The Front Porch Swing

[Tomtommom]

We had a gas on-demand water heater in Holland. It was installed above the sink and I guess there were just some pipes in the where the water ran through with the flame under it. pilot light was always on, and the flame would kick up if you ran the water. It was nice to not run out of water.

Also lived in a home with a boiler, that sucks. I hate running out of water.

And I lived in a home with a gas on-demand heater located on the top floor, in a closet next to the bathroom. Lovely hot showers within seconds... it just took longer for water to get to the kitchen for dishes... oh well. And the dang flame would go out if it was windy... the wind would suck air out the vent pipe, and the flame would go out.. and then the security feature would kick in

What can I say? I've moved a lot in my life

I think this may be the longest I've lived somewhere (6 years in the same home!)

 

[wyoDreamer]

@bruceha2000 I am not sure why they did a lot of what they did in this house. The water heater is installed right next to the furnace, so maybe they did it there for ease of connecting to the gas line ( which also comes into the house under the kitchen). However, being in the center of the house puts it under the huge living room without any place to run a vent straight up, so the exhaust bends 90 degrees, runs between the floor joists, to exit out the side of the house and this requires it to have a fan in the exhaust pipe. A loud fan! It is propane, and not a huge priority at the moment to move, so we just live with it.

We are much more concerned about getting the wiring updated. The knob and tube makes me nervous, and I would like more than one circuit for all the lights on the main floor. Yep, all the outlets are on another circuit, 15 amp breaker for each. They replaced a couple of the old outlets with grounded receptacles but did not add a grounding wire, just so they could plug in those things that have the grounded plug I assume. At least the service was updated and we have new box to work out of for re-wiring the house.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: Here in CA the size of the septic and leach field is dependent on how many bed rooms or persons that will be living in the house.

My house has some crawlspace which makes it nice for adjusting plumbing and Propane locations.

With regard to clean outs. You can put a clean out in with a riser on it to extend it up to where you can access it. Even on the vent stacks I believe.

In the case of moms house and very very old plubming... a few years ago they put in two clean outs. One that pointed the rooter toward the house and down the line one that pointed the rooter toward the sewer... set up so they would cross each others routs.

I agree about having stuff buried under a slab.... My sewer pipe runs from the bathroom to the septic tank under the green house room. Which wouldnt be a bad idea because when they built the house it was just dirt... Easy to dig up if there is an issue. Next owners poured a slab in the green house..... So now I have a run of black pipe that is about sixty feet that has a dip in it.... Somneone didnt make sure it remained level when they covered it up. Needless to say I had to have a clean out put in.... Right NEXT to the septic tank.

For what its worth there is only one toilet and one sink that goes to the septic tank.... The Shower goes to a french drain.... Somewhere.... and I have since disconnected the kitchen sink from the septic system. It goes out on the ground for now .... In some gravel but not in a french drain. That will change when I can get a grey water system setup in that spot.

The Washing water goes to a french drain as well.

OH and if you opt to not do a garbage disposal your septic requirements will almost be cut in HALF. I do not have a garbage disposal.

I am the proud owner of a 30 year old septic system... its End of Life... or very close to it... and why I have taken measures to reduce the effluent that goes into it.

On my bedroom remodel I want a master bath... Waterless toilet of some kind and a shower that will be plumed to water fruit trees.... Yes I do know about the types of soaps. I am not a froufrou kind of gal I hate bath oils and lotions.... the most I would be doing is an Epsom salts soak for my arthritis. and THAT is good for the shrubbery...

edited to add: If you already have one flush toilet there are no code requirements to put in a waterless one.... either composting or sawdust. I just read this in the past month... but please look it up to verify.
deb

 

[dpenning]

Here in CA the size of the septic and leach field is dependent on how many bed rooms or persons that will be living in the house.

My house has some crawlspace which makes it nice for adjusting plumbing and Propane locations.

With regard to clean outs. You can put a clean out in with a riser on it to extend it up to where you can access it. Even on the vent stacks I believe.

