WASTE WATER PUMP

[DAN MCGEE]

I am building a plant room in my garage and want to drain the water from the plant trays (watered with a hose)into something that will house a inexpensive pump to pump the water into a laundry sink from where it will drain into the house drains. Can you suggest a way that this can be done efficiently and yet inexpensive? Thanks for the help.

[LazyPup]

I constructed a simple plant starter table with a plywood base and a 1 x 4 lip around the table. My table is supported on sawhorses so it can be taken down easily and set aside when not in use. I put an additional 4 inches of wood on top of the sawhorse at the far end to create a pitch toward the scupper drain which drains into a 6 gallon plastic barrel.

I have a small submersible pump in the bottom of the barrel and a hose run to a utility sink.

I kept the drain about a 1/2 inch above the floor of the table so it would retain some water to permit the base of some pots to sit in water.

I then made grates out of 1 x 2 stock so the pots could be kept elevated above the standing water. In this way i can decide if i want the pot to sit in water or have full drainage.

Once the woodwork was done, i painted the entire table with two coats of Marine Bottom Paint (Boat paint) to waterproof the wood.

[mrcaptainbob]

Hey, Lazy, you mentioned using boat bottom paint on that plant table. I'll bet you checked, but sometimes that paint is a leaching type and is used to keep down the grass that likes to bloom on the hulls. Do you think that might harm any plants?

[LazyPup]

Normal marine bottom paint does not normally have the leaching properties you mention, however, be very careful not to use Anti-fouling bottom paint as it does have the leaching chemicals that retard growth.

As an alternative you could also line the table with a plastic membrane such as used for roofing, or you could coat it with a coat of fiberglass resin.

[DAN MCGEE]

Thanks for the info and esp. the drawing. I have seen small sump pumps with floats that don't cost too much....that might be the way to go.

[LazyPup]

Most sump pumps are relatively high volume pumps, (typically 30 gal/min.) and may be a bit too much for this application. You can get small submersible utility pumps that are rated at 5 to 10 gal/min that are set up to discharge into a common garden hose. You could then control it manually when you are watering your plants or you can get a separate float switch for a sump pump.

There are many float switches available for this application. You simply plug the switch power cord into your power source, and plug the pump into the switched outlet. The only consideration here is to make sure the switch you selected has an amp rating sufficient to meet the needs of your motor, but given that the utility pumps are very small motors matching a switch should be no problem.