Gray water drainage

[Slippy]

Built a small cabin that is used about 1x per month at best. Looking for a way to drain gray water. Have drainage pipe from cabin down hill, now what? I dug a deep trench with my hoe. I put 90 elbow droping pipe about 4 feet deep, then did u at bottom to create a trap. Brought the pipe back up about 1 foot and then a up side down u on it. It is low enough that it won't freeze. Should I back fill with sand, gravel, pee gravel, large stone, etc. Anyone know what would work best?

 

[Farwell]

You can buy a dry well here in Michigan. It is a concrete cylinder that is approximately 500 gallons in size that has numerous 4 inch round holes in the sides. Not sure how the are buried.
I have build dry wells using plastic and metal 55 gallon drums. I dug a hole approximately 6 feet deep and big enough around to fit a 55 gallon plus about 18 inches on all sides to make room for rock. I used 4 inch pvc drain pipe to get the grey water to the barrel. I cut a hole near the top of the barrel for the drain pipe to enter. Using a bi metal hole saw I cut a bunch of one inch holes all around the sides and bottom of the barrel. I filled area around the barrel with 2 inch rock and buried the barrel. The ones I built worked great. If I do any more I will dig the hole deeper and cut the bottom out of the drum, put about a foot of rock in the bottom of the hole and set the drum on the rock, attach the drain pipe into the top of the barrel and bury it. Not sure if this will work in all soils but it worked fine in California adobe. In cold climate you might want to go a little deeper and if the soil takes longer to percolate, use a larger barrel.
Farwell

 

[EddieWalker]

If it's just a grey water drain, why bury it?

Why not use it to water the plants?

Eddie

 

[dubba]

I'm guessing there isn't much for landscaping at "da cabin"..

We installed our washing machine & shower drain very similarly. Only difference was fabric around the outside of the hole to prevent the dirt from washing into the rock & occupying water space.

P.S. remember if you dig & find water it isn't gonna work /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Hib]

A 12 ga shotgun and some deer slugs are much easier way to put holes in 55 gal drum than a hole saw. Worked well for me. Plus it was fun and good target practice! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[3RRL]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( A 12 ga shotgun and some deer slugs are much easier way to put holes in 55 gal drum than a hole saw. Worked well for me. Plus it was fun and good target practice! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )</font>

LOL...Funny... great way to add enjoyment to an otherwise dreary job.

 

[Farwell]

Hib,
I did that once at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri using a 50 caliber machine gun and again in Germany using a Law rocket launcher. You are right it is much more fun.
I will keep that in mind if I do another dry well.
Farwell

 

[Slippy]

I want to bury it to avoid any odor and bug attraction. Also, leaving the pipe above ground can lead to bugs, snakes, etc entering the pipe and coming into the cabin. The trap is to keep odors, bugs, etc from coiming in. I think I have decided to fill the trench with a course gravel up to the level of the end of the pipe. I am then going to add a length of perferated pipe, fill with some more gravel and finish with about 10" of top soil. I am also going to add a clean out in the line before it drops down in case I ever get a clog. Think this should do it.

 

[TwinWillows]

A pick works well to ventilate a 55gal drum. Quick, no electricity needed & you get a little workout swinging it.

 

[theboman]

Got pickup? Get gravel.

A couple easy ways, well it's work but not too bad if you have friends or powered devices you own.

Since it's only gray water and only used occasionally it should have to be a monster project.

Dig a ditch or dig a big old hole and fill with gravel and run your gray water into the gravel via PVC. It'll filter back into the earth eventually.... Now if you have a small garden there have it close the plants will love the extra moisture in the soil.

I ain't no expert on the subject. I bet it's illegal in most places but this is just a suggestion oh what can be done in a pinch.... So if you get caught, sued etc.... I'm not responsible for whatever you do if you consider what I've said....

 

[EddieWalker]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I want to bury it to avoid any odor and bug attraction. Also, leaving the pipe above ground can lead to bugs, snakes, etc entering the pipe and coming into the cabin. )</font>

Hi Slippy,

It's your project and you can make it as complicated as you want. But if you wanted to save a bunch of time and money, then you just leave the end open to the elements. Nothing is gonna go crawling up your pipe. Even biodrgradable soap is strong enough to keep everything out!!! If your prone to worrying about these things, a P trap at the end will work as well as a flapper.

In the places that I've seen this done, and it's very common all over the place, especially at hunting cabins in the mountains all over the west, is to just burry the pipe a foot or two underground and run it until you come to a place to dump it out. Usualy a few hundred feet is plenty.

The area you dump it will grow like crazy and become an oasis of plants and wildlife!!!

Whatever you do, put in cleanouts facing oposite dircections and space them out to the distancy you can reach with your snake. No point putting them in every hundred feet if you can only go 50 feet. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Put them in so you can go either way up the line. Imagine looking at the line from the side and the pipe is a straight line. The cleanouts should look like the letter U. The angles at the bottom of the U direct the snake in oposite directions.

One of the probems with emptying grey water into a barrell or perforated pipe is the amount of hair that goes down the line. Hair keeps building up over time and is just about impossible to break down. With your method, it's just how long until you have a clog.

Of course, with minimal usage, this might not be an issue.

Eddie

 

[SPIKER]

like others said, run perforated pipe, (starting out a little ways form the cabin,) in you're trench, filled with gravel, and empty it into a drum/barrel that is burried under ground & surrounded by more gravel, what seaps out into the gravel trench is fine and what makes it to the barrel will fill it slightly abd slowly let it seep into the ground...

mark

 

[txdon]

<font color="blue">"Should I back fill with sand, gravel, pee gravel, large stone, etc. Anyone know what would work best?"
</font>

Actually, there is a book about it and it recommends a mulch basin. It also recommends using 2" pipe.

The name of the book is "Branched Drain Greywater Systems" by Art Ludwig.

 

[Slippy]

Great ideas from all, thanks.