Running water into an attached garage?

[briarpatch]

I'm planning on placing a stationary pressure washer in the corner of my garage. Nothing crazy like Obsessed Garage, but something mid-range to make washing cars more convenient. Currently, my water supply will come from the outside, which is not a big deal in the warmer months. I want to run a permanent water supply to the unit inside the garage. I do have a basement, and this is an attached (unheated but insulated) garage. It seems fairly simple, but since I'm no plumber, I'm sure it's more complicated than it seems.

Anyone done this or have any suggestions?

[DBAILEY]

You could you that PVC flexible piping so you don't have to worry about too many soldered connections. Not sure if there is an insulated version of it.

[tomsteve]

i did it quite some time ago in the attached garage of the house i was living in but i have some plumbing experience. its simple- find exisiting line to tap into( i ended up tapping into main feed line), determine how new line will be routed,where the spigot will be located, drill some holes, cut and fit all pipe and fittings, solder joints( same would be with pvc but glueing joints). simple but not the easiest.
you might want to do some reading up on plumbing, theres some good sites with good info- just dont read on them dam anna white type sites. look for plumber dedicated sites.

since its unheated i suggest a frost free spigot.
it reads like washing inside the garage is something new to you. is your floor/slab set up for drainage?

[briarpatch]

i did it quite some time ago in the attached garage of the house i was living in but i have some plumbing experience. its simple- find exisiting line to tap into( i ended up tapping into main feed line), determine how new line will be routed,where the spigot will be located, drill some holes, cut and fit all pipe and fittings, solder joints( same would be with pvc but glueing joints). simple but not the easiest.
you might want to do some reading up on plumbing, theres some good sites with good info- just dont read on them dam anna white type sites. look for plumber dedicated sites.

since its unheated i suggest a frost free spigot.
it reads like washing inside the garage is something new to you. is your floor/slab set up for drainage?


No....I wish it was.....never gave it any thought when we built the house 12 years ago. The real reason is just to provide a water supply to my stationary pressure washer setup without having to go outside for it. As far as washing inside, I'd probably go with one of those water collection mats if I decided to do that.

[SWETM]

Goes the basement under the Garage?

Otherwise if you need a part of the plumbing outside. You need to look up how deep the plumbing needs to be isolated in your environment. Then to be safe install a freeze safe spigot/outlet. Also to do the little extra is to place a shutoff valve if something happens on the outside water piping before the isolated part begins. I need to be switching off the whole water supply to change the freeze safe spigot that has gone bad. But thinking of cutting the plumbing a little farther away from the spigot and mount a valve there for the future if something happens. Also try to cut in on the plumbing as close as you can be from where you have the inlett of the plumbing. So you have as good pressure as possible out to the garage. You may want to split it in the garage so you have one for the PW and the other one for filling buckets and useing a hose too. It's nice to have the best flow possible to a hose setup. The PW is not needed much to keep the flow as high as it's needs.

Don't know if if the solder joints that is mentioned is those that you you use a special tool to be getting them pressed together. This is with copper pipes this is done with. Pretty straight forward to use if you are well knowned with DIY things.

I know this can be over the board but have you thought about haveing warm water too. This is often something that you will be regreting to not have done. You can plumbing it out. But also place a separate water heater in the garage. For filling buckets when it's colder. And also the cleaning ability is way more effective with a little warmer water through the PW. Also to deicing during the winter months and let it dry in the garage is much worth. There are other ways too that's begins to be affordable. Solar panels mounted on the roof to a water heater unit that takes care of this. It's an investment but if you plan on keeping the house for a long time it can be worth it to even have solar panels to be dedicated to warm water and a warm water pump. Don't know if the translation gets right here but hope you understand what I meen LOL. These pumps and how well the solar panels works is developed very much of the last years. Just a thought that I have considered in the future. You save on the electricity with such of a setup. I see more and more setups like this here in Sweden.

[briarpatch]

SWETM.....The basement does not go under the garage....but the garage and laundry room share a common wall. My plan is to split off of the water line(s) for the washer and go directly into the garage. I'm pretty sure I won't have to go outside.

