Looking for a less-than-legal drainage solution....

[BuilderBabe]

We have a weekend property and will be doing reno. We have a septic holding tank (cannot do field here). I have teenagers (think long showers) so in order to minimize the number of times per year I have to have the tank pumped, I'd like to divert the shower and maybe bathroom sink drain to a smaller holding tank (maybe a 10 or 15 gallon drum with a sump pump in it?) and pump that onto the flower garden (or lawn, if a sump pump has the guts to run a sprinkler). I'm sure this isn't legal, but frankly the lawn really needs the water, it would save me money on pumping fees, and I don't see how it would hurt anything so long as I buy the right shampoo and handsoap.

But this is only a seasonal property, so I don't actually want this to be a permanent diversion. We sometimes spend time there in late fall or early spring when it is cold enough to freeze outside, and wouldn't want that secondary system in use then, so I'm looking for some kind of gate valve or diverter valve that I could turn from the basement. What I'm picturing is something like what I use on my outside hoses at home, but for pvc and sturdy enough to last in a residential plumbing scenario.

Anybody got ideas? (Go ahead and tell me all the reasons this is frowned upon, too, if there are actual good reasons aside from simple illegality)

 

[MicEd69]

You are actually wrong as many places allow "grey water" to be diverted to drain to places other than a septic system. Even if you have a drain field, diverting grey water to a lawn reduces the hydraulic demand of the field and increases its life. Just do a search for septic diverter valves and you'll see several valves that will work. I'm not sure how your sewer piping runs, but what you want to do is very feasible.

 

[BuilderBabe]

septic diverter valves

Thank you! I'm still looking but for anybody viewing this post in the future, "Bull Run valve" is a useful search term. (I need a 2" but am only finding 4" bull run valves).

 

[MicEd69]

Are you saying that the line running to your septic tank is only 2"? Or are you intercepting your grey water sources before they get into your main sewer?
If it is the latter and as you are apparently looking at doing this without a permit, since you thought that this was not legal, as you will not be having solids flowing through the line, you could simply use a 3-way PVC pool valve.

 

[BuilderBabe]

Are you saying that the line running to your septic tank is only 2"? Or are you intercepting your grey water sources before they get into your main sewer?
If it is the latter and as you are apparently looking at doing this without a permit, since you thought that this was not legal, as you will not be having solids flowing through the line, you could simply use a 3-way PVC pool valve.

I want to intercept before it gets to the main. We'll be re-doing the whole shebang in the bathroom, starting from scratch. So I'll have an initial permit, but was intending to add this after the final inspection.
I saw that valve after your initial response, and it would be ideal assuming 1) it can be installed with the control handle facing downward for access from under the bathroom, and 2) is a decent quality. I know you plumbers are appropriately selective as to brand and I saw that on Amazon too, which is sometimes red-flaggy. Is Pentair good? And you can just glue white pvc into that?

 

[MicEd69]

Pentair is worldwide company that has a good reputation. They have many lines of water handling products. And yes, you can glue white PVC to grey PVC.

 

[BuilderBabe]

Pentair is worldwide company that has a good reputation. They have many lines of water handling products. And yes, you can glue white PVC to grey PVC.

Thank you so much