Nice tip on marking the pipe and couplings and then assembling at an easier location. That's a real back saver from being bent over a trench for a couple of hours. Thanks for sharing and have a blessed weekend my friend
The amount of forethought you put into your work is really amazing. I hate it when “future me” is pissed at “past me” because I didn’t think through the rest of the project.
Awesome build! Found your video because that’s exactly what I’m about to do. I want to add my downspout & new outdoor shower drains together and then drain properly out into yard. Do you think a dry well would be good for a home in Florida? I’m just worried on some of our torrential downpours it’d fill up to fast?? Or is that size tank totally big enough to hold all the gutter water? What size pvc are you using? Can i find that and the gutter to pvc attachment at like a home depo?
This is 4" ADS/NDS drainage pipe. The fittings and pipe cost much less than Schedule 40. You should be able to find all of the parts and pieces at Home Depot. Depending on how worried you are about the downpours then there are a few different options to go with. You can connect multiple of these dry wells together or surround one with a lot of extra rock. The good thing about dry wells is that they offer a lot more space than just a hole full of drainage rocks but if you plan on draining the water to an open field where you might run over it with a truck or tractor then your best bet will just be a hole full of drain rocks. I used solid pipe here but you can use perforated pipe surrounded by rock to disperse the water as it flows. You just want to be sure that where ever you decide to redirect the water is down hill and has a stable base. Forcing a lot of water in one area is liable to erode the surrounding dirt or sand so you want to do a very good tamp job on your rocks and dirt. Depending on how far you need to run the pipe you will probably be looking at around $250-300 all in with the the dry well, rocks, pipe, fittings, and landscape fabric. Possibly cheaper if you just decide to drain directly into rocks. It's a fairly simple process and whatever you decide to do will be effective. Just think like water and you will be fine.
Yes, but there are a few factors to consider. Size of the family, length of showers, showerhead GPMs, and soil/stone porosity. Using a basic 2gpm showerhead you would get 25 minutes with the drywell if nothing was flowing into the ground. I used a little less than a cubic yard of rock under, around, and above the drywell. This 50 gallon drywell+rock and soil could handle a constant flow of water for many hours before you saw any soil saturation outside of the designated area. You could pretty easily test this with a hose before you sealed the drywell. Check how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket, divide by 5 to know how many gallons your hose is producing per minute. Stick it in the drywell and see how long it takes to saturate the soil and fill the tank. There's a chance the tank never fills, which is obviously ideal, but even if it did you can still see how long it took. My guess would still be hours, unless there's a layer of clay somewhere below where you're testing. Side note-these drywells are designed to be connected to each other pretty easily. You could put two next to each other or even 4 in a square to quickly jump that 50 gallons up to 100 or 200. I hope this helps.
Nice tip on marking the pipe and couplings and then assembling at an easier location. That's a real back saver from being bent over a trench for a couple of hours. Thanks for sharing and have a blessed weekend my friend
Hey Randall thanks for watching sir. You have a blessed weekend as well.
The amount of forethought you put into your work is really amazing. I hate it when “future me” is pissed at “past me” because I didn’t think through the rest of the project.
Thanks Charles, I appreciate that. Thank you for watching.
Awesome build! Found your video because that’s exactly what I’m about to do. I want to add my downspout & new outdoor shower drains together and then drain properly out into yard.
Do you think a dry well would be good for a home in Florida? I’m just worried on some of our torrential downpours it’d fill up to fast?? Or is that size tank totally big enough to hold all the gutter water?
What size pvc are you using? Can i find that and the gutter to pvc attachment at like a home depo?
This is 4" ADS/NDS drainage pipe. The fittings and pipe cost much less than Schedule 40. You should be able to find all of the parts and pieces at Home Depot. Depending on how worried you are about the downpours then there are a few different options to go with. You can connect multiple of these dry wells together or surround one with a lot of extra rock. The good thing about dry wells is that they offer a lot more space than just a hole full of drainage rocks but if you plan on draining the water to an open field where you might run over it with a truck or tractor then your best bet will just be a hole full of drain rocks. I used solid pipe here but you can use perforated pipe surrounded by rock to disperse the water as it flows. You just want to be sure that where ever you decide to redirect the water is down hill and has a stable base. Forcing a lot of water in one area is liable to erode the surrounding dirt or sand so you want to do a very good tamp job on your rocks and dirt. Depending on how far you need to run the pipe you will probably be looking at around $250-300 all in with the the dry well, rocks, pipe, fittings, and landscape fabric. Possibly cheaper if you just decide to drain directly into rocks. It's a fairly simple process and whatever you decide to do will be effective. Just think like water and you will be fine.
Is a 50-gallon tank enough for a family showering?
Yes, but there are a few factors to consider. Size of the family, length of showers, showerhead GPMs, and soil/stone porosity. Using a basic 2gpm showerhead you would get 25 minutes with the drywell if nothing was flowing into the ground. I used a little less than a cubic yard of rock under, around, and above the drywell. This 50 gallon drywell+rock and soil could handle a constant flow of water for many hours before you saw any soil saturation outside of the designated area. You could pretty easily test this with a hose before you sealed the drywell. Check how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket, divide by 5 to know how many gallons your hose is producing per minute. Stick it in the drywell and see how long it takes to saturate the soil and fill the tank. There's a chance the tank never fills, which is obviously ideal, but even if it did you can still see how long it took. My guess would still be hours, unless there's a layer of clay somewhere below where you're testing. Side note-these drywells are designed to be connected to each other pretty easily. You could put two next to each other or even 4 in a square to quickly jump that 50 gallons up to 100 or 200. I hope this helps.