Buying land that doesn't have city water. Questions

[jack71]

We are looking at land in a rural area. It has the PEA electric poles running down the road outside the land so no issue there. 

 

But I wanted to ask about water. Theres a PWA pipe sticking out of the land across the road. I forgot to take a photo. But its not hooked up to anything. Actually across the road they are developing land for what looks like a new gated village. 

 

I asked the seller about all this. He visited the PWA. He said they told him that we can apply for temporary water supply 8000 to 9000 baht. When we have a house then one can upgrade to permanent. He said they would come to assess the water pressure to see if its enough or not. If the water pressure is enough then we dont have to spend much money. But if the pressure is no good then they need to advise how much it will cost extra...

 

If you have recently been in this situation I would like to hear your suggestions. 

 

It might be 100m from the road to the proposed house site actually. 

 

thanks

[Halfaboy]

If the pressure is not sufficient you could consider installing a tank of say 1000 liter with a pump. Tank is filled with pwc water and the pump brings it from the tank to the house. Costs between 10k and 15k. 

[KhunLA]

You might want to ask for a ball park price on running the 100+ meters of water line to the property, to avoid any sticker shock.  Whether village water or 'city / metro' water may make quite a difference.

 

Our lot is 140 meters off the road, and < 200 from nearest neighbor with village water.  IF hooked up to village water (very weak already), we could run the PVC ourselves, as we've done before at previous house.

 

BUT ... oh no.  Actually a good thing, as pressure from village is iffy & c r a p, and tank / pump would be required, and not looking the most potable.  Since probably the only one on the line, pressure is amazing ... ????

 

Did get a bit of sticker shock for 'new' city line, and no more village lines allowed, all future will be city, and or past village lines welcome to hook into, though none have.  54k baht, I  think, to run the line to the house & included meter.  OK, really nice proper black rubber water line, machine dug, crew of 4 ... but ... thought that  bit high, when I could have run PVC for a <1000 baht.  

 

 

[wombat]

i would buy a tank and wait till the development across the road is finished...i would hate to spend all that money to be told i was the reason the development doesn't have good water pressure....TiT

[MadMuhammad]

When I bought my home last year we had a well, tank, pump etc. I enquired about government water as a redundant system, 32000 to run a 220m branch of the nearest point and meter installed. I went ahead with it. 
 

That was a year ago and I still haven’t connected it to my house lol 64 baht a month service charge. 
At least I have it available in case of an extended power outage, ground water issues or something unforeseen 

[MJCM]

4 hours ago, Halfaboy said:

If the pressure is not sufficient you could consider installing a tank of say 1000 liter with a pump. Tank is filled with pwc water and the pump brings it from the tank to the house. Costs between 10k and 15k. 

+1.

 

And just to be a bit safer install an underground water tank then the water will flow into the tank through gravity alone even when the pressure is low.

Edited December 8, 2021 by MJCM

[marcho]

Go for the tank and pump. Money well spent. Connect later, and you still have the tank and pump for backup, also you will always have great water pressure.

[tweedledee2]

   Another option is drilling your own well. In the past, we had low pressure or no water for 2-3 days from the village supplied well. Last year, I had a 39 meter well drilled, pvc pipe lined with a 3 inch submersible pump installed at a total cost of 18,000 baht. I then installed two 1,000 liter Dos tanks, a Hitachi pump and a 4-stage water filter system for another 16,000 baht. 

[jack71]

4 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Did get a bit of sticker shock for 'new' city line, and no more village lines allowed, all future will be city, and or past village lines welcome to hook into, though none have.  54k baht, I  think, to run the line to the house & included meter.  OK, really nice proper black rubber water line, machine dug, crew of 4 ... but ... thought that  bit high, when I could have run PVC for a <1000 baht.  

THanks for your comment but Im still a bit confused

 

The land we are looking at is in a village / rural area. But the big metal pipe thing sticking out of the ground does have a PWA lable on it. Does this mean its a city line.?

 

What ever it is I think I need to ascertain if we can connect to it with a meter and then run PVC or ask them to do the black rubber option. Am I correct about this. 

 

Then run it to the tank underground and pump it to the house?

 

Is this all sounding correct?

[KhunLA]

3 minutes ago, jack71 said:

THanks for your comment but Im still a bit confused

 

The land we are looking at is in a village / rural area. But the big metal pipe thing sticking out of the ground does have a PWA lable on it. Does this mean its a city line.?

 

What ever it is I think I need to ascertain if we can connect to it with a meter and then run PVC or ask them to do the black rubber option. Am I correct about this. 

 

Then run it to the tank underground and pump it to the house?

 

Is this all sounding correct?

You need to ask who ever, local village or 'city', who ever controls the water.  They'll let you know what they'll allow, and cost if they going to do everything.

 

We just happen to be out in a village, which really doesn't have enough water, and a few months late to get connected, before the Amphur decided no more on that village line, and ran lines out from the city, about 5 kms away from source, and beyond out past our village.  Thinking ahead, and a good thing.  Neighbor said village line was a trickle at times, as just too many on it.

