Shop Grey Water

Before I get after today's post, I would like to wish my US readers a happy belated Labor Day. I recognize the value our labor unions and those who fought for worker rights have provided those of us who came after. Ironically, I spent Labor Day and the days before shoveling dirt, but that's what today's post is all about. One last thing: Thursday is my son Cedar's 25th birthday. While most folks are looking at Friday to consider the implications of 9/11, 25 years ago, I will be considering the implications of his arrival just a few hours prior (1130PM on 9/10). Happy Birthday, C. 

 

Some History 

ready for the rains

Back when I started my concepts for this shop, I did not have much of a plan other than a spot to put and work on cars. During the initial permitting process (See Building a Shop - Permits), I did not have a plan for water use or even a plan to make a plan for water use like a bathroom or whatever. After the plans got started, and the metal building ordered, I thought about how nice it would be to wash my hands before crossing the yard into the house. And then I thought about how nice it would be to take a leak without tracking whatever was on my boots and then whatever my boots picked up in the yard into the house. I started first with looking at what was possible in terms of tying into existing sewer systems.

 

The shop is a good 35 meters from the back of the house. So, if the main sewer pipe under the house is less than a foot below ground in the crawlspace and the crawlspace is barely below grade overall, I only have less than 50 feet before I run out of elevation. I determine this using the basic formula for waste water management: a pipe must have a pitch of at least 1/4" drop per foot, or 1 inch per 4 feet. If we extrapolate that out to one foot of descent, that's 48 feet before the waste pipe is lying on the ground or being suspended above ground. So, that doesn't work.

 

2 foot deep 2 foot wide channel

Next, I looked at connecting to the sewer running along the adjacent street on the other side of my neighbors. While it is downhill, it would still be a couple hundred feet, and either through one of their yards or right on the property line. Either way, that would require an easement that one or both of them would need to approve and it would tie into the city waste system while my property is not. After all that, I was unable to determine how far underground the city sewer is. I decided it was all just too legally perilous and dropped the while thing.

 

Since these musings were taking place while the permits were getting finalized, I drew in a 2 meter square in the southwest corner where we would not put concrete, and just leave gravel. My thought was we would have a wet room or something if I could figure out the waste management side.

 

Storm Outflow to Bio Swale

trenching

As part of the excavation work for the foundation, I had the Clean Water Services -required storm outflow and a channel from the rear of the building to the outflow dug out. This cost me a few extra hundred bucks and a cherry tree. I then located and had delivered large rocks of the specified size (the finding was NOT easy). This cost me another $1000US. Ultimately, this shop cannot support rain gutters, so I spent multiple weekends last summer digging out and installing French drains to manage the rain water. That system has been working really well, by the way. Anyway, a year later, the permit has been long closed, and I still had a 2 foot deep 2 foot wide channel from the rear of the building to the hole with rocks in it. It can be seen in the foreground of the second picture from the top. When I had the trencher, I took a stab at putting a more direct trench from the hole to the backside of the building where the wet room square was located. This trench was only 4 inches wide, mostly 2 feet deep, but it did not go the full distance due to soft soil gumming up the wheels. The new plan was to put in a floor drain in the "wet room" and run that grey water into the storm outflow, and maybe, eventually, purposefully add plants designed to thrive in a bio swale.

 

More Trenching

bored through

All of this backstory leads me to the antics of this past weekend. I started with a shovel and soon had small hand tools, a post-hole digger and a hoe to work the trench. Unlike the major trench I did for the electrical feed, this 25 foot trench encountered a half dozen large roots. I was able to hand-dig around either side but to get underneath, I used a framing hammer and a steel rod to bore a hole and then used a hand digger to clear it out.

