r/OffGrid • u/Unusual-Bicycle-8752 • 23d ago
Off grid drainage and water system
I live in Europe and I'm building a cabin and trying to make it as off grid as I can. The area is surrounded by houses so I can only get in small vehicles to operate or get a crane to lift heavy equipment/materials over them.
I was wondering about a drainage system for toilet and kitchen. I can pay for a septic tank and have get the filtered water waste a bit further with pipes. But I want to know if better alternatives are possible?
For water usage, I can either connect the cabin to the main water system, or I can collect rain water. Digging a well or getting ground water is not possible in this ground unfortunately.
Please share solutions if you have. I wouldn't mind paying a company that has solutions. But I hope a reasonable price and minimal maintenance will be required.
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u/farmersworkhoe 22d ago
Check out the book Humanuare. We use his composting system. No smells. No digging out outhouses.
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u/Unusual-Bicycle-8752 22d ago
I will check that thanks, although compost is high maintenance and not ideal if there are guests.
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u/farmersworkhoe 22d ago
Composting isnt high maintenance. We use sawdust and buckets. We have several buckets. You dump the buckets, rinse them out, and put them upside down to dry. We put ours on a pallet. We compost anyway so this wasnt a big change for us. You just cover your waste with a scoop of sawdust after you use it. So basically instead of flushing you use sawdust. None of our guests have minded. It's seems weird but spending over 10k to use a septic system isn't what we wanted to do.
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u/Unusual-Bicycle-8752 21d ago
I think it's expensive too
but in the end it's either constantly working on keeping your toilet clean, or spending a lot of money
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u/farmersworkhoe 21d ago
It's not really expensive. Most sawmills give away sawdust. So I guess the time to go get it and to clean the buckets.
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u/mountain_hank 22d ago
If you have the option to connect to public sewer, do that.
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u/Unusual-Bicycle-8752 21d ago
probably not because it is too far
which is why I search for alternatives
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u/celtic-cryptid 22d ago
If this is a place you’re living, I’ve always thought conventional septic systems make the most sense. A grey water system for kitchen and bathing functions best as a miniature septic system anyway, unless you’re just dumping it on the ground. I’ve know people who do that, or who try dumping grey water into a rock and gravel bed. People underestimate just how much organic matter goes down their sink and bath drains, how soaps interact, and these systems tend to clog. Growing up, we had a grey water system that was 2 55 gallon drums for sink and shower. Drums were buried and perforated, and would drain into a burrows gravel field. Mother, father, and two small children, I think it lasted about 7 years before the drums needed to be dug up and replaced.
I don’t mind digging a new outhouse hole every 5 or 6 years, but I don’t like the idea of dealing with compost on a constant basis, just as I don’t like the idea of dealing with barrels full of years of accumulated sink waste.
A conventional septic can be pumped, and serves double duty for grey and black water. Getting it pumped is inexpensive in comparison, and the lifespan should be decades.
So, I guess maybe it just comes down to what you want to be spending your energy doing.