C o D Fire Hydrant Question

[turkeycall]

Shortly afetr my wife and I were married in '76, we bought a house on Riad, between Whittier and Yorktown. It was beautiful colonial - all brick. But the house was built in '39 and had a one-car garage; I think the one car was a Model A. The garage had two swing-open doors and it was really too short for the car I was driving at the time.

I remember seeing noses built on to the backs of garages. They stuck out several feet into the alley but there was enough room to park the car in the garage; the hood was in the nose.

We also had an alley where the trash cans were kept and where the trash truck picked it up. The city closed the alley just before we sold the place in '80.

Using our first big tax refund, we had the garage torn down, ripped out the two-track driveway, had a new driveway poured and then had a two-car garage built.

[EMG]

Shortly afetr my wife and I were married in '76, we bought a house on Riad, between Whittier and Yorktown. It was beautiful colonial - all brick. But the house was built in '39 and had a one-car garage; I think the one car was a Model A. The garage had two swing-open doors and it was really too short for the car I was driving at the time.

I remember seeing noses built on to the backs of garages. They stuck out several feet into the alley but there was enough room to park the car in the garage; the hood was in the nose.

We also had an alley where the trash cans were kept and where the trash truck picked it up. The city closed the alley just before we sold the place in '80.

Using our first big tax refund, we had the garage torn down, ripped out the two-track driveway, had a new driveway poured and then had a two-car garage built.

Obviously you meant you lived between Whittier and YorkSHIRE. I'm from that area too, having grown up on Nottingham. Here's a picture of your old block. Perhaps your old house is in here somehwere!

[birwood]

reddog289 I'm not sure about color codes for industrial piping and plumbing, I know RED was Fire Standpipe& Sprinklers, GREEN was Compressed Gas but then property owners complained that the colors clashed with their interior decor, especially in building being retro fitted to a different occupancy.
You could probably play it safe and contact MiOSHA or the local Building & Safety Department, they could tell you for sure. I do know that they are suppose to be marked and most places have now days have a lettered sticker, with a contrasting background and lettering, i.e. COMPRESSED GAS, DRINKING WATER, FIRE MAIN etc, that goes on the pipe and usually with an arrow showing the direction of flow of the substance in the pipe. Hope this helps

[birwood]

Another thought in regard to why fire hydrants are painted yellow in some communities. When we changed the color of the hydrants back n the 70's from the Red barrel with Black and Silver trim to all Yellow, people would stop in the station and ask why the change and we'd tell them....The yellow matches the color of dog pee...doesn't show the stain, and they would say Oh!, OK Thank You and Walk Out.

[697Macomb]

Fire hydrants in Royal Oak are color coded to indicate water main size.

[birwood]

967Macomb That may be true, however that theory can backfire on you in a heartbeat. A water main will deteriorate and build up with scale, sludge and other blockages over a period of time reducing the original diameter of the main and restricting the water flow. You'll find this mostly at the joints were the pipe is connected, or where a repair has been made and when one section isn't perfectly aligned with another, this will catch debris flowing in the system and just build up over a period of time, or even a new water tap to accomodate new construction. increasing the demand on that section of the grid will reduce the flow somewhat. For example, an 8 inch reinforced cast cement or cast iron main installed in the residential area of 12 Mile and Woodward installed after WWII in 1947 when that area was growing is probably 7 or 6 inches or less in diameter today. This is why the hydrants should be flow tested every few years. Hope this helps

[reddog289]

Thanks for the info Birwood, Got some homework to do. AND yes I have been looking at fire hydrants since I read this thread.