Your septic system for BOL cabin

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by hank2222, Feb 18, 2011.


  1. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    Now at the cabin that you have on your land and your wondering about how is the socalled septic system going to work after the world has failed and you are liveing at the cabin full time..The reason why is i have never liked a outhouse after finding a rattlesnake in one at the state park and never been fond of them after that ..So that got me to thinking about not haveing to have one in the cabin and belive me when i say this about the socalled better half they are going to go so far about roughing it and it going to come to speeching halt when they have to go outside to the bathroom every time they need to go and then they are going to become the biggest pain in the butt intill you have a system for them to go the bathroom in a normal way instead of makeing a mad dash out to the outhouse ..

    So here is the list of items your going to need to do this

    1-hand pump marine style toliet

    1-10.gallon sized grey water tank for flushing with the water comeing from the kitchen sink drains and bathroom shower stall drain to flush the toliet

    1-28 gallon sized black water holding tank

    1-inline hand pump for emptying out the holding tank

    1-inline non electric powered marine or sailbost style macerator pumping system for grinding out the waste down into super small particles to allow them to be broken down farther in the leaching field of the drain field

    1-set of flexable stewage composite tubeing as it need to complete the project

    1-set of inline values for the grey water tank to flush out the black water tank and the values need to be opened from the black water tank out to the leaching field area

    1-set of peagravel to fill a 15.ft long -x-4.ft wide-x-3.ft deep trench under the dirt out to act as the leaching field out to the area ..

    Once all the units are hooked up and put in place inside the cabin and ready to use as it need by the people in your group..

    You can put the toliet up about two steps up or on a platform with the grey water and black water tanks under the platform with the hand pump easly to get to and also the value system to get to as it needed..


    The unit plumb in with a inline value system that allows the grey water tank to be used to help flush out the black water tank after it been pumped out with a in line value system that allows the grey water to push the black water waste fluids through the macerator by the useing of the handpumping system installed on the line that goes out to the socalled leaching field ..

    this way you are basically doing away with a septic tank because of the waste water is allready been broken down into fluid type waste that can be farther broken down by it passing though the soil as it goes back into the earth to complete the cycle of the life of fresh water

    The field must be at least 100.ft away from the socalled water source for health reason as we all about those reason ..

    most of these places can be found at the sailboat or rv type supplie places the socalled inline pump is by whale water system and it design to move bilge or waste water so that is hand pump and not useing type of electrical power to move the waste out of the tank and that saves battery life in my book ..

    It just a idea i thought i passed along to the group here ..
     
  2. Old Sarge

    Old Sarge Old Sarge

    OR, just go to a composting type. Wa la
     
  3. TnAndy

    TnAndy Senior Member Founding Member

    Or stick a 55 gal plastic drum in the ground for a tank, then out to the same leach field, and do away with all that grinding and stuff.
     
    ColtCarbine likes this.
  4. dragonfly

    dragonfly Monkey+++

    Unless your land sits directly atop a major aquifer. Then people sort of frown on septic leeching fields. "Leaves a bad taste in their mouths", you might say! I have to compost!
     
  5. hummerdriver81

    hummerdriver81 Monkey+

    septic systems

    Leach fields wont effect the aquifer if you keep them shallow. The basic principle is for the water to evaporate. You can use the new plastic "tunnel" pieces for the field. Gravity is your friend. Pumps don't last long in that corrosive atmosphere.
     
  6. TnAndy

    TnAndy Senior Member Founding Member

    Yep...most people think it's supposed to go in the ground somehow.....not so.

    Only time it does that is if you put the field on a source of bedrock, and the liquid travels down along the rock into the ground water.
     
  7. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    i remember that detail very much and vowed i would never do that again as along as i live ..i can not belive in this day and age of the socalled advancements that we have that the military can not figure out a way to have a better way to deal with the human waste in the field ..

    Just saying ..Since you wear Army blue What you MOS there
     
  8. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    ok here is the question .. do you think your socalled better half is going to do it along with the smoke from the raise in the air and it a signal to people that something is going on at the time plus give fact you are wasteing fuel burning ..

