Water & Sewer

Water & Sewer

As discussed in a previous post the depth of the trench for your water supply line should be just deeper than the freeze line in your area. The minimum depth in Northern Idaho is around three feet so with that in mind we dug down to the four foot line. If placing two different kinds of pipe in the same trench be sure to use the heavy 200psi line for your water pipe. It is recommended by contractors everywhere to use the one piece rolled water pipe. This comes in various lengths and is easy to trim down to meet your needs. We used the 1” rolled pipe and easily bent it around all the corners of the trench. The other main reason to use the heavy pipe (schedule 40 black water pipe) is that oftentimes, as in our case, we needed to run the waterline in the same trench as the sewer pipe. In these cases code officials will insist on and it is a good practice to use schedule 40 sewer pipe from your building to the septic tank. The cost of the roll of waterline will vary based on how many linear feet you need. I needed the 150' roll and after buying the various stop and waste valves, pressure reducer valves and the connector to go from the 1” pipe to my interior supply was about $400. Valves are expensive and you don't want to “cheap out” and not get good equipment. You could be sorry for that kind of decision in the long run.

The next part of your project could include the sewer if you are installing any kind of lavatory. Whether or not you have a toilet you still need to have the proper waste pipes for water in a wash basin of any kind. We would definitely recommend installing a toilet as it is cheap and will come in very handy. The pipe and fixtures for a complete bath are so inexpensive this is really not something that is even debatable. The expensive part of the sewer project is the septic tank.

Two thoughts on the septic tank:
(1)Using your current tank...
1.If your current tank is big enough – at least 1,000 gallons.
2.If you are only putting in a “part time” lavatory.
3.If the run of pipe allows for the proper drainage. Code calls for residential pipe to be at 1/4” drop for every 1 foot of length. So, every 4' the drop needs to be 1”.
4.This means that your existing tank will need to be fairly close so the run of pipe will be less.
5.The cost for this solution is only minimal – approximately $100
(2)Installing a new septic tank
1.You will need to find a big enough place to put the tank as well as the leach field required to drain the gray water. For a 1,000 gallon tank it will take a big hole and a couple of long leach field trenches. Our tank took a hole 10' deep, 8' long and 7' wide. Yes, we hired a backhoe to dig this hole. The two (2) leach line trenches are 50' long, 4' wide, and 4' deep as this is the code for our area. The backhoe and operator were invaluable tools for this part of the project.
2.From there everything in the first solution is needed for the second.
3.You will also need leach line pipe – the white kind with holes for drainage.
4.A big load of washed 3/4” rocks to surround the pipe with – up to 1' deep and at least 1' on all sides and bottom.
5.You need special cloth that rolls out over the pipe to keep the dirt and rocks out.
6.The cost of this solution is approximately $2,000 depending on the hourly rate of the backhoe and operator.
So you will need at least $2,500 for the most expensive solution for sewer and water. This does not include the plumber to connect the water lines if you cannot.

Until next post...