French drain for washer water

[crewguy]

I live in rural Mississippi. I own all the land around my house, a 50 acre spread. I need to get the washer off my septic system. I cut the washer drain pipe out of the system and ran the pipe about 50' away from the house. There's a good grade the pipe is running down. I am going to have a good sized hole dug for a french drain. That's where I need some ideas. The land around here is sandy red clay. How big should I dig the hole? Can I use road gravel for the drain? How much dirt should I put back over the gravel? I suppose I can use tar paper to cover the gravel, after I am done. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[DieselPower]

The only thing that goes into my septic tank is the toilet. Sinks, washer, shower, etc... go into a gray well. I dug a trench about 200 feet from the house, layed in a 3 inch PVC drain pipe which goes into a large pit I dug out. The pit was filled with field stones, then gravel and then sand and recovered with dirt. Other than the grass being a little greener over it in the summer you would never know it's there.

 

[JB4310]

Welcome to TBN,
Not sure what you mean by a french drain, but you mention digging a hole so I'm thinking you want to do a dry well, which is a good sized hole filled with stone to allow water to percolate into soil.

I would only suggest a dry well for a confined space like a city lot, that's obviously not your situation, for your washing machine discharge I would just dig a trench maybe 2' deep x 12" wide x 20-30ft long, at the end of that pipe you already installed, lay a 4" perforated pipe in there bedded with crushed stone. just like a leg of your leach field.

That's just a suggestion, it's totally dependant on soil condition and how well it percs by itself, if it percs well almost no stone would be needed, also depends on how many washs you do a week.

It's a good idea that you took the washer off the septic, now just the washer discharge is no big deal, if your trench ever failed you could do another 2 feet away. Just keep it away from drinking water well or garden as there are some undesirable chemicals in laundry detergents, maybe a natural detergent would be better.

Good luck,
JB.

 

[WantedWolf]

The only thing that goes into my septic tank is the toilet. Sinks, washer, shower, etc... go into a gray well. I dug a trench about 200 feet from the house, layed in a 3 inch PVC drain pipe which goes into a large pit I dug out. The pit was filled with field stones, then gravel and then sand and recovered with dirt. Other than the grass being a little greener over it in the summer you would never know it's there.

I was considering dividing my system to the same degree but was told to leave at least the bathroom sinks OR 1 often used shower on the septic. reason was given that the additional water helps the balence and digestion the sluge. Keeping the kitchen and laundry seperate is best as that is where the most chemicals are disposed that distroy the good bacteria in the septic digestion process. B.S. or what?

 

[DieselPower]

Nope, no BS. Look at all the antiseptic products on the market that are designed to kill bacteria. I like my live little critters to live a long healty life in my septic tank. My tank get's pumped out every 10 years more for peace of mind than anything else. Everytime I get it pumped out the truck operator tell's me I didn't need it and I have one of the best operating systems he has seen.

 

[greenmule]

Use the bigger crushed stone,not the little driveway stuff[not sure of the numbers].I got one at the end of my leach field line from septic tank.

My washer just runs out over a bank about 150 ft or so from my house,down into brush and trees,and there plenty of down slope below that,might not be to many codes,but works for me.

 

[WantedWolf]

Nope, no BS. Look at all the antiseptic products on the market that are designed to kill bacteria. I like my live little critters to live a long healty life in my septic tank. My tank get's pumped out every 10 years more for peace of mind than anything else. Everytime I get it pumped out the truck operator tell's me I didn't need it and I have one of the best operating systems he has seen.

Sorry my wording sucked there... I know the bacteria part is true and makes great sense but what of the need for more water in the septic than the toilets can provide (specially low flows)

 

[JB4310]

My brother has a separate gray water system, his septic had to be mounded as he was on ledge and has poor perc. but that's one of the only ones I know of that have separate gray water wells, almost all the septic systems I've seen are all in one.

The 70 year old house I bought with 2 full and 2 half baths was still using septic system even though the elderly guy I bought the house from didn't know it, He had lived here 20 years and assumed the house was connected to city sewer. He never did anything with the septic tank, he lived by himself but had many visitors that lived with him for extended periods of time, and the original family lived 50 years here, don't know if they had any problems.

I wasn't gonna trust the septic system with family of 5 so I connected to the sewer, when excavating across the front yard we crossed a leach pipe about 100 ft from the tank and found a dry well at the end of the pipe, water had never even made it that far down the pipe, it was unstained and perfectly clean. I was shocked how well that system must have been constructed.
I pumped the tank which was only 4'x4' and use the system for storm water management now.

It's amazing how efficient a well designed septic system can be, not true with the house I grew up in on a postage stamp size lot, had an overloaded undersized system for family of 7, had to have that thing pumped every year. Just before it failed completely I remember the dark green foot tall grass growing on top of it in the middle of the winter!

