Flotation Tank Design Document

On of the most difficult parts of this project is that there is so little information written regarding the construction process.  The most detailed plans I have found were from 1975, The Deep Self.

Here I am going to start an area for my plans and thing to consider while build my tank.

Tank Construction

Water Heating

Water Filtration

Cleaning & Maintenance

Remembering all the inspirational ones out there.

Finishing the Back & Door

So as always I have to bust ass because a storm is coming in and my trailer is

all opened up.

Finished the floor.

Put the door in and sealed it up.

That is one heavy door - had to go with a solid core 

because they had to cut a bunch off to get it to fit.

So I'm close to the point of having a rolling shed.

Put down another layer of OSB down, thinker were the tank

is going to go.  Then insulate and see how warm

I can keep it.

Redoing the Floor in Back

After dropping in and taking the door off the back floor was far worse than the front - great.

I have to have the floor done before I can start with the door.

One side close:

The door side was a wreck.

 Things would be going faster if these guys weren't trying to help.

Bathroom

So I have been struggling with how to insulate the grey water tank during winter.

As well as how I was going to get a pump in there that would automatically turn on.

Both problems solved - I think.

Basic layout for the bathroom:

The wall on the left is going to be the same slope of as the tank - considering this.
If I do that I'll have to find another spot for the fan.

Under the chair area I'll place this little guy -
these are used for showers in boats.

Spec for Todd to OK

This pump cost around $110 and will solve a ton of issues.

Now to remove the grey water tank.

Door Thoughts

I have been trying to figure out how to add doors to my trailer.

RV doors are $350 and up - that sucks.

In the long run I'll need to put two new doors on - 

one where the current, but broken, 

door is at and another for the shower room.

Here is the current door

 and measurements:

Vision vs Reality

Vision:

from floatlabs.com

Reality:

The Roof is Working

I have been given several rain and snow test on my roof and things are looking good.

Should be able to put up some insulation in the next few days - and it needs it.

Doing the Floor in the Back

I thought the wood was bad in the back of the trailer,

the metal would go to dust in your hand.

So it all got taken out and replaced,

with metal left over from the old roof.

Having to go down to the frame in one corner.

This was a huge pain and I'm hoping I don't have to do this in the front.

The back is all done except for a few boards that have to be replaced on the 

left side.  Waiting for it to warm up a bit for this part.

Plumbing

As I redo the floor the only thing I need to think about is how to do the plumbing.

The trailer has two tanks - black and grey water.

To make life easy on myself I'm going to simply remove the black water tank

and just keep the grey water one.

I'll only need one tank because I'm not planing on storing water,

more of a temporary holding area until it can be pumped out.

Here is the piece attached to the tank I'm keeping:

I was hoping this would not be glued on, but it is.

It looks like I have enough room to make something work.

I need to hook this up to the shower drain & a place to pump the water out.

Redoing the Floor

As I looked over the floor yesterday it seems everywhere there was an opening water got in and did some damage.  So I have four spots that are going to require some wood replacement.  Not good, but defiantly not as bad as it could have been.

Where the old kitchen use to be:

Part of the old bathroom with a side compartment:

By far the worst area was where the old toilet was and a side compartment.

The rust had eaten away at the metal - by the toilet flange what you see is the actual tank itself.

What do we have here - freeloaders?

Bees had set up a small area under the trailer after the metal had rusted out.

I'll go ahead and replace this area.

Hoping to have the floor done by the end of the weekend.

This with a little outside finishing up I can then move on to electrical.

Plans on the Internet for Tanks

Here are a few links I want to keep for when I start building my tank.


A guy building a monster size tank
A very simple tank - good view of how to insulate & cleaning system


A PDF for the entire process - Old but good


Here is a PDF of the book - The Deep Self - the original


The main systems I need to figure out are:

• Heating for the water (and air)
• Filtering - Pump, Filter, and UV system
• Cleaning solutions for the water

Plus a Guy who rebuild the same trailer - for camping

The Dogs at Samadhi

Down here in Cal for a few days and got a tank session in.

Here are the dogs hanging out at the Samadhi Tanks in Nevada City, CA

After getting another tank session in, I can't get over how amazing they are.

I'll have the motivation to keep the project going at home.

Roof Almost There

So I did the ends - one turned out good

The other just so-so

The edge line drops down so the water should run off to the side versus down the front or back of the trailer.  That along with a two inch drip edge most of the water should stay away from the sides.

A view of the top

I think it will look better after I tape the seams at the end along with a few problem areas with the top strip.

So this is done expect for a little finish work.

The next step is the doors.  Still at a loss on how I'm going to figure this part out.

Rain Today

So I woke up with the sound of rain.  Better go see how I did.

This centered part ended up with three inches of overhang which turned out nice - and all new metal!

The covered end:

After walking through it with a light I could not find one spot that had water coming in.  Nice to have a test before doing to much work on the inside.

I like the slope, not to much, and gives me nice headroom inside.  The drip edge has most of the water missing the trailer.  Should look good after a coat of white RV rubber coating.

I would give myself a A for waterproofing, which I feel is the most important.  I would give myself a C for cosmetics, tough to be higher when your using a hammer on metal.