The gravel less septic system we came up with....

 When looking up the different types of septic systems, we found that the gravel less system would work out the best for the area we had in mind for the septic drain fields.

This is from  http://www.cleanearthenvironmental.net/septic-systems.html : Gravel less conventional systems overcomes some of the drawbacks of graveled systems. These drain field systems consist of a series of connected chambers that are typically 15 to 40 inches in width. Typically these chambers are manufactured of molded high-density plastic in 10' to 12' foot lengths. Some systems include pipes within the chamber, others do not. CleanEarth Environmental exclusively uses the Infiltrator chamber system as we have found this system to most effective when allowed in Florida soils. Native soil is compacted slightly around the chambers to provide stability and then filled in above the chamber. When placed into service, waste water is carried by pipe from the septic tank to the chamber run and flows directly against the soil. As in the graveled system a bio mat forms on or near the soil level and works to consume solids that pass out of the septic tank. One real advantage of the chambered system is its ability to hold much larger amounts of water. This is useful in locales where the water table can rise close to the surface and in instances when there is a temporary surge as a result of extra guests. Obviously shock loading over prolonged periods of time is going to be detrimental to the biomat as oxygen will not be available to parasites during these periods. " Of course trying to do this build on a limited budget, Chris was able to come up with his version of the same system. He decided to use plastic barrels that we purchased from a car wash for $3 a barrel. After cutting one barrel up you end up with two sections or almost 5 feet of coverage. We ended up laying out about 120 feet of perforated pipe and covering it with these barrels. The cost of the barrels were around $70 and the pipe to lay in it was around $300. The holding tank itself is a poly tank that Chris found on Craigslist for $300. We were able to dig the trenches with the backhoe attachment on the tractor but were not able to dig the hole for the tank itself. The neighbor happens to have a backhoe and is willing to dig the hole for the tank in exchange for a frame to an RV that we had. So we should have a cost of less than $700 for our septic system, as long as the neighbor shows up with his backhoe. HOW THE BARRELS WORKED...

We took the barrels and marked the hole that the pipe would go through when we cut it in half.

We then used a sawzall to cut the barrels in half and a jigsaw to cut out the area for the pipe.

Then the bottom is cut out .

The end that was cut off is then attached to the center for support.

This is what the barrels look like when they are done.

We then dug a trench with the tractor and took a lazer level to make sure it was all level and started laying out the perforated pipe.

This is the pipe at the end to join the next section. It is a solid pipe and will not have barrels over it. The trenches that we dug make a back and forth pattern with the solid sections on opposite ends each time. This is the barrel being buried. We added another to the row after this picture. The barrels overlap by about half and are screwed together to hold them in place.

 
 

Black water/grey water split plumbing

Running the plumbing for the house. There will be four full baths so there is quite a bit of plumbing to do. The four inch pipes will run the black water( water from the toliet) and it will end up in the septic system. The rest of the water, grey water, will run through the 2 inch pipe and be sent to a well that is currently not used. The grey water will be stored there and used later to water plants.

Just a closer view of how the black and grey water are split.  "graywater is household waste water from all plumbing fixtures except toilet and garbage disposal, which is blackwater. Rural homeowners with individual sewage disposal septic systems commonly divert at least their washing machine water away from the septic tank. The longer your septic tank has time to settle out solids, the better. And the less bacteria killing soaps and detergents in your septic tank, the better. Diverting graywater also reduces the load carried by your septic system leach field, greatly extending its life expectancy and effectiveness. In recent years, attention has been drawn to recycling graywater to conserve water and make better use of its fertilizer potential. Phosphate rich soaps and cleaning chemicals are considered pollutants when discharged directly into waterways, primarily because they accelerate algae growth, which in turn leads to oxygen depletion for fish and other marine life. The beauty of this 'pollutant problem' is the fact that mild household cleaning supplies are excellent sources of nutrition as liquid fertilizer for irrigation of trees, privacy hedge rows, and ornamental planterbeds." (https://www.thenaturalhome.com/greywater.html)

This shows where the grey water will be diverted out to the left of the two trees will be the holding tank for the grey water.

To get the fall needed for the black water we had to dig down quite a bit because of the distance from one side to the other.

So, after the plumbing was set and we ran pipe for the electric to go through( because the floor will be concrete), we got to move about 8 ton of 3/4 inch rock into the circle. That was far from fun but at least we had some equipment to help us out.

We have only filled one of the circles so far. Our plan is to fill them with rock and then put up the grain bins. After the grain bins are up we will fill in the other areas with rock ( about 4 inches throughout). Eventually we will get to the rebar and radiant floor tubing that will run in all of the main floor of the house, and then comes the concrete.

Phase two of the tire footing...

After leveling the ground some we started the process of building forms for the concrete that will sit on top of the buried tires. To make the stakes for the forms, my brother-in-law Cale, came up with the idea of using leftover pieces of conduit that were cut by electricians on one of the jobsites Chris was working on. The leftover 2 feet of conduit are usually thrown away. There were enough to make most of the concrete stakes. We ended up having to buy a couple of sticks of conduit from the hardware store and that cost around $30. The pieces were cut into 2 foot pieces, two holes were drilled into the conduit to be able to attach them with screws to the boards that make up the forms, and the bottom was cut at an angle to be able to hammer it into the ground easier.

In this picture you can see that the size of the concrete beam that we will pour is not exactly equal in size to the tires.

Bending the forms around the curves of the grain bin was not easy. We had to use two 1/2 in boards because there was no way to bend an 1 board around that curve. The wood came from a pile at an auction ( we paid $5 for the whole pile because some of the boards were broken or molding) it was not the best quality wood but worked just fine for what we needed. It was only going to hold concrete and then be torn off and burned.

On the straight portions we were able to use 2x8 's, that we did save to re-use on other projects later.

We were able to get two piles of these sticks of rebar (already cut to the right length even) at an auction for $25 a  stack.

We had to drive sticks of rebar into the tires before pouring the concrete. The recommendation was to put one every two feet, we put them every  foot. When able to, we drove them into the tread of the tire. We found out quickly that it is tough to do. We had to weld a piece of rebar to make a T and then sharpen the end to pierce the tread by pounding it in with a sledge hammer. We then pulled that piece out and hammered in the straight piece of rebar that stayed in. If we put the rebar T in too far into the tire, we could not pull it back out and we had to manufacture a couple more of them because of this.

There is concrete!!!

10 yards of concrete delivered by two trucks. One of the trucks got stuck and they had to call a second truck to come and pull the first one out. It cost about $1000 for all the concrete footing.