 

I knew that the foundation for the steel building included a 1-foot by 1-foot curb. The rest of the floor was reinforced 4" concrete. The 1-foot, however, set the high-point for the top of the grey water pipe at the edge of the building. Every 4 feet closer to the hole I got, the trench needed to be another inch deeper until at the end, I was 18 inches below level. To determine a consistent relative point from which to measure progress, I laid out a stretch of pipe and used a level, propping up the hole-end to get level. Then, I measured distance and depth from the pipe. It took me a day and a half, but I got the trench dug out, with large openings under the roots through which I could pass a 2" pipe.

 

Surge Tank

surge tank

With the trench set, I wanted to complete the outside steps. I figured I could leave most of the indoors work until after the rains start. Even with a system as tiny as this with such low input (a rarely-used floor drain and maybe a couple of dry sinks), it is advisable to include a surge tank. This is so when a large wave of water enters the system it does not instantly propagate down to the bio swale. This also serves as a place to clean out stuff that made it's way into the drain that you may not want further downstream. I used a 5 gallon bucket for my "tank". Oh, by "dry sink" I mean a sink that does not have any water fed to it. We do not have a county-supplied water source out there, and no plan for one. We could harvest rainwater, but anything like that would not be pressurized water, it would be pure gravity feed, so a "trickle" of water. Alternatively, we could do something with 5 gallon buckets, but, again, it would be a gravity feed trickle.

 

layin pipe

Immediately outside the foundation, I dug a hole large enough to fit the 5 gallon bucket and then realized that I can't just stop there. The pipe that feeds from the shop side needs to be in place too. So, I measured to find the spot where the pipe needed to pass and dug about 18 inches down, and about a foot across inside the shop gravel at the spot I had measured. Then, I tunneled under the foundation with the hand digger. Once I was able to pass a short stretch (about a meter) of 2" pipe between the holes, I located and drilled holes in the bucket for the 2" pipe to enter/exit the bucket. At some point, I figured I would put a bucket on the shop side similar to the surge tank, but this bucket would be intended dry. Inside, would be where I would add a pee-trap, but I'm not sure if this little system would necessarily need one. Something to think about while it's raining.

Piping and Filling

I hit the local home improvement store for a collection of 2" pipe bits, but only really needed another 10' of pipe, a butt joint, something to put on the pipe ends to fill the space between the pipe and the bucket and some pipe cement. With the goodies in hand, I joined together the pipes with cement and after they set (10 minutes), I sent the completed 25' of pipe from the hole up the trench to the bucket outside the shop. I added a collar to that pipe, with cement, and then fit it into the hole in the bucket. To test the system, I poured a gallon of water into the pipe at the bucket and quickly walked down to the other end. Most of the water had already left the pipe by the time I got there, so I took that as success.

 

draining

The rest of Sunday, and part of Monday was spent shoveling dirt from the mound at the foot of the black walnut tree into the grey water trench and the 2 foot deep 2 foot wide channel. With the trenches filled in, the rains can begin and we can feel comfortable that neither we, nor our friends nor our pets will trip and fall into one of the open trenches. We still don't know what we are going to do back there. Maybe we'll let it get overtaken by wild flowers or we'll seed it for grass or we'll put a food producing garden back there or it will just get wood chips. At this point, since it is space we have never used before, we haven't a preconceived notion.

Wrap Up 

As you can see from the image at the top, as compared to some of the others, what was once a hazardous place to walk around has become relatively flat and hazard-free. As I figure out how to make something work inside the shop in terms of a floor drain or a dry sink, I'll post on it. Long term, it would be really nice to have, like, a composting toilet and some low pressure water for washing hands out there. Even that would be pure luxury.

