[pure-silver] Re: other new darkroom


On May 30, 2008, at 10:51 AM, Shannon Stoney wrote:
Thanks for all these suggestions. I was actually thinking after I wrote this note that wood or vinyl floors might work; if wood, they could be finished to be easy to clean. I have heard that concrete is a lot more expensive than it used to be.
The darkroom/studio that we built is on a concrete slab but we put down ceramic tile for the finish floor - cheap non-glossy 12x12 floor tile from a big box store close out. A rough finish 6x6 floor tile would have been better - less chance of slipping on wet tile. Wood will get stained!
I was wondering about the plumbing question. Is it safe to use a gray water drain field for photographic chemistry, or is that an environmentally bad thing to do?
Most of what you generate in the darkroom is wash water. That along with stop bath and spent developer can go to a gray water drain field. Fixer - send it to someone with a silver recovery system. If you are on septic - most residential systems are designed for a maximum rate of 300 gallons/day and a lot of wash water will overload the system 

Why do you need filters on the water lines if you have city water?
City water will still contain particulate matter - dirt and line grunge that gets stirred up from time to time. Thats why they will flush the lines about once a year- usually from the fire hydrants so you get a nice fast flow. Also you can get bits of scale from the water heater. We are on a municipal water system (well water with some hardness) and the filters do trap stuff. Typical change interval for us is about 2 years.
If you have hard water and if you use a fair amount of distilled/ deionized water, you may want to add an reverse osmosis unit. They cost about $150 on up and can supply at least 2-5 gallons per day. 

Howard


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