Water Source for HOA

[RChris57 14]

Hey,

we are bidding on our first HOA. The housing is a townhouse type of setting. 67 units contained within 4 separate buildings, if you will. If using their water was an option, their is no communal building where we could get the water. We have a 250 gallon tank. We would have to, I guess hook/unhook from each residence. Is that how that would normally be done?

However, upon talking to the new guy taking over the HOA, he indicated that we could not use their water, which will increase his price, as we will have to unhook equip, leave, go get more water, come back. How do others handle this type of set up, either from an available watersource, or not.

Edited August 1, 2010 by RChris57

[john@AEC 37]

Hey,

we are bidding on our first HOA. The housing is a townhouse type of setting. 67 units contained within 4 separate buildings, if you will. If using their water was an option, their is no communal building where we could get the water. We have a 250 gallon tank. We would have to, I guess hook/unhook from each residence. Is that how that would normally be done?

However, upon talking to the new guy taking over the HOA, he indicated that we could not use their water, which will increase his price, as we will have to unhook equip, leave, go get more water, come back. How do others handle this type of set up, either from an available watersource, or not.

I can't get my head around the "can't use our water" idea - it's not as if it will reduce the water use and the actual cost of "town water" is quite insignificant compared to the total cost of the job.

Do the unit blocks have water meters? I have had to read the meter and advise the manager so that the HOA can pay for the water.

How are the communal gardens watered? is there a swimming pool? it's rare for there to be no communal water source (at least in my part of the world).

Good luck with it.

J

[Pressure Performance 14]

Maybe Find out a price for a water truck to follow you around for the time and add that to the charge.

Just an idea.

Nick

[whytewash 14]

I have dealt with this on several occasions. I assume your bid for cleaning using the on site water (whatever way that works out) is based on what you think it will take in man hours and overhead. No way you can haul water or pay for it for the same money and still be profitable. I have yet to call and find out the cost of a water truck on site. If I DID use one I think it would be additional work to contend with. So what it comes down to is that the homeowner association will come off much cheaper if they pay for the water that is ALREADY supplied to them than if you have to charge for the extra trouble of TRUCKING water in or using your resources to drive water back to the site. There really is no logical argument if the HOA wants the least overall cost (including any increases in water utility bills).

Some options are to either note which homeowners water is used and the HOA can reimburse. Less desirable but an option I have considered is to make a manifold to connect to all of the units in a building (example 4 town homes in single structure). The last one I did where the HOA was picky we had to swap supply hose to each side of the duplexes as we worked along. I used an extra helper to keep up as we worked along. You may also check with your water utility as they may have a meter option that you can connect to hydrant. Of course you would still need to add that to total cost. I think my utility charges about $500 for the meter plus the water used.

Hope that helps.

[offduty 25]

Rent a hydrant meter from the town. I do it every week in several different states.

[Mark Gallison 14]

I have used my own meter when I have had this come up.. The cost is so insignificant per gallon you can tell them that you'll cut them a check for the water. I hook up to one unit per building and usually can find one homeowner that is willing to do that. On some instances the Association will discount the owners fees towards reimbursement for the extra few dollars on their average bill if you can supply them with gallons used per tap.

[Mark Gallison 14]

Around here I have yet to find a city that will let you hook up at all, meter or no meter. So many of these condo / town homes situations simply do not have outside water taps. I have had to pass on several office centers as well as there was no water source available. Many retail situations are getting the same way except they will usually have a riser / mech room with water tap and we just run a crap load of feeder hose to our tank.

[sweetwaterfish 15]

In Tallahassee, FL for example a hydrant meter is $150/ rental fee and a 1000 deposit. The cost of the water is minimal per gallon, but actually goes up depends on how much you use....more use...higher cost per gallon. It gets pricey at 10K gallon usage! Biggest problem with out water dept, is you are charged $150 each time you need to have the meter moved to a new hydrant.

[RGilliam 46]

wow, i think it was something like 125-150 a month to rent a meter in kentucky. the water doesnt cost hardly anything either

[Mike B. 14]

I recently talked with the local utility department about a hydrant meter and water rates.

$500 deposit for the meter, $25 application fee, $2.32 a day rental for meter.

$1.34 per 1000 gallons of water, I was shocked how inexpensive the water is. I passed this information on to the PM and HOA

I would use a hydrant meter for your townhouse project.