To build a house without disturbing the land

[Cassandra]

I have mentioned that I hope to retire to an extremely simple life on some family land. And someon suggested a cob house, which seems an extraordinary idea! I have been researching that.

My concern about building a house on my land has always been how to do the sewer without contaminating the water. I'm putting some pictures here of the creek that meanders through the property. I'm sure there's not a solid acre of land that doesn't have this creek through it. It's everywhere.

I don't mind living ruggedly, but I do want some kind of sanitary plumbing. The only thing that I know about is septic tanks with field lines. (I know you need two acres for that.) I have heard of some kind of residential water treatment device. Is that newer technology?

How could it be managed?

I'm sorry for the quality of the pics. They look a bit sickly and discolored. But I had to scan them in and my computer at work doesn't handle scanned pics very well at all.

Cassandra

 

[enjoy the ride]

I think the first thing you need to do is find out what regulations are applicable to your place. If there are regs that restrict what kind of system, you need to know now.
When I built here, I researched a system that was much less expensive and supposedly better but the county regs did not allow it. So I had to build a raised mound system that was horribly expensive- two years later, the county approved the system I had wanted to put in- oh well.
Once you have done that, I would map out the wetlands verus dry areas to see what you have to work with. You can usually do this by looking at what are water plants vs upland plants.

 

[Cassandra]

I think that only applies if you want to use public utilities? (Which I might or might not...)

If I remember right, a former tenant of mine had bought a trailer and she went to get her electricity hooked up, but they wouldn't hook it up until her sewer situation was up to code. But this was on a new dwelling. They don't check on existing dwellings.

I would not be using public water for sure.

I know another guy who had his house foreclosed several months ago (last autumn) and he quipped that the bank was going to have a hard time selling it when they discovered the two 55 gallon drums he had burried for his septic system!

In my experience, anyway, the county officials don't give a flip what you do. And this is very remote land surrounded by paper company timber land. (So I don't think the neighbors will be complaining.)

That's not to discard your advice! I want to do everything up to code! I will definitely be asking about that. And it will be years before we build out there anyway, so hopefully our county will be up on the latest technology by that time.

But I know people who still have raw sewage running out of a pipe into a ditch. <blech>

I really, really REEEEALLY want to keep this creek suitable for fishing and playing in. I grew up fishing and playing in that creek.

Cassandra

 

[patandchickens]

I do not know about other jurisdictions but up here, septic system (etc) regulations have nothing at all to do with whether you connect to public utilities -- it is strictly regulated on the grounds of affecting everyone's water supply. Of course one can try to play the 'maybe they won't notice' game but it can be HORRENDOUSLY expensive to be caught out, so I dunno.

So I agree that the very first thing of all is to simply find out what regulations pertain to the property. They may be phrased in a simple fashion but there may turn out to be a lot of other questions you need to ask, like 'what about composting toilets', 'what about graywater-only systems', and all sorts of variations that exist on the septic-system theme. But you need to find out.

Most places the thing to do is to build a 'turkey mound' (raised mound for your leachfield), which requires some appropriate engineering input from a soils guy or whomever, someone who works on safe septic system design. If it cannot be built sufficiently adjacent to the house site, you get into mucho complications with pumping systems and so forth. (Even if you were able to use a composting toilet, you would still likely need SOME sort of leachfield to deal with graywater; you would not want it just whooshing out onto the land and into the creek).

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Cassandra]

grrrrrosssssssssss

So, right now it looks like I need to be studying up on composting toilets, gray water, turkey mounds and leach fields.

Can do.

Thanks for the inputs ladies. I will report back when I have more questions...err... I mean info. LOL



Cassandra (requesting more money for research)

 

[enjoy the ride]

If you decide to have an unregulated system, maybe checking down stream as far as you can go would be a good thing. To see what could end up where. Checking back up stream is commonly done here where pollution shows up in a stream.
But also there are some relatively less expensive ways to do the same thing mounds do with these plastic chamber things put in series that allow for greater evaporation of liquid waste. I can't remember the names of them now but I think a google might locate the company.
I believe that where there is a will , there's a way. Especially if you live in a less regulated area. Look up the term "grandfathering in." Some lawyer (wouldn't you know) managed to build a large house by first putting in a small tool shed on property he wasn't able to perk. Then he added some lights so he could work there in the evening, a well to "grow vegetables,a garage followed, etc - by 6 years later, he had a house built with a water system and septic system and was moving another building there. Then he probably sued the county for not maintaining the purity of the creek.............

 

[Cassandra]

P.S. I have been talking to my bosses (two real estate appraisers) about sewer regulations.

Cassandra

 

[Beekissed]

I was going to suggest a grey water system and a composting toilet, but I see someone beat me to the punch. Or....you could consider the old fashioned outhouse for the worst of your waste and the grey water system for the rest. You could even heat your house with a radiant floor system and extend that to an outhouse attached to, or near the back of your house. An outhouse doesn't have to be a gross prospect if done correctly.

 

[Beekissed]

Cassandra, have you found a solution to your septic problems? Just wanted to bump up a few older posts as we have more members now and they may be able to offer a new solution or two!

 

[Cassandra]

I have absolutely decided to go with the composting toilet idea. What I have read is mostly related to developing countries where sanitary plumbing is something of a novelty

But it is hard to say. We have decided that we are (barring the revolution or something else catastrophic and beyond our control) going to live where we are for the next fifteen years or so. Regulations and technology may have changed significantly in that amount of time.

And from my inquiries about regulations, I got the response I expected. Nobody cares unless somebody complains. If you complain, you have to complain to the health department. The health department (which really hates to be bothered to do anything constructive) is going to go out and tell you to clean it up.

This came up a few months ago in a conversation because there's a trailer park owner in our county with raw sewage running out into the woods. (It's still going on.)

When pressed, no one has been able to tell me exactly what the regulations are. We get into this ridiculous circular conversation that goes like

"what can I have as far as rural plumbing on a small lot?"

"Well, what did you want to do about it?"

"It depends on what the regulations are."

"Well, that depends on what kind of system you want to put in..."

I've never actually gotten an answer.

Cassandra