 

For comparison, we had lines coming in from 2 directions on old house, one installed by village, for couple thousand baht, maybe 200 meters.  Then same village, having 2 pumping stations, and I put the other line in for less, and a better job, for about 1000 baht, and ran it about 400 meters.  Kind of strange, they ran the pumps at different times of the day.  Not consistent at all, as tanks and pump were required for any pressure.

 

With that, I made sure we had a huge reserve ... ????

[Stevemercer]

You should attach a photo. Someone might know.

 

In any case, it sounds like you are covered off for options. I wouldn't worry too much. It will cost you less than 20,000 Baht to get hooked up. You can use the best option closer to the time of construction.

 

We have four supplies: Local Government water delivered via blue pipe; City water delivered by black pipe; bore; and rainwater.

 

All can be delivered to an above ground 2000 litre tank. It is then pumped to the house and garden.

 

The government water will only be delivered to your property boundary. You then have to pipe it to your tank. The government crew will offer to do this, but usually at an expensive rate. It is usually much cheaper to get a local contractor.

[rwill]

Had a well drilled on our land.  It cost 120,000 baht including the pipes, pumps and permit.  They drilled down about 90 meters.  But they hit water around 30 meters.  I think the pump is 40-50 meters down.

[MrJ2U]

Jack you'll need to find out about the water pressure first.

 

Most likely it'll be fine, especially if there is a proposed gated community opening across the street.

 

Price seems high for just a water pressure test. But you need to have it done.

 

You'll also want to consider having your own well water as well.

 

Our water from our well is much better and we run it through filters.  The Well water is used for our house.

Showers, laundry, etc.

 

City water is mainly for our gardens and pool top off.

 

Many times the city water supply has stopped for some reason and all the cousins and neighbors come over to shower or fill jugs.

 

Good luck!

[jack71]

5 hours ago, MadMuhammad said:

When I bought my home last year we had a well, tank, pump etc. I enquired about government water as a redundant system, 32000 to run a 220m branch of the nearest point and meter installed. I went ahead with it. 
 

That was a year ago and I still haven’t connected it to my house lol 64 baht a month service charge. 
At least I have it available in case of an extended power outage, ground water issues or something unforeseen 

Are you saying that you just use the underground water and filter it? Pump it to the tanks and the house. You dont even need to hook up the govt water?

[KhunLA]

20 minutes ago, jack71 said:

Are you saying that you just use the underground water and filter it? Pump it to the tanks and the house. You dont even need to hook up the govt water?

If you can bore hole done, and the water is good, then a well is the way to go.  Had one at the 1st house.  Couldn't get one at the 2nd house.  Present house build, and they're asking a silly price, 150k.

[RocketDog]

19 hours ago, tweedledee2 said:

   Another option is drilling your own well. In the past, we had low pressure or no water for 2-3 days from the village supplied well. Last year, I had a 39 meter well drilled, pvc pipe lined with a 3 inch submersible pump installed at a total cost of 18,000 baht. I then installed two 1,000 liter Dos tanks, a Hitachi pump and a 4-stage water filter system for another 16,000 baht. 

Thanks for this info and suggestion; I am thinking the same. Our water outside Pranburi has been off for nearly two weeks now. Nobody got any notice and no information is available as to when supplies will return.

 

Over the last two years it has been off for 3-4 days at least three times and for one day several times. Sometimes the pressure is good but usually only high enough to fill the 2m high tanks we have.

We've been calling the fire brigade to fill tanks quickly at no charge as have our neighbors. We paid 700thb to have our pool filled by a water company with 6000L.

 

I've been reading about wells and posted on a forum here all that I found with links to information.

 

Bottom line: consider having a well drilled, maybe even sharing cost with a neighbor. Wait for the dry season so the water table is low and then get some bids. There are many success stories on these forums and a YouTube video of a well being drilled in Issan.

 

That's what I'll do around April or may as I'm tired of depending on village for water. I have no reason to believe the infrastructure for water will improve any time soon.

[DJ54]

Isaan Village... We’ve both well and village (very low pressure)water supply and it. Works good.. Another location with small 2 bedroom house and stables for cows is Well only ... Village water

not readily available. 1 -22,000 and 2nd - 20,000 both included pump. Holding tank and additional 

in line pump we added separate and was not expensive. 

[MadMuhammad]

On 12/8/2021 at 8:11 PM, jack71 said:

Are you saying that you just use the underground water and filter it? Pump it to the tanks and the house. You dont even need to hook up the govt water?

Correct. I pump ground water to a holding tank, then I have another pump into a solid media filter/pressure tank and into the house. No need for gov water 

[KhunLA]

If you have a raised tank, which I did at both previous house, if electric goes out, you can still shower, and or use elsewhere if piped throughout.  1 house just for shower, other 1 supplied whole house.

 

[donx]

10 hours ago, KhunLA said:

If you have a raised tank, which I did at both previous house, if electric goes out, you can still shower, and or use elsewhere if piped throughout.  1 house just for shower, other 1 supplied whole house.

 

 

In Taiwan you see those water tanks on roof tops everywhere because of the frequent power outages caused by typhoons.