 

That's it for now. Thanks, as always, for following along- 

A Tale of Two Astras

In my last post, I said I had a relatively long story about a pair of Astras. Today, I'll tell that, and provide an update on K'Lack. I don't have pictures, because, honestly, most of this story isn't mine, and Ang didn't take pictures. She really does not "live thru her phone" like most people. Meaning, she doesn't take and share pictures as she trips through life. She experiences the moment at that moment and then moves on to the next one, living in the now. On to the tale-

 

Astras

I have mentioned Astra a few times. I provided some backstory to how we found her and why the Astra is so important to Ang here (See Moving into Shop). Basically, a Saturn Astra is an Opel Kadett with a new name and Ang's first car was an Opel Kadett. When we were having to use the jump box often, she started to get down on it. Then K'Lack broke and Krista needed a car, so Ang lent her Astra while Ang drove the truck (and I drove Hapy). Krista didn't like Astra very much, and Ang got to thinking about buying a new car that didn't have all of these problems. So, I dipped into craiglist and found... another Astra. This time, it was the top-of-the-line model which had been driven / cared for by someone who really loved this car. Everything worked on it. It had less than 60k miles on it, and then it was ours. I think Ang drove it for about a week before she let Krista borrow it. We had it just long enough to name it Frankie.

 

Astra Heads North

It was around this time that a friend of Angela's (they have known each other since 3rd grade) found herself in a bit of a bind. Her housing of over 25 years was being sold out from under her and she needed to solve for housing in rural western Canada without a car. And so started an odyssey. Ang resolved to getting Astra as functional as possible. That meant getting the alignment done, the tires rotated, the oil changed, filters etc. with a plan to drive to Canada to help her friend. She got a full read-out of everything that was done and every minor thing the tech's found and added that to the file she took to Canada. Soon, her plan to drive there became a plan to drive there and give Astra to her friend. So, in her limited spare time in the evenings she learned how to export a car from the US and did all that paperwork.

 

Ang finished her usual workweek on a Tuesday evening and left from there northward on I-5. Astra drove great and she landed just outside Olympia at a Super8/Motel6 for the night. The following morning, she drove up the Olympic Peninsula and hopped the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria BC. Prior to leaving, Ang had done all of the vehicle export steps and had her paperwork in order. Unfortunately, her friend had not completed the import paperwork and was not at the border to meet her with that paperwork. So, the importing would need to take place in Nanaimo. Apparently because her paperwork was not in order, Ang was waved into the deep customs inspection area where they disassembled parts of the car and re-installed things. This included, for some reason, removing the wheels and putting them back on. Undeterred, Ang drove north on the Canada1, finding a motel just outside Victoria. The next day, she completed the drive north past Nanaimo to Courtenay where her friend lives.

 

Oh Canada

Importing a vehicle into Canada requires the vehicle passes an inspection. That seems totally reasonable as it prevents Americans (and others) from using Canada as a vehicle dumping ground. During inspection, they identified 2 lugs which were striped. Since the wheels had just been rotated and the tech's found nothing interesting, we have concluded that the customs folks jacked up the lugs during re-install of the wheels. For this reason, and the horn not working (it had been temperamental) caused the car to fail inspection. Angela's friend had 30 days to get the car fixed and re-inspected in Nanaimo or the car could not be imported. Since the car was officially exported from the US, she also couldn't come home. It was get fixed or get crushed time.

 

To Vancouver

Ang helped her friend look at some places to live and then Ang needed to get home. The original plan included her friend driving Ang at least as far as Nanaimo to catch the ferry over to Vancouver where Ang would catch the Amtrak to Portland. Instead, Ang bought a flight home, flying out of Comox (neighboring town to Courtaney. At this point, we learned that the passport id card is only valid for land travel across a border. If you want to fly, you must use the booklet, which Angela left here. While they let her board the flight from Comox, her flight from Vancouver to Portland was canceled. Instead, she would have to take a bus from Vancouver to Seattle where they rebooked her to fly home to Portland.

 

This travel all happened on the Sunday that one of the larger regional Canadian airlines went on strike. So, while her flight from Comox to Vancouver was relatively calm, the scene in the Vancouver airport was bordering on chaos. And, land travel options were disappearing fast as those with canceled flights because of the strike were vying for whatever they could find. This included bus and trains into the US.

