Page 33 - HW April 2021

money on plants and couldn’t water the garden or wash the boat. “So people are starting to think about it a bit more – it just
shows we don’t know what can happen.”
Although its 1,000 to 3,000 litre tanks are Thin Tanks’ main
sellers right now, demand hasn’t just been from Auckland gardeners, says Gaylene, with interest also high from new home builders needing detention and/or retention solutions.
ROLL OUT THE BARREL...
Timbertanks has been making water tanks of a very different kind, for some 30+ years now, in the form of substantial roofed, wood stave “barrels” supporting and protecting a liner that retains the water.
Typically seen in the rural landscape, rather than the urban cityscape, Timbertanks residential water storage tanks range from 9m3 (9,000 litres) to 100m3 (100,000 litres).
Tool large for a more urban context? Not a bit, according
to Timbertanks’ Justin Jordan, who says size is an issue and that it’s possible that many even urban homeowners could be underestimating their needs when it comes to holding and using rainwater.
For example, some time back, Justin put in a 9,000 litre
Timbertank at his own family home to cater for four persons. However, the water bill showed the usage as being “perfect for
a two-person household”, which meant the water provider was only seeing half of the Jordans’ water usage, for obvious reasons.
Considering also that just an average garden sprinkler uses 1,000 litres an hour, Justin recommends a 20,000 litre tank “at least to ride through those gaps. You need to catch it when it comes and to be able to hold it,” he says.
“Everybody was panicking because they spent a lot of money on plants and couldn’t water the garden”
Clearly something of a rainwater evangelist, Justin says it isn’t a massive leap from here to addressing the next stage of water use and re-use.
“In the urban situation I think that we should all put in rainwater tanks to flush the toilet. Why use premium grade drinking to flush away number ones and twos?”
But that’s for another article and another time.
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APRIL 2021 | NZHJ 31
spouting & guttering