2022graywater

[2022graywater]

Kitchen sink drain

We changed our original plans for the kitchen drain.  After cutting the drain pipe, the sink drained just fine so the problem was in the tank that it was draining down to.  I decided that instead of trying to dig up the old pipe or digging a new trench to run a pipe down to the new barrel, we could just give the kitchen it’s own smaller tank.  It seemed like that wouldn’t be too hard, not as big of hole to dig, but of course ...boulders.  Things were going well until we hit one big one.  We spent hours pulling out smaller rocks around it and trying to dig around it, but even after being hit with the sledge hammer that boulder did not budge.  We decided to let that boulder win.  The hole was just deep enough to work.  The tub for this drainage is an older plastic container that I used to use for dog food.  I’ve only used it to store bird seed in recent years so it was good to use something I already had.  Since we buried it upright, the lid is at the top.  If this one becomes clogged in the future, I can easily dig it up enough to open the lid and scoop out gunk.  Now the kitchen sink and shower drain independently and if one is blocked it won’t affect the other.  I will also be able to drain my clothes washer into the cleanout instead of just onto the ground.  Another nice unexpected improvement!

[2022graywater]

Finishing up - the vertical pipe is the cleanout.  If the shower seems to drain slow in the future, I can open that cap on the cleanout and run a snake either direction.  Worst case, I can easily dig to the tank and cut an opening to scoop out soap scum.  

[2022graywater]

Shower Drain

Shower drain has been really slow since spring runoff.  Any shower resulted in standing water that would eventually drain, but took a really long time. We had been using a submergible pump to empty it out.  The old gray water system drained to a metal drum located under the propane tank.  I’ve dug it up a couple times and could only access it from the side (because of the propane tank) but that was ok because the side was all rusted out and I cleaned the soap scum out the best I could.  I think the ground was too saturated with decades of food scraps and soap scum to drain well.  After digging up the drain pipe coming from the shower and cutting it off, it drained very nicely straight out of the pipe.  We decided to put in a new tank NOT under the propane tank.  I had a big plastic barrel from a bulk food store that laundry soap had originally come in and that made a perfect drainage tank.  Of course we pulled out a ton (maybe literally!) of rocks and boulders.  The biggest boulder we pulled out required real redneck engineering.  A few two by fours, some split logs and a ratcheting tiedown strap borrowed from Stermer got that big one out.  There was an even larger boulder that we realized we just couldn’t get out.  Luckily, it was a long oblong one and we were able to stand it on end at the end of the hole and the tank just fit in there with it.  Working in close quarters near the property line, we couldn’t just pile the dirt nearby so I put it in tubs and buckets.  The ones on the porch are just part of all the dirt.  The shower drains beautifully now!  The lavatory still drains into the old system but there is so little water that goes down that drain it has never been a problem.

The black pipe in the first photo is the water pipe coming in from the creek.  The white pipe is the sewer pipe going from the toilet out to the vault.