 

[DieselPower]

Sorry my wording sucked there... I know the bacteria part is true and makes great sense but what of the need for more water in the septic than the toilets can provide (specially low flows)

Nothing but toilets connected to mine and all is and has been well. Then again, I drink over a gallon of coffee a day.

 

[LBrown59]

My brother has a separate gray water system, his septic had to be mounded as he was on ledge and has poor perc. but that's one of the only ones I know of that have separate gray water wells, almost all the septic systems I've seen are all in one.

My septic don't have a leach bed or leach field just a trench about 75 or 80 feet long with a 3 inch perforated pipe laid on top of some gravel in the trench going into a roadside ditch.
I'm legal as the installation was approved and A permit was obtained.

 

[LBrown59]

I live in rural Mississippi. I own all the land around my house, a 50 acre spread. I need to get the washer off my septic system. I cut the washer drain pipe out of the system and ran the pipe about 50' away from the house. There's a good grade the pipe is running down. I am going to have a good sized hole dug for a french drain. That's where I need some ideas. The land around here is sandy red clay. How big should I dig the hole? Can I use road gravel for the drain? How much dirt should I put back over the gravel? I suppose I can use tar paper to cover the gravel, after I am done. Any advice would be helpful.

I don't think this is allowed here not sure but I think every thing has to go into the septic tank.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've been to allot of rural homes where they have a line that just runs out to the bushes for gray water. Some that are fairly close tend to stay attract bugs, but in other cases, I've seen where the discharge is a couple hundred feet away from the house and if you didn't know it was there, you'd never find it. I asked a plumber about it one time and how do people keep the critters from crawling up those lines? His reply was that nothing would want to. Even with bio degradable soap, it's not appealing to animals.

Eddie

 

[greenmule]

The end of mine sticks out over a bank[hill],its about 4 ft from any dirt.

 

[radioman]

I live in rural Mississippi. I own all the land around my house, a 50 acre spread. I need to get the washer off my septic system. I cut the washer drain pipe out of the system and ran the pipe about 50' away from the house. There's a good grade the pipe is running down. I am going to have a good sized hole dug for a french drain. That's where I need some ideas. The land around here is sandy red clay. How big should I dig the hole? Can I use road gravel for the drain? How much dirt should I put back over the gravel? I suppose I can use tar paper to cover the gravel, after I am done. Any advice would be helpful.

You need a drywell, especially with the claylike soil. However you mentioned sandy too so perhaps a french drain or a sock covered perforated pipe terminated to the drywell would be best. basically dig as wide you can (body width) and at least 2-3 ft down, or deeper then the frostline. I wouldn't mess with gravel if you have alot of fist size stones around on your lot. with 50 acres, I am sure a previous farmer has a pile somewhere. I would fill the drywell to the top with 6 inches left to fill with soil. cover with landscape fabric and then cover with soil. Once the grass grows over the whole thing, you will never know it was there.

 

[Dale Binkley]

Try lining the hole for the drywell with landscape fabric, then fill with your stone. This will help keep the well from filling in with dirt so quickly. This is the way I have always seen it done. Otherwise you will eventually have to dig up a new hole and start all over again.

 

[Tig]

My parent's dry well took in the wash machine discharge. They had problems with the soap scum lining the pit and preventing drainage. Any one else have that problem?

 

[Jimbrown]

I ran mine out from the house about 100ft with 2 1/2 inch pipe and the dug a trench about 60ft long put down about 60 ft of 5 in perforated pipe ran the 2 1/2 up inside the perforated about 6 ft and then covered it with large rocks no dirt. It works just fine. Arizona encourages the use of gray water.

 

[JB4310]

My parent's dry well took in the wash machine discharge. They had problems with the soap scum lining the pit and preventing drainage. Any one else have that problem?

That's why I think a trench may be better than a hole, I do drainage work and we have a little laugh when ever anyone mentions a dry well, we call them "wet wells". around here we have alot of areas that are just pure clay, I mean the type you can put on a potters wheel and make a bowl! Once the drywell fills with water the first time, that's it, it's got a finite capacity and takes forever to dry out again.

People think they can manage storm water with a drywell, I tell them that with a drywell when they need it the most it will fail the worst, I know that's not good English but just trying to make it simple.

Of course storm water and a washers discharge is not a fair comparison. but usually the deeper you go, the soil is less permeable and the walls and bottom lining of the dug hole can become clogged, (not just by soap scum). The use of filter fabric for lining can exsasperate the problem. IMO a trench can be made long enough to have much more permeable surface area, higher in the ground than even a large drywell.

I said if the trench system ever failed then another could be dug next to it, but even easier would be to just extend it further to provide more area for percolation.

As a side note:
In our built up suburban area there are almost no septic systems left, as I was growing up the few systems that were remaining were getting to the end of their serviceable life and the "honey pot" was often in the neighborhood to do a clean-out.
Whenever we would see that truck coming, every kid on the block would follow it to watch them do there dirty work, it was great entertainment, you'd think a Hollywood actor was in the neighborhood with all the kids trying to get a look

JB.