Disposing of Dirty Water

[TheRealRobG]

When I tiled my bathroom, I was rinsing my dirty adhesive and grout buckets down the toilet along with a few flushes and a couple more buckets of water for good measure.
However, this got to be a pain (not to mention worrying about bunging the drain up), so this time (tiling the en-suite) I bought a couple of 120 litre plastic troughs, and I've been using them to hold all my dirty water and rinsing out buckets, tools, tile cutter etc. There was a good 3-4 inches of scum at the bottom by the time I finished after a week of washing tools, dirty adhesive & grout buckets and cutting tiles.
Not wanting to empty this down the drain, and not having a good way of delivering it to the local tip, I decided to try to separate off as much water as I could.
I drilled a hole in the bottom of a large adhesive bucket, placed a large scrubbing pad over the hole and started pouring the dirty water into the bucket, with the bucket sat on two strips of wood over a large tub below.
The water drips out of the hole into the tub beneath surprisingly clean (actually clear), and the scum all gets caught in the bucket. Eventually (after about 12 hours), I had a large tub containing clean water which went straight down the drain, and one large bucket full of semi-dry adhesive/grout/tile residue which I could scoop into rubbish bags.
How do you guys deal with this problem?

[kilty55]

hello,any resideu settles in the buckets so pour water down main drain in street and remove residue into bags for the bin

[chrisroe]

did a hole
pour in hole

[aph257]

as kilty

[Stewart]

Same as kilty, but I have an attachment to fit the 4" waste for disposing of water.........

[Alan.P]

I normally reuse the dirty water as much as possible into the next adhesive mix when possible ( larger jobs etc ) smaller jobs I do as Kilty does.

[365drills]

I'm the same as Kilty. We let the sediment drop to the bottom of the bucket then tip off the excess water.

(I'm not a tiler) But our bucket gets filled up with tile dust when we drill holes over a number of days at exhibitions and at tile training centres. It happens when I continuously dunk the sponge into the water to rinse out all the dust and debris from drilling the hole to discharge it into the water. By letting it settle out I can pour the water down the drain. Its then a matter of scrapping out the sludge with a little trowel.

A few years ago we were just tipping the bucket down the sink at the tile training centre but then it was pointed out no good was coming for the pipes!

Not wishing to be a burden to tile training centres OR exhibition halls the safest way seemed to let the it separate out in the water into sediment. (PS: If an exhibiton hall thinks you have on purpose cause waste then you are fined and charged for the clean up).


All tile dust, sediment, addy, grout can block drains.



We let the dust settle.... Then pour off the top water

[andy allen]

find a thirsty bush that needs a drink.

[hillhead]

I love bushes too, lol.
I always find somewhere to tip the stuff.

[Bri]

Find some gravel, move a bit, pour, replace gravel

[Dan]

I think (and don't quote me, the manufacturers may have covered this somehow) you're meant to be quite picky where you dispose of the residue AND pour away the liquid, due to the chemicals commonly found in all the products. Pouring it down the main drain and / or burying it can cause harm to the environment. Apparently.

I'm sure the datasheets would confirm this.

[chrisroe]

im not green Dan and there is a lot of earth on this earth so its

Ashes to Ashes
Dust to dust
Keraflex Maxi to Earth

and the circle of life begins again

[andy allen]

......

[cornish_crofter]

For me it depends on what I'm doing and where.

I've had jobs where disposing of dirty water is a pain to say the least.

When we were renovating a house and having to plaster the whole of the downstairs after it had been damp proofed I was working with a cement mixer in the lounge!

Over the few days that I was re rendering I would use the dirty water from the day before (stored in the wheel barrow as I had washed the mixer with it). The sludge at the bottom was basically building sand. This and the water would get used in the next mix!

The way I looked at it was that the sand was essentially OK and it saved me having to bag it up and dispose of it.

I've had jobs where there has literally been nowhere to dispose of dirty water. I don't chuck it down foul wastes as a rule, even though I may have strained it. I have actually been known to take it home and 'water' my unmade drive with it.

The job I'm working on at the moment - the custome and I agreed a place to dump it along with whatever is in it. I will probably offer to bag up the crap on the top for him so that he can then use that bit of his flowerbed again. At the moment he's not using it at all, and hasn't been for a while.

[badger]

Bushes for me too. Sometimes main drain out on the road.

[Dan]

im not green Dan and there is a lot of earth on this earth so its

Ashes to Ashes
Dust to dust
Keraflex Maxi to Earth

and the circle of life begins again

I was thinking more from a fine point of view to be fair.

[Daz]

If there is a skip on site, I use the existing rubbish as a filter and tip my water in the skip. Otherwise bushes, hedgerow etc, are always a good option

[devonmark]

I know of someone who was working in a house doing some plastering, when he had finished he went to tip his wash bucket down the drain in the street, his customer came out and said to him that he couldn't do that as it was illegal ( his customer was an enviromental officer ). With that, said plasterer then said ok, where abouts in your garden do you want the hole, the customer asked what hole ? he was told the hole that he'd have to dig to bury the waste, the customer then changed his tune and told him to put it down the drain but flush it with clean water....so much for enviromentally friendly....when or who it suits

[doug boardley]

If there is a skip on site, I use the existing rubbish as a filter and tip my water in the skip. Otherwise bushes, hedgerow etc, are always a good option

pretty much same as me Daz.

[TheRealRobG]

Cement based products (like tile adhesive and grout) are extremely alkaline. Good luck to any bushes you pour that lot under.

[cornish_crofter]

Cement based products (like tile adhesive and grout) are extremely alkaline. Good luck to any bushes you pour that lot under.

That's OK I carry the Mother in Law's ashes with me on every job. She was quite acidic so that neutralises it!

[aph257]

use a gorilla tub with holes in the bottom tip in some sand pour on slurry, make sure its off the ground slightly water will pass through the sand leaving rubbish behind at end of job just get rid of the sand , no digging holes or staining grids or drains

how big a hole do you drill?

[Ken Bruty]

I use natural filters - gravel, mud, full skips, grass, soil for the water, and the slurry gets scraped into my waste bin at the end of the working day.