Waste water, what are you doing with it ?

[thevinnyofoz]

Hello all,

Just wondering what you all do with waste water after wiping down the grout ? Especially when the customer hasn't ordered a skip.

[kilty55]

water goes down a drain in street and sediment left goes in a watertight rubble sack

[Prem Tiler]

Pour it down road gutter drain then scoop excess grout out and bin with off cuts.

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

i tend to ether dig a hole and leave it open, then fill when finished,or tip and wash out over waste ground and wash down with hose pipe,failing that drink it!!!!

[Prem Tiler]

water goes down a drain in street and sediment left goes in a watertight rubble sack

To quick for me old son.

[thevinnyofoz]

lol

[enduro]

Down the customers sink if they have been a pain... Only joking, i have a waste carriers licence, and i take to my local council depot and i pay them loads of money to get rid of it for me down a drain... only joking again.

[Richardk]

Waste water on the garden behind shrubs/shed etc for the rain to wash away, excess adhesive or grout into a bucket with the offcuts.

[pjc]

we leave it overnight and pour the water off the top and use it in the adhesive and put the sediment in adhesive bags as you cant get rid of it on most sites

[davy_G]

Iye, im a big fan of removing a bit ot soil under trees, pour it away then cover again witht he soil. Same if there is a gravel drive. Dont like pouring it down street drains

[hillhead]

I usually tip it lightly around a bit of wasteground or behind a hedge then soak to disperse it

[Phil Hobson]

I've done all of the above, amazing how great minds think alike. I must admit, I thought I had invented the soil/gravel technique. But Davy G has beat me to it. Nice one Dave

[peckers]

Im a big fan of recycling so i pour of the water and scrape out the grout from the bottom of the bucket, and remix it with somme fresh grout for the next wall

Or maybe not
pour it under bushes dig a hole etc, have even had to take it home and dispose of it once its gone hard in the bucket as some places are to posh to dispose of it any where!!

[Prem Tiler]

What I was thinking Peckers. If I went digging holes in my customers gardens around there ornimental tree's I'd get a right ear full!

[doug boardley]

same as Davy G for me

[thevinnyofoz]

Same here, dump the water around the back and bag the sediment. I don't have the tip licence, how many of you have this anyway, I guess it'll be you tilers used to the bigger jobs.

[whitebeam]

Same as vinny then wait for a mate who has a skip and pay a couple of quid to dump my bags

[Stan001]

i use the water off the top for the addy and take the sludge home with me together with the dirty tools. I sling the whole lot in a flexi bucket in the back of my van. I hose it out over a bit of rough ground in my back garden (which is a gripe of mine - the last thing i want to do outside late at night in the pitch black, wet and knackered). The house dragon can never understand why i dont clean my gear at the customers, but its actually a big pain in the ass to do that sometimes. Ive had real picky customers who get miffed at the slightest dirty drip on a driveway .

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

ive got a licence, just up for renewal and the council have been to my house wile i was in new-york bankers!!! so ill see them on monday!!!

[Bolter]

I work on one site where they sent a letter to us saying that if we are caught tipping grout water away anywhere on site, we will be fined £50k.

There is a massive reservoir nearby. I have to drive home carefully with my grout water sloshing around in the back of the van lol

[Stan001]

hey Bolter you just gave me an idea (as we are both slosh bucket van drivers). I see that there is an admix that the paint people use now for the same issues we have. I understand that paint dumping is also a pita - so they add a bit of this chemical thingy and it basically turns your scrap tin of paint into a rock hard tin of paint so that you can dump it without exciting the authorities! ... I have a load of out of date cement in the shed - i wonder if a sprinkle of that in grout / addy slop will harden and make solids easier to dump rather than pouring away slop somewhere?? ... just thoughts.

[diamondtiling]

I do know that in the potteries industry they use a product (or used to anyway) to coat all their waste, its a flocculent of some type that is extremely slimy and coats whatever goes into a drain so that it cannot block the whole system up.
After saying all that I always clean up on site everyday, waste addy/grout into a bag and into their bin and waste water around the hedgerow. Never had a problem as of yet, if on site then we have a skip. The only way around it really is to get the customer to hire a skip on larger work or build it into the price, midi skips are about £80 in my parts. The last one I had though the operator insisted on no plasterboard whatsoever, anyone ever had the same?

[Bolter]

I do know that in the potteries industry they use a product (or used to anyway) to coat all their waste, its a flocculent of some type that is extremely slimy and coats whatever goes into a drain so that it cannot block the whole system up.
After saying all that I always clean up on site everyday, waste addy/grout into a bag and into their bin and waste water around the hedgerow. Never had a problem as of yet, if on site then we have a skip. The only way around it really is to get the customer to hire a skip on larger work or build it into the price, midi skips are about £80 in my parts. The last one I had though the operator insisted on no plasterboard whatsoever, anyone ever had the same?

yea plasterboard should always be separated. On building sites they are trying to separate all waste, and even on sites that dont really care about recycling but should, they all seem to care about plasterboard separation.

hey Bolter you just gave me an idea (as we are both slosh bucket van drivers). I see that there is an admix that the paint people use now for the same issues we have. I understand that paint dumping is also a pita - so they add a bit of this chemical thingy and it basically turns your scrap tin of paint into a rock hard tin of paint so that you can dump it without exciting the authorities! ... I have a load of out of date cement in the shed - i wonder if a sprinkle of that in grout / addy slop will harden and make solids easier to dump rather than pouring away slop somewhere?? ... just thoughts.

Good idea, but Im not pouring concrete into my washboy everyday before I leave site

[kilty55]

im a bit confused on this one guys n gals,seems a lot of tilers pour dirty water in customers gardens surelythe customers aint happy with this? is it not more environmentally friendly to pour the water into the drain sysyems on the main street where it will be mixed and diluted as opposed to pouring direct onto mud/plants or reservoirs which are effectively all living things?

[diamondtiling]

I see your point Kilty but my waste is really just dirty water, the sludge is in a bag and the water is a bit of cement/sand thats found in the soil anyway. Unless the customer wants to pay for a skip, and they generally dont, what are the options? I never leave loads of waste addy/grout, its in my van. Luckily my mate has a farm and the dried waste goes into landfill.

[kilty55]

i agree diamond in regards to the sludge thats at the bottom of the bucket its just the idea of if i was the customer and saw the tiler pouring white water for example out his bucket in my garden i wouldnt be happy about it,i just assumed most guys used the street drains

[tfs]

Straight down the customer sink and toilet!

[thevinnyofoz]

My very first customer asked me to do just that, but I didn't. I did think about it though .

[Tomtiler]

down the drains in the street for me