In the case of moms house and very very old plubming... a few years ago they put in two clean outs. One that pointed the rooter toward the house and down the line one that pointed the rooter toward the sewer... set up so they would cross each others routs.

I agree about having stuff buried under a slab.... My sewer pipe runs from the bathroom to the septic tank under the green house room. Which wouldnt be a bad idea because when they built the house it was just dirt... Easy to dig up if there is an issue. Next owners poured a slab in the green house..... So now I have a run of black pipe that is about sixty feet that has a dip in it.... Somneone didnt make sure it remained level when they covered it up. Needless to say I had to have a clean out put in.... Right NEXT to the septic tank.

For what its worth there is only one toilet and one sink that goes to the septic tank.... The Shower goes to a french drain.... Somewhere.... and I have since disconnected the kitchen sink from the septic system. It goes out on the ground for now .... In some gravel but not in a french drain. That will change when I can get a grey water system setup in that spot.

The Washing water goes to a french drain as well.

OH and if you opt to not do a garbage disposal your septic requirements will almost be cut in HALF. I do not have a garbage disposal.

I am the proud owner of a 30 year old septic system... its End of Life... or very close to it... and why I have taken measures to reduce the effluent that goes into it.

On my bedroom remodel I want a master bath... Waterless toilet of some kind and a shower that will be plumed to water fruit trees.... Yes I do know about the types of soaps. I am not a froufrou kind of gal I hate bath oils and lotions.... the most I would be doing is an Epsom salts soak for my arthritis. and THAT is good for the shrubbery...

edited to add: If you already have one flush toilet there are no code requirements to put in a waterless one.... either composting or sawdust. I just read this in the past month... but please look it up to verify.
deb

Septic will be interesting. Our trailer has the old type of septic system with a leach field. They built it oversize as they had two boys so there were 4 people here at one point. In the 12 years they were here they never had to do anything to it. I still have the plans. We did have to replace the cover on one of the tanks as it cracked but otherwise, no problems.

Now in our county they are saying they require the aerobic type system that has electrical to it for aeration and it uses a sprinkler system to distribute the liquid at some point. I think that is the grossest thing ever and I'm hoping we can still put in the old type system. Lots to learn in this process. I have talked to one of the builders about a rainwater capture system, his initial response was "no problem, that is easy" so I had to explain that I was looking for more than something to water the yard, I want to have rainwater be the primary source of water for the home with the co-op water as backup. It may not come to fruition but that is one of my dream requirements! I would also like to do what you have and have gray water separate from septic, not sure how that will work but these are the things I'm looking into.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: I been doing research for some time on a number of "natural home" subjects. from Rain water collection to dealing with waste. My well water here will be a major issue very soon if not already.... So Grey water and collection systems. High on my list as well as the more innovative ideas of collecting moisture out of the air...

Any way when i was told my leach field may be dying I was told by my septic guy that a new leach field is easy to put in and for the sam capacity it can be much smaller and even snaked around to put it in areas never thought of. But the Product is called Infiltrator.... and doesnt need a gravel bed.

https://www.thenaturalhome.com/infiltrator.htm

Here is something else from the same site Passive heat storage tubes...

https://www.thenaturalhome.com/heatstorage.html

But I have gone from these pages to other DIY sites and gotten some great ideas.

deb

 

[dpenning]

Thanks for the links, lots of good reading!

 

[bruceha2000]

@bruceha2000 I am not sure why they did a lot of what they did in this house. The water heater is installed right next to the furnace, so maybe they did it there for ease of connecting to the gas line ( which also comes into the house under the kitchen). However, being in the center of the house puts it under the huge living room without any place to run a vent straight up, so the exhaust bends 90 degrees, runs between the floor joists, to exit out the side of the house and this requires it to have a fan in the exhaust pipe. A loud fan! It is propane, and not a huge priority at the moment to move, so we just live with it.

We are much more concerned about getting the wiring updated. The knob and tube makes me nervous, and I would like more than one circuit for all the lights on the main floor. Yep, all the outlets are on another circuit, 15 amp breaker for each. They replaced a couple of the old outlets with grounded receptacles but did not add a grounding wire, just so they could plug in those things that have the grounded plug I assume. At least the service was updated and we have new box to work out of for re-wiring the house.

