Drywell
I finished building my drywell last weekend with the help of my neighbor – the one with the earth moving equipment. Two weeks earlier my oldest son (21) dug the 2′ deep by 17′ long trench for the drainage pipe. The trench took him about eight hours to dig, with a fair number of texting breaks mixed in. In all fairness to him though, the ground is pretty rocky around here, and it’s also kind of hard to dig while on your hands and knees under the cabin. The drywell pit, on the other hand, only took my neighbor about 10 minutes to dig with his excavator. I can’t even imagine trying to dig a hole that large by hand in this soil.
The drywell is strictly for disposal of the greywater generated in the kitchen and bathroom. Since there’s no toilet in the cabin, I don’t have to worry about any blackwater disposal. The drywell itself is fairly simple, and I got the plans for it in the eHow article Make Your Own Gray Water Dry Well 55-Gallon Drum. The entire drywell cost less than $150, which included all the materials and my neighbors time and equipment.
Wanting to do the right thing, I had originally contacted a local septic company last year to ask if they installed drywells for greywater. They told me they couldn’t install a greywater system and that I would need to have a septic system. It just so happens that septic systems around here are usually mound systems that run anywhere from 10-15K. When I gagged at the price they said they could install a holding tank instead for 7. When I asked if they meant $700, they corrected me and said $7,000. For 7K I’d keep using a bucket under my sink for a long time.
Here’s some more pics of the drywell construction.
Don’t know if you have room or interest but here’s a possibility for your black water: http://www.backwoodssurvivalblog.com/2009/03/how-to-construct-small-septic-system.html
I’ve read that exact link before, but I doubt it would ever get approved by the county. I’ve bent the rules on a lot of things in building my cabin, but installing an illegal septic system for blackwater is something I would never do in Wisconsin. This is all a moot point anyway as I have a great outhouse that works in all weather conditions with no winterizing/dewinterizing necessary.
Oh, of course. Jurisdictions are everything. It’s a bit more restrictive now but when my inlaws built a cabin in Wyo about 25 yrs ago, they had one inspection…for septic percolation. That was purely to determine the leach field size. It was one guy with a bucket of water, a hole and a stopwatch.
Just found your site and I have to say I think you’ve found about the perfect tight rope between the various competing requirements.
I live in North central Wisconsin and am thinking of a similar project. I’m thinking I may work in modules to make it more affordable. Build on container then add on down the road. What do you think? How hard do you think it is to add on to these?
Brandy:
I personally would not consider building piece by piece with containers. One problem would be when adding a new container, you would then need to cut the adjoining walls out. This would also entail removing the stud walls in addition to the spray foam insulation. I definitely wouldn’t want to use a cutting torch anywhere near spray foam insulation. With containers I feel it’s best to do it all at once.
Steve
Is 2 feet deep enough for your drain pipe? I am in NH and I would think it would need to be 4 feet down to be below the frost line. Have you had any trouble with anything freezing? thanks.
Ken:
Since these are only drain lines, have an adequate slope of 1/4″ per foot, and are >18″ underground, they really shouldn’t freeze. I was also worried about this when I built it, but everything I read said it wouldn’t be a problem. On the other hand, if these were supply lines, they would freeze.
Steve