    Composting toliets are ok to a point but remember the other part of the team in your life is going to be the problem some down the line and belive me i watch this happen enough to know that you going to have to put some type of bathroom system inside the cabin for them to use to get peace in the household and you have anything in the way of happeness in your life at the cabin ..
     
  9. dragonfly

    dragonfly Monkey+++

    I have a new "Sunmar" brand composting toilet, $1,500.00 ( donated by relinquishment you might say) never used and I am HOPING I can make that puppy work for me! If so no fussing around. ( Man how I hated that latrine duty, and standing around making sure no one messed with the burning barrels...Yeah, like they would EVER get that close!) I doubt if that smell ever goes away! ( I hate the smell of burning diesel now!)
     
  10. seeker

    seeker Monkey+

    Great stuff everyone. I think most are going to follow this route until they realize they've sh*t their own bed
    398427042kDsCAb_fs.
     
  11. snowbyrd

    snowbyrd Latet anguis in herba

    Gee, been using an outhouse for, oh, 18 or so years. At THIS location, off and on for most of my life. Dry well for the grey water, 2 55 gal drums. 1st one the grey water goes in the top and is tied to the second at the top with a 4' pipe, this allows for settling of any solids. #2 barrel is piped out to a leach field. I know people that have done this for black water also, increased leach field and add a couple of barrels. It is easy to hook up a 'refleaf' (sp) tube suitable for female use. This can go out to the dry well. Burn the tp in the wood stove or burn barrel. Keep some water around to rinse the 'tube' No problem, and yes both my wives had no problem using this system.

    OH, did the burn barrel thing too, in OR, yech
     
  12. CANDY fISHER

    CANDY fISHER Monkey+

    LOL [fnny]
     
  13. CANDY fISHER

    CANDY fISHER Monkey+

  14. Disciple

    Disciple Monkey+

    Yerah I know we are talking some real bucks for an entire system but instead of having try to get a stinking hunny wagon to pump it out Ill go with the composting system then burn it to dispose of the very dry waste matter.
     
  15. TEXAS REBEL

    TEXAS REBEL Monkey+

    Having the time to put in one of these is ideal before SHTF.
    I don't have any type of septic at BOL as will be in a Log Cabin that we are working on now.
    5 gallon bucket and dig a hole for it when done is best we have for know.
    Better half will deal with what we have and be happy about it,if don't like system can always go outside and fins a bush.
    Lot of people are going to be uncomfortable in a EOTWAWKI happens and this will just be one example of the problems they will have to deal with specially in big cities.
     
    hank2222 likes this.
  16. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    Here is something i want to add to this post because of haveing a talk with a gentlemen about septic system and inline Macerate or grinder unit on the septic system line to make sure the waste comeing out of your septic system is beening disposal in a proper manner inside the septic system on you land and not to have problems down the line .The gentlemen was bad mouthing the socalled macerater system and how bad they where for a septic system and the problem is when you make this guys sit down and asked them why they can not give a real reason why the socalled grinding up of the raw stewage going before it goes out to leaching field ..

    To me the septic tank is a giant eating machine that is design to basically break things down and pass them on there way to the another part of the system and you really think about you do not need a septic tank if the waste is all ready ground up to a super small pieces inside the liquid system that carries the waste out to the leaching fields .. ..

    But if you Macerate the waste first you are basically doing the job of the spetic tank and the system of breaking it down and sending it out the leach field system and i asked him if you macerate the waste first before sending it out to the leaching field your getting the same thing or before it goes into the septic tank to be broken down farther before sending it out to the leach field you septic tank is not working as hard a it normally would be when dealing with the socalled break downs of the whole system and it should last longer that way .. he goes i guess so and that is the reason why you should have a dual set up in the cabin for when you need to be able to

    I use a Quick Four Equalizer 24.hd.chamber system when put togerther it is 12.ft long-x-16.inchs wide-x-11.inchs tall half filled with pea gravel rock system ..The chamber is design as a oversized leachin field to help break down the liquid waste farther as it goes through the peagravel and earth to be recycled back into the ground water system ..The company who makes them is called Infitltrator system and look at the website for more info ..