All condensing furnaces and water heaters have active exhaust now I think, but I guess yours is older since the fans in mine aren't loud. I suppose if you wanted hot water faster you could do as I did, install a small insulated tank. You wouldn't need to even plug it in since your water heater seems to work properly, just insulate the pipe from the heater to the tank.

I agree with rewiring first! Knob and tube, even properly done, is still a hazard. Though if you have 1 circuit for lights and another for outlets, you are a step ahead of where this original house was. ALL one circuit for lights and outlets other than the basement and well pump. And yes, the ILLEGAL grounded outlet with no ground wire and not marked "ungrounded". Had those too. I've rewired the house, one breaker per room, all grounded except for two light switches I can't run new wire through without taking down the ceiling. We also had only pull chains on the lights upstairs, I put in switches. Kind of interesting that, given the walls are lathe and plaster and the "studs" are whatever was slabbed off a tree to make posts and beams. Might be 2" wide, might be 8" with bark side curve. No "measure x inches from the door" to install a switch here. More often than not, I hit a "stud" at the usual distance. Learned real fast to drill small holes in the plaster going sideways until I found an open space behind.

Here in CA the size of the septic and leach field is dependent on how many bed rooms or persons that will be living in the house.

My house has some crawlspace which makes it nice for adjusting plumbing and Propane locations.

With regard to clean outs. You can put a clean out in with a riser on it to extend it up to where you can access it. Even on the vent stacks I believe.

In the case of moms house and very very old plubming... a few years ago they put in two clean outs. One that pointed the rooter toward the house and down the line one that pointed the rooter toward the sewer... set up so they would cross each others routs.

I agree about having stuff buried under a slab.... My sewer pipe runs from the bathroom to the septic tank under the green house room. Which wouldnt be a bad idea because when they built the house it was just dirt... Easy to dig up if there is an issue. Next owners poured a slab in the green house..... So now I have a run of black pipe that is about sixty feet that has a dip in it.... Somneone didnt make sure it remained level when they covered it up. Needless to say I had to have a clean out put in.... Right NEXT to the septic tank.

For what its worth there is only one toilet and one sink that goes to the septic tank.... The Shower goes to a french drain.... Somewhere.... and I have since disconnected the kitchen sink from the septic system. It goes out on the ground for now .... In some gravel but not in a french drain. That will change when I can get a grey water system setup in that spot.

The Washing water goes to a french drain as well.

OH and if you opt to not do a garbage disposal your septic requirements will almost be cut in HALF. I do not have a garbage disposal.

I am the proud owner of a 30 year old septic system... its End of Life... or very close to it... and why I have taken measures to reduce the effluent that goes into it.

On my bedroom remodel I want a master bath... Waterless toilet of some kind and a shower that will be plumed to water fruit trees.... Yes I do know about the types of soaps. I am not a froufrou kind of gal I hate bath oils and lotions.... the most I would be doing is an Epsom salts soak for my arthritis. and THAT is good for the shrubbery...

edited to add: If you already have one flush toilet there are no code requirements to put in a waterless one.... either composting or sawdust. I just read this in the past month... but please look it up to verify.
deb

We don't have a disposal either, no room under the old porcelain on cast iron double farm sink. Wall hung with adjustable legs in the front

made Nov 1941 "Standard Plumbing Fixtures" before American Standard was American Standard. And at 31 seconds into this video:
http://www.americanstandard-us.com/companyinfo/history/ is our bathroom sink! Sure wish I had the legs for it, it is sitting in a cheesy cabinet.

Only 30 Y/O system? It is NEW!

