We laid in the sewage pipeline trench an additional conduit, 50mm diameter empty, to take the rubber hose air supply to the sewage treatment unit when we move the air pump into the garage after we have built it! We nearly forgot to put the conduit in as we said we would a couple of months ago!! Glad we had wait for our Building Inspector to come and the delay allowed us to remember!!
Author: Shaun
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Pipeline laid!
The sewage pipeline from the garage to the manhole connection point just next to the sewage treatment unit is now laid and gravel placed around it to bed it in. We await for the building control inspector to come and err.. inspect! He should be back from his hols on Monday.
Sewage pipe in trench bedded with gravel
While we wait, we will look at the utility trench on the left side of the garage and check the list of conduits and pipes and make sure we have everything we need!
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Rain Tank Capacity
The Rain Tank!
Dimensions
5m (16feet 3inches) long
3m (9feet 9inches) wide
1.2m (4feet) deepCapacity:
Hole dug out = 18 cubic metres (635 cubic feet) about 38tons of sand and soil
Water inside is 95% of hole size = 17.1 cubic metres – due to the plastic construction of the crates
Overflow starts 50mm below top surface of tank so will never fill to maximum therefore subtract 0.72 cubic metres.
Plus the pump cannot reach right to the very bottom of the tank as the plastic crates has structural flanges which will contains a certain amount of water. The highest flanges are 50mm high so therefore that is another 0.72 cubic metres of unuseable water!
Total Storage for rain water is 15.66 cubic metres
That is 15,660 litres
or
3,445 gallons (UK measurements – its 4,137 US Gallons)
Or
27,558 pints !Now that is a big water butt!
Construction
There are 90 crates each measuring 1000mm by 500mm by 400mm (well actually it is 390mm high – the manufacturer states that each crate is 200litres capacity but in reality it is only 195litres!) made of a polyproperlene materials. We layered 15 crates on each layer and rotated them around to provide maximum loading spreading. There are 4 layers altogether. Then a thick geotextile (measured as 250gsm) is put on first to soften the edges of the crates (we also sanded the edges and especially the corners). The rubber membrane is the next layer (the rubber is a man-made material with long life stability, we decided to buy the 0.75mm thick grade. You could have 0.5 or 1mm thicknesses) and finally on the outer most an another layer of thinner but tougher geotextile (about 150gsm) to keep the sand and soil from wearing or puncturing the rubber!
So far we have 200mm of water in the tank and it is still there after a week! phew!
Applications
We can use it to flush our toilets, wash the car, have showers, provide automatic watering for the garden and even use it for the washing! We of course will have the normal Mains Water taps in the kitchen etc. for drinking.
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New Rain Feed is installed!
Right, the new diverted feed from the rain filteration system is now installed to the other corner of the rain tank. Hopefully we have avoided any leaks !
The old hole in the manhole access tube is blocked up with geotextile so no sand and soil can get in!
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Modifying rain Water feed to Tank
In the light of conversation about filtering the rain water and how small (or large) the particulates would get through the
filtration system, we have decided to re-route the feed pipe from its first placement which is going into the manhole access chamber
where the pump is situated which means it would immediately suck up any “bits”.The feed pipe will now be routed across the rain tank to the diagonally opposite corner and make its entrance!
We are off to buy some extra fitments to join the 40mm pipe together for its new route!
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The Grand Fill of the Great Hole – Part 1 (so far!)
The various modules, pipes, tubes and tanks are now installed in our Great Hole. It is the long job of putting back all the sand and soil into the Great Hole, making sure each layer is compacted well (we are doing about 200mm (8 inches) at a time). After all the garage has to sit on top of this area so we do not want gradual sinking of our foundations or floor slabs in five years time!!
The only pipework left to do is the connection for the soak away module running back towards the black tubes, on the way a over flow from the rain tank connected to it and finally turning the corner to head left back towards the filteration unit module (not built yet!).
Wednesday 8th September (yesterday) we returned the Kanga Kid earth mover machine. It was costing money every day so on Tuesday we decided to do a large filling operation in the further and least accessible corner of the Great Hole where it would be awkward and very hard work to do it by manual labour, as it would be too dangerous to drive the much too heavy dumper truck over the rain tank without the support of any sand on it to spread the load!! We didn’t finish until nearly 7pm!!
Today we are carrying on with Operation Fill Up which will take another few days or so! Phew!!
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Earth Tubes – Day 7, 8 and 9
With the hole finally dug out, we have been sorting out the bits and pieces that will be placed down, down into the pit! Not much visible work is happening especially our video camera cannot see right into the hole! So you will have to imagine us hard at work 2.5m (8feet) down!
Day 7 – Tuesday 17th August
The delivery of the extra 10 tubes we needed and the wooden battens for constructing the framework to hold up the earth tubes and keep them steady while we fill in the hole around them. We also ordered another 10 bags of cement just in case we need to bed or lock in anything down. Today’s work was shortened as we had to go shopping (we have to eat something)!!!
We did some investigations in the bottom of the hole to see how much work is needed in moving the sand around to lay the earth tubes down. We checked the depth and laid two concrete blocks to get a feel for a particular method to achieve a satisfactory results!Day 8 – Wednesday 18th August
We had visitors around so it was another late start. We cut 4 tubes into 12 pieces and clamped them together. These are the vertical tubes for transferring the air up out of the ground and into the house. We also mounted a wooden framework at the garage end ready for the vertical 3m (10feet) tubes.
The 120 crates arrived from Jewsons today – these crates called AquaCell are designed to allow large amount of water (usually rain) to be collected and leached out of the sides.
Day 9 – Thursday 19th August
The hired tiny little earth mover machine arrived today and used our mini digger to lift it into the hole! It got stuck in the soft sand!
So we got on with cutting 6 earth tubes in half and mounting them vertically on the support framework – these tubes transfer the incoming air from the Garage down into the cool earth!
Then did the other end where the 12 tubes done yesterday were situated near the point of the house. At both ends we placed the concrete blocks underneath to support them.
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Earth Tubes – Day 6 (Finished Digging the HOLE)
The Hole Is Dug! The garden looks like a Desert with sand dunes in every direction! The machinery are blocked in and cannot get out onto our Loke!
Day 6 – Monday 16th August
The final leg of the journey along the spur is completed.
We have excavated many hundred tons of soil/sand and piled it up in heaps.
We arrived back towards the old sewage tank and only just reached the old leach field! Horrible greasey black area with a small box like thing with holes in it! It is only about 400mm (1foot) on each side and only a couple of metres away! Talk about the rules and regulations 50 years ago! We also found another buried rubbish heap!
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Earth Tubes Plan B – Day 5
The growing and unstoppable hole continues .. .. We are nearly there! Does anyone want some nice soft sand? Going cheap! Just bring your own 20ton lorry!
Day 5 – Sunday 15th August
The main part of the backwards “L” is done today. Just the little spur to do tomorrow!
The dumper truck is holding well, no sign of the flat battery problem but the level, at the end of the day, was 12.91V which it is a bit low. Again it has been cloudy today compared with yesterday. Yesterday the voltage was a good 13.5V and there were much more loads to move and hence more starts! But it was glorious sunny weather! So the solar panel does do a good job even though it is only rated at 1.5W! -
Earth Tubes Plan B – Day 4
With the newly energised Dumper Truck (the battery is now fully charged!) Stephen dashed out to do as possible before the forecasted heavy rain comes!! guess What? No Rain! Stephen worked all day and we counted 36 loads dugs out! Phew!
Day 4 – Saturday 14th August
Lovely day with both the weather and the amount of work done!
It’s time to go around the bend tomorrow! The spur of the L is next!