 

Angela grabbed a Lyft to the train/bus station, ticket in hand, and talked to the ticket person at the counter. The computers were down because of course but the ticket counter person said that while her in-hand ticket was for tomorrow, the driver would let her ride today. That proved incorrect as the unpleasant driver had no interest in talking to anyone about anything other than accepting a ticket for that specific bus ride. So, now Ang found herself in a not-too-safe part of Vancouver, the afternoon turning to evening, no ride across the border, no personal transportation, a dead cell phone and no housing plan. As her phone charged at the nearest bar, we talked about options. That weekend there were multiple events taking place in Vancouver (the annual Pride parade and ComiCon, eg) so options were slim and expensive. Most options were far away from where she was and where she needed to be to board the morning bus to Seattle. The place we thought we found had no front desk and everything was done virtually. As she tried to book, the price kept going up. While wrestling with their booking site, she befriended someone who walked her to a place with an actual front desk and an available room. It wasn't big. It didnt have it's own bathroom, but it was expensive and had a lock on the door. It's funny how far down the bar goes as evening turns dark.

 

Thru Seattle 

Early the next morning, Ang caught another Lyft to the train/bus station and was through customs before 7AM. She hopped the bus, driven by the same unpleasant guy who wouldn't talk to her the night before. The bus was delayed passing through northern Washington to the point where she missed her original flight. I swear, you can't make this stuff up. Ang got a hold of the folks at United before the gate closed and got moved to another flight, freeing up her seat for a stand-by person. Her later flight was 4 hours later, but that provided time to unwind, and decompress a little bit before the final legs of her journey home. Still, spending 4 hours in the busy SEA/TAC airport is not remotely 'unwindy'. It is not comfortable, nor quiet, nor without lurkers so those 4 hours felt longer than the 8 hours we were stuck at Portland International Airport (PDX) last June.

 

And Home 

Fortunately, the flight was uneventful, boarding, leaving and arriving on time. Since she was now arriving at rush hour, she insisted I not drive the 60+ minute drive to PDX and instead meet her at a Tri-Met light-rail stop. The light rail from PDX is actually very easy. The train line ends there, so there is usually a train sitting there waiting for you to get onto. She had about 15 minutes of sitting before the train pulled out and then about an hour on the train. Then, at the stop one before the one I was meeting her at, all the westbound trains were held for 20 minutes because of an issue on the line well west of where she was getting off. Seriously, you just can't make this stuff up. I literally teared up when I saw her get off the train, so grateful her perilous adventure had come to and end. We hit one of our favorite local Japanese restaurants on the way home.

 

We learned last week that Astra has passed inspection, and she is wearing new Canadian license plates.

 

K'Lack Update

Ian found the issue that was causing us continued issues. He has lots of diagnostic tools and he found that the voltage range being sent from the crank position sensor was below the minimum for the computer to have a reliable reading. The part was new, and I installed it.... lying on the ground on top of wood chips. Apparently I did not seat the sensor exactly square in the hole. So, the sensor was pointing at a slight angle. When he removed the sensor to see what was going on, he saw the o-ring was pinched more on one side than the other, adding credence to the theory. He replaced the o-ring, cleaned out the hole and the edge before re-installing the same sensor. He was able to gain a better angle on the part and was able to seat it squarely. After multiple tests runs, he handed it over to me. Ang and I drove K'Lack exclusively for a few days, putting nearly 150 miles on it. K'Lack drove great, no codes were thrown, so Ang took it through DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) / smog testing. It passed, and with new stickers applied, we traded cars with Krista, putting Frankie back in our driveway.

 

I admit that at least part of the problem with getting K'Lack running was my long-lived dislike for the car. It has been the problem-child since it first arrived from Kai. Did I rush the sensor install? I don't think so, but I was lying in wood chips in the sun on a hot day. Perhaps, if I had had room in the shop to to the work, or made the room to do the work, we could have avoided some unpleasantness this summer.