I installed a water line to the rooftop this weekend so now I have a reliable water supply. After all, I didn’t relish the thought of having to haul water up three flights of stairs every time I needed to water the plants. There is already a water faucet on the roof, but by running a line from our own water pipe, we’d avoid any potential disputes with the other tenants over how much we’re using. Need to keep friendly with the neighbors.

I’ve never installed PVC piping before, so this was a nice learning experience. Everything went pretty smoothly. Simply smear the bonding cement to the pieces that need joining and them hold them together for about five seconds and you’re set. The roof to our apartment is over 8.5 m (28′) so I was worried I’d have trouble getting the pipe in place along the side of the building. Fortunately, getting the pipe in place was much easier than expected.

Cutting a hole in the window to let the pipe into the apartment turned out to be the hard part. They make it look so easy in the movies. After about 5 minutes at it and still no hole, I went to see how others did it on YouTube. I adjusted my technique accordingly, but still no hole. I tried scoring the glass on the other side and manged to get a partial break but the glass ended up cracking in many different places. In the end, I had a hole for the pipe but one ugly looking window.

Aside from a pipe connection that required a wrench to tighten up, everything else went pretty smoothly. The spigot can be locked with a little pad lock to prevent other folks from using it and the water can also be turned off from inside the apartment. I also installed  purge valve so all the water can be drained from the system if needed.

So, now I have water. Next step: get some dirt.