    The ground is losed up to the depth of 12.inchs to 18.inchs to allow the liquid waste to be better as absorbed rate in the soil

    The soil is losely packed back over to it as to allow the system to work it magic ..I placed my next to the fence line on the land to allow it to be out of the way and the system not to be brother traffic that could come onto the land and standing on it will not be a problem

    Belive this statement ... you the owner of the land should read up on how a septic tank works and know how the septic leaching fields are layed out and the reason why and the reason of there beening layed out in a fork type fashion and also read up on the whole thing of macerateing a waste before it goes out to the leaching field and you will find in your socalled search for the truth on septic system that the company out there do not want to you to know some of the ideas about how to get rid of human waste faster than normal ..

    For it would put them out of business in the long run and think how come socalled boating system in this world are over engineer to make them work in ways that a normal person could never understand but they work in conditions that makes you wow and the system have should the test of time when it comes to the use of the tanks and other items inside the sailboat or boat bathroom system ..

    I live in the SouthWest and the landscape is very different than upstate Maine or Ky or Texas or NC area where some of the members states where they are from ..So talk to a person to them about the soils and what is best for you ..
     
  17. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Some of that is distinctly untrue. A grinder simply hastens the biological activity once the waste is in the tank. (By increasing the surface area the bugs can work on.) Putting undigested (what the bugs do) in a leach bed will clog the bed too soon no matter how loosened up you make it, because the efficient anerobic bugs (in the tank) won't work in the air that gets into the soils around the pipe. Using a grinder is almost mandatory if you are pumping the solids as vs. the more usual gravity systems.

    You do NOT want solids out of the tank, period. That is one of the major factors that cause septic systems to fail and cost large money to fix, usually including a raised tank and leach bed and a pump to get the sewage up the hill.
     
    hank2222 likes this.
  18. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    the system was design to be able to bypass the septic tank doing the shelter in place for the 21 days intill i can fix or at least inpection of the septic tank and the rest of system before i would use the system ..

    On the land is a spare set of 55.gallon sized plastic drums to make a new septic system set up with holes pre drilled and items to make up the new line system allready attched to the shelter entance and run out to the septic tank area and then the septic line value is switched to the new line inside the entance area and the waste from the pump out from the holding tank is ready use as need

    The double 55.gallon sized tanks are put into the ground in a set up where one is higher than the other to make it easly to deal with septic system will be put into the ground and the old tank is removed and gotten rid off as it need if i can not fix it ..
     
  19. Equilibrium

    Equilibrium Monkey++

    You might want to find a new "mentor".... the gentleman you're talking to doesn't seem to have grasped the fundamental concept that septic systems require colonies of bacteria to break down biodegradable matter. The colonies need to be "fed". If the system isn't designed to feed the bacteria colonies.... the colonies will die and you might as well dig a hole....place a wooden outhouse over the top of the hole and.... buy a toilet seat and lid from Home Depot to add to your set up. I don't want to hurt your feelings but.... what you've described is going to fail miserably based on my limited knowledge and.... it could become a ground water contaminant source. We've got a WI mound system with 4 lift stations. It was designed for our site by "professionals". Professionals cost money.... there's no denying that but.... sometimes it's in one's best interests to bite the bullet and hire a professional qualified to design a system "tailored" to your site. For what it's worth.... the water exiting our system is potable and does not pose a threat to public health.
     
    hank2222 likes this.
  20. dragonfly

    dragonfly Monkey+++

    Not too long ago it was discovered that the specific area I have land in, has a plate of caliches just about a foot or so below the surface. So, any leeching would present a serious health hazard if the matter were to reach the aquifer and we are not exactly sure how deep it is but we know this: 600 feet to the north and to the south of us, the aquifer comes up in an artesian wells. It appears that only the "plate" of caliche that separates us from that water/aquifer and having done some drilling for fence posts, we found that the plate varies from 12 inches to only 4 inches in some places...That's NOT good!
     
    hank2222 likes this.
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