[LSNAutoDetailing]

As long as you drain the line in the winter months. The last thing you want is a pipe burst. I don't see your location on your profile, but I'm assuming you get cold because you mentioned "warmer months". Here in AZ that wouldn't be a problem, and Coach Steve actually tapped the cold water line going in to his hot-water heater to feed his PurTeck Industrial Water System (much like mine).

Check with your City/Local codes too, make sure what you plan doing passes codes.

[spazzz]

My laundry room shares a wall with the garage.

I used a 2 1/8" holesaw and put a piece of PVC through the wall. On each end I glued a 1-1/4 in. PVC Sch. 40 Female S x FPT Adapter with a cap.
I am pretty sure the adapter outside diameter is close to 2 1/8, then just caulked it in. I would have to break out the caliper to make sure.

I run a hose through it to the sink when I use the pressure water. A small raise on the garage door and most everything drains.
The remnants get squeegeed out.
Not like I couldn't tap the lines but what for.

[briarpatch]

My laundry room shares a wall with the garage.

I used a 2 1/8" holesaw and put a piece of PVC through the wall. On each end I glued a 1-1/4 in. PVC Sch. 40 Female S x FPT Adapter with a cap.
I am pretty sure the adapter outside diameter is close to 2 1/8, then just caulked it in. I would have to break out the caliper to make sure.

I run a hose through it to the sink when I use the pressure water. A small raise on the garage door and most everything drains.
The remnants get squeegeed out.

Not like I couldn't tap the lines but what for.

funny that you say that....I was just looking at a similar setup....I can get right to the cold water line for the washer.....maybe split that into two lines and just run a length of hose out

[vobro]

My setup sounds like yours but garage is insulated. My temp in garage has gone under 35 a few times, I just hooked up shut off valves in basement and turn water in garage off when we get a very cold spell

[PaulMys]

Copper pipes can survive at 32 or a little under with no problem. (For a short time).

It is that extended hard freeze that will split them.

Any place that hard freezes should always have a way to drain/shut off, or otherwise winterize the garage installation.

[SWETM]

SWETM.....The basement does not go under the garage....but the garage and laundry room share a common wall. My plan is to split off of the water line(s) for the washer and go directly into the garage. I'm pretty sure I won't have to go outside.

That's great. What is the lowest temps you have seen in the garage?

If you use a hose through and take it inside when you a have risk of freezing temperature. You will be fine. But also consider that most houses has self ventilation. And if doing a whole outside to a non heated can mess with the ventilation you have. Also with an antifreeze outlet it's self draining so there is no water standing in the spigot/outlet. So even with some extra bucks it could be worth it in the longrun. I have this antifreeze outlet from the basements bathroom to outside of the house. No need to be doing anything when winter comes and just leaves it as is. And we get very low temperature here but since it's self draining even when the water is on it's no chance to freeze as it's no water in the outlet it self.

[briarpatch]

That's great. What is the lowest temps you have seen in the garage?




Temps do not get below freezing in the garage. We keep cases of water on shelves out there and they've never frozen. It's rare that we get temps cold enough to cause us an issue with pipes freezing/bursting, but it has happened. Even when those temps occur, it's even more rare that they last more than a day or maybe two. I'll set it up and prep for the worst case scenario anyway.

[spazzz]

Well anyway, here is what mine looks like.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zhDlrRuoagaLDqdeb3zFpkBi2xJAOSqXR2CR3Pzi4pa7B9rHoN CU7goWmTrjQhZm4aBaK4R_AplG-Nl8LEBOe61ueyWn4tkwuELCQqOdwUizcDpRvEPnZve_Rj58rDK vtOvZb9I1DQ=w2400

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ETNDV_HkLWveqyCmTZ7tyLyJ4wYME8r8BbOWERxZH161v1TNGP Rc1iNi8ieN6Oomg6lbp8x9CQXDy1pq2z-vpta0oR5AZrYYTD0yWZCMMiiURKicOueCBhu3TUVGi9o8vuiL6 3eULA=w2400