We discovered in December that while there is black plastic pipe exiting the basement wall, it connects ... somewhere ... to Orangeburg pipe then to the 1,000 gallon concrete tank. Basically a cardboard tube impregnated with liquefied coal tar pitch. It was originally used in the late 1800's as electrical conduit. Then someone decided it would also make a good sewer pipe. They stopped using it in 1972. So we know it has lasted 42 years minimum. Unfortunately we found out because it broke right by the tank and water wasn't going in the tank any more but out the trap in the pipe in the basement. Fortunately it was water and not toilet stuff. We (the septic guy and I) dug it up and found it crushed in a couple of places. Looked like any other cardboard tube after you step on it. He put in a ~5' piece of green PVC. Now we have to replace everything back to the house ... under the deck. I am sure we will find a lot more crushed sections.

Septic will be interesting. Our trailer has the old type of septic system with a leach field. They built it oversize as they had two boys so there were 4 people here at one point. In the 12 years they were here they never had to do anything to it. I still have the plans. We did have to replace the cover on one of the tanks as it cracked but otherwise, no problems.

Now in our county they are saying they require the aerobic type system that has electrical to it for aeration and it uses a sprinkler system to distribute the liquid at some point. I think that is the grossest thing ever and I'm hoping we can still put in the old type system. Lots to learn in this process. I have talked to one of the builders about a rainwater capture system, his initial response was "no problem, that is easy" so I had to explain that I was looking for more than something to water the yard, I want to have rainwater be the primary source of water for the home with the co-op water as backup. It may not come to fruition but that is one of my dream requirements! I would also like to do what you have and have gray water separate from septic, not sure how that will work but these are the things I'm looking into.

Oh my. Extra expense forever and just how do they know you aren't spreading untreated effluent all over the yard? I don't think just aerating it is going to make it "yard ready". Municipalities have huge water treatment plants do deal with that. There is a rest area in Vermont that has a multi-tank aquatic treatment plant built into it since there was no place to put a leach field. They use the treated water for the toilets.

 

[Tomtommom]

We've got an old concrete tank in our backyard. Thank goodness the home has been on sewer for a while. We also have an old grease trap thing in the drive way.

All of our pipes under the house are still cast iron... Not looking forward to the day we have to dig those up. Justin has been replacing them above ground with PVC.

 

[perchie.girl]

We've got an old concrete tank in our backyard. Thank goodness the home has been on sewer for a while. We also have an old grease trap thing in the drive way.

All of our pipes under the house are still cast iron... Not looking forward to the day we have to dig those up. Justin has been replacing them above ground with PVC.

Here our infrastructure is decaying.... San Diego is a new city compared to many back east but Cast iron pipes are failing all the time here.

But there are companies that are replacing with out digging those pipes. What they do is line the old pipe for X amount of feet then run a pressure burster through it expanding the new pipe and crushing the old pipe from inside out.

I dont know if they can do it for residential... but it requires only digging a hole at one end and a hole at the other end to remove a small section of pipe... I watched them do this running pipe from one side of an intersection to the other about a thousand feet. They were replacing a Twelve inch pipe.

I know probably not helpful but I find the whole thing interesting

deb

 

[Tomtommom]

Here our infrastructure is decaying.... San Diego is a new city compared to many back east but Cast iron pipes are failing all the time here.

But there are companies that are replacing with out digging those pipes. What they do is line the old pipe for X amount of feet then run a pressure burster through it expanding the new pipe and crushing the old pipe from inside out.

I dont know if they can do it for residential... but it requires only digging a hole at one end and a hole at the other end to remove a small section of pipe... I watched them do this running pipe from one side of an intersection to the other about a thousand feet. They were replacing a Twelve inch pipe.

I know probably not helpful but I find the whole thing interesting

deb

Agreed. That is interesting!

I know the city meter is on cast iron, all the way to where it comes up behind our house... So the darn thing goes UNDER the house.



It was home last year to a cicada wasp. Talk about interesting. HUGE wasp that eats cicada... and hid their bodies in it's lovely shaded and moist home a.k.a. our meter box.



These are the ones he couldn't fit through the hole

What's that.. we were talking about houses? Well, it's IS a house. Just not for people.


Editted to say the city had to fix a leak already between the road and our meter (so not our responsibility). They've dug my yard up twice now

Never clean up either. Just dump the dirt back in and I'm left to level and resow the grass.