Die salt die, a temporary fix to clean the rover

When I bought my house in July 2013 I looked over one highly important utility that I think is vastly important in Maine.

A water spigot in the garage, or at least near the driveway.

Maine’s salt-covered roads during icy winters make this a highly desirable homeowner commodity.

So the plan this summer was to run a temporary pipe from my laundry room water hookup to an outdoor spigot on the house near the garage. I’d put a winterized spigot on so it will basically drain all the water back into the house and hose and won’t freeze in the winter.

Ideally, after the garage is heated, i’ll be able to run a pipe underground to the garage and have warm water right in the garage.

The catch to all this is that we’ve decided that it would be a good investment to actually connect the garage and the house with a breezeway. If that happens then we’ll have a pipe running directly into the garage through a heated house. So the question is do I run a temporary pipe from laundry room out, or dig up the yard and send a pipe to the garage? I think we’ll go with the temporary solution for now.

But for an even more temporary solution and until spring and to get the salt off the Rover I’ve been sending a hose through the window and connecting it straight to my laundry outlet.

*Whenever you wash your vehicles try to do it over gravel, grass or another drainable surface. If you do it on the roadside or a driveway oils, antifreeze, grease and other car debris can flow down into storm drains and often find their way into rivers and important water sources.

Providing a natural filter, like your lawn, will help decrease that dramatically. In the video I’m on my driveway, but I really had no other choice in the winter unless I took the car to a carwash, which is always another good option. Fortunately my driveway drainage is pretty good. 

Check out project Santa Barbara, California’s project clean water page, they have great ideas for turf driveways to limit your vehicles impact on our water source.

Brian Feulner

About Brian Feulner

Brian Feulner is the visual editor at the Bangor Daily News and a photographer in the state of Maine. Feulner frequently freelances for a variety of publications and companies and operates Feulner Studio and Gallery in Bangor.