Waste Disposal - into a Soak away!!!

[byways]

Hi byways

My guess is that there must be a connection for the grey water to the sewer somewhere local to the kitchen/bathroom, maybe it has been blocked off at some time. I dont think you should put any grey water into a soakaway as it will eventually fester up a stink     The work you describe to lay a new drain doesn,t sound as bad as dealing with a foul soakaway. How old is your house? do you know if there has been any previous biulding works carried out?

Desperate

The house is about 19 years old. There has not been a problem with smell from the Kitchen soak away - the is a water P trap to sort that, which again made me think it was once connected to the mains drainage. However it appears in some way teed to the Gutter down pipe some 2 metres further along the wall, as plunging the sink waste caused splash back at the down pipe.  That doesn't give off any odour possibly as there is a plastic cover betwixt square plastic downpipe and round earthenware underground drain pipe.  I am sure there have been several changes in the relatively short life of the house. Quite possibly including the position of the sink in the kitchen.
Thanks for you comments too David on the Saniflow. The void (if any) between the laminate wood floor and the concrete is only about 1cm So a Kango might be one option

What size and material is a typical soak away, I was assuming it might have been perhaps a metre cube and filled with clean stone, but am I way off the mark there?

[dhaslam]

That is about the size of it.   However if you are making one to take sink waste it would be better to make a small pre-chamber with access for cleaning if necessary, like a mini septic tank.  I used to have problems in the last house with blocking septic tank.  The kitchen pipe would build up quite a lot of grease etc.  so it probably wouldn't take very long for a new conventional soak pit to give trouble.      My  septic tank problem was eventually solved by a contractor who never learned to read, write or multiply.   He just kept digging the soakaway until he felt it would be big enough, it took fourteen loads of stone to fill it but never gave any trouble after that.       

[KLD]

Yup, until last autum we had the kitchen and bathroom wastes drain into a gully. Every 2 years or so this had to be cleaned out; who mentioned the stink  Mainly fat from the kitchen sink, still white (-ish). Could've been distilled into usable fuel? Well, it actually composted fine.
Conclusio: if you have to keep it this way, do install some pre-chamber to catch all that gunk.

Cleaning the existing system will be a pain. Is there any flow left at all? I can't ( don't want to) imagine a 20years built-up of grease. As I said, our's did compost OK, so there is hope it might clear. Though, if it's somewhere deep down and therefore cool, the decomposition would be pretty slow. I'm tempted to suggest a large amount of hot, strong  NaOH or even better KOH solution, but that'll also "inhibit" the composting.

Klaus

[WTE Ltd.]

I am afraid that kitchen sink water is classed as foul drainage and is not allowed to go direct to soakaways.  This is the law, I'm afraid, and is there to protect our groundwater sources.  Kitchen sink water contains pollutants and MUST go to the foul drains - you have no option to remain within the Law.  It was also the Law when your house was built, so the builder is well out of order.

The problem will arise if you sell the house and the purchaser pays for a survey.  It will be picked up and you will have to rectify the situation then.

http://www.wte-ltd.co.uk

[chickensoup]

WTE,
        I'm sure you'd sell him a new one....wouldn't you? or anyone else, come to think of it!

          chicko

[Rooster]

WTE,
        I'm sure you'd sell him a new one....wouldn't you? or anyone else, come to think of it!

          chicko

Hmmm, quite,  ..... however his Biorocks look interesting though ......

[desperate]

Ohhhhhh....... his biorocks ..... I nearly fell off my chair at first glance


Desperate

[AlanM]

Interesting to see the huge expense of the reed beds indicated. Not that expensive in my experience, but then maybe i'm not charging enough (Cr@p talked about "special" reeds needed though)

Alan

[byways]

I am afraid that kitchen sink water is classed as foul drainage and is not allowed to go direct to soakaways.  This is the law, I'm afraid, and is there to protect our groundwater sources.  Kitchen sink water contains pollutants and MUST go to the foul drains - you have no option to remain within the Law.  It was also the Law when your house was built, so the builder is well out of order.

The problem will arise if you sell the house and the purchaser pays for a survey.  It will be picked up and you will have to rectify the situation then.

http://www.wte-ltd.co.uk

Thanks for telling it as it is.  I wondered if that was the case. Sorry I have been quite on this, I followed a friends idea of asking Council Planning Dept for plans. Too Old, dont keep, have to do Search etc etc. So paid my £20 weeks ago, just had advice the origninal approval from 1995 can be viewed from today, but may not have any useful detail.

I have at last met the house builder, at a local. He built it for himself, left the house 'in distress' after a client defaulted, bank foreclosed, lost house, marriage etc. He said it WAS connected to mains drainage, and I am sure he is right, absolutely no reason not to. So it was the previous, or almost certainly the ones before them that changed it. (Litigious neighbours from hell we hear) Proving could be difficult.

I had a Civil Engineer (same friend as above) do the survey when we purchased, so no come-back ther, but IF we had had an expensive survey, there is no way it would have picked this up, it all seemed to work.  They would have had usual disclaimer of not having fully tested unseen drainage.

It will cost many thousands to correct, if we have to dig out all the contaminated stone, dispose, replace, resinstate patio, (rebury any bodies???) etc etc. It was an illegal action so I suppose worth talking to House Insurers, but small chance.

I suppose I could check the Sellers Info Questionnaire does say 'Connected to Mains Drainage' (as all toilets are), and sue for misrepresentation! They in turn will claim from previous sellers.

As in interim, I have used the useful suggestion to make a pre chamber  Cut waste pipe, into a 20L bottle, overflow to soakaway,  inverse P trap to ensure water is just above outlet so all sediment and floating bits do not go to soakaway, only 'grey' water, until we can get sorted.

Put a hose down last night as far as could, a little sediment came up, very small flow, takes about 15L before filling to top of drain, but with rainwater it fills quickly. and also cut the down-pipe to take most of the rainwater into a but, and that can be disposed of on plants / garden.

Proved again conclusively the two drains ARE connected, fill one up, water quickly comes up in the other. One Should be gutter soakaway only, the other sink to sewer only.