Seattle Floating Homes and Seattle Houseboats - Part 3 - Utilities
Utilities on your houseboat or floating home can be rather ordinary or rather imaginative. It all depends on your home and your moorage.
Electricity - This is usually fairly standard. There are electric utility outlets available at your moorage for hookups to your home's electric supply. Some houseboats will have large batteries or generators that charge while in dock, and can be used while out at sea. Most large floating homes are hooked up semi-permanently to the electrical service and the owners need not pay much attention.
Water - Most floating homes are simply hooked up to an external hose from their moorage that brings in city water. Compact water heaters are on board for hot water supply. Houseboats that cruise will many times have a holding tank for potable drinking water that stores plenty of water onboard.
Sewer - This is where it gets interesting. Your high-end floating home communities have very sophisticated sewer systems that work with the city sewage lines. The homes run regular, gravity-flow sewer lines from sinks, toilets, and showers, out to a submerged large holding tank maintained by the community. When the tank fills, it automatically pumps the sewage up and out to the main city sewer lines. Houseboats, on the other hand, can have on-board gray water tanks (shower/sink) and black water tanks (toilet). Since they leave their moorage at times, they can't be permanently affixed to a sewer line. These tanks must be pumped out by a mobile sewage service regularly.
Garbage - Get ready to haul. While many communities have city garbage services, you're most likely going to be hauling your bags of garbage to the end of your docks to a main dumpster/pickup site. This is much like living in a condominium complex, but it is one of the unique factors of living on the water. From groceries to laundry to trash, there's a lot of hauling back and forth.
Sam DeBord and Brian Wiegand
Seattle Real Estate Brokers
Seattle Waterfront Homes
SeattleHome.com (206) 552-8820
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