

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