French drain for washer water

[LBrown59]

I live in rural Mississippi. I own all the land around my house, a 50 acre spread. I need to get the washer off my septic system. I cut the washer drain pipe out of the system and ran the pipe about 50' away from the house. There's a good grade the pipe is running down. I am going to have a good sized hole dug for a french drain. That's where I need some ideas. The land around here is sandy red clay. How big should I dig the hole? Can I use road gravel for the drain? How much dirt should I put back over the gravel? I suppose I can use tar paper to cover the gravel, after I am done. Any advice would be helpful.

I don't think this is allowed here not sure but I think every thing has to go into the septic tank.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've been to allot of rural homes where they have a line that just runs out to the bushes for gray water. Some that are fairly close tend to stay attract bugs, but in other cases, I've seen where the discharge is a couple hundred feet away from the house and if you didn't know it was there, you'd never find it. I asked a plumber about it one time and how do people keep the critters from crawling up those lines? His reply was that nothing would want to. Even with bio degradable soap, it's not appealing to animals.

Eddie

 

[greenmule]

The end of mine sticks out over a bank[hill],its about 4 ft from any dirt.

 

[radioman]

I live in rural Mississippi. I own all the land around my house, a 50 acre spread. I need to get the washer off my septic system. I cut the washer drain pipe out of the system and ran the pipe about 50' away from the house. There's a good grade the pipe is running down. I am going to have a good sized hole dug for a french drain. That's where I need some ideas. The land around here is sandy red clay. How big should I dig the hole? Can I use road gravel for the drain? How much dirt should I put back over the gravel? I suppose I can use tar paper to cover the gravel, after I am done. Any advice would be helpful.

You need a drywell, especially with the claylike soil. However you mentioned sandy too so perhaps a french drain or a sock covered perforated pipe terminated to the drywell would be best. basically dig as wide you can (body width) and at least 2-3 ft down, or deeper then the frostline. I wouldn't mess with gravel if you have alot of fist size stones around on your lot. with 50 acres, I am sure a previous farmer has a pile somewhere. I would fill the drywell to the top with 6 inches left to fill with soil. cover with landscape fabric and then cover with soil. Once the grass grows over the whole thing, you will never know it was there.

 

[Dale Binkley]

Try lining the hole for the drywell with landscape fabric, then fill with your stone. This will help keep the well from filling in with dirt so quickly. This is the way I have always seen it done. Otherwise you will eventually have to dig up a new hole and start all over again.

 

[Tig]

My parent's dry well took in the wash machine discharge. They had problems with the soap scum lining the pit and preventing drainage. Any one else have that problem?

 

[Jimbrown]

I ran mine out from the house about 100ft with 2 1/2 inch pipe and the dug a trench about 60ft long put down about 60 ft of 5 in perforated pipe ran the 2 1/2 up inside the perforated about 6 ft and then covered it with large rocks no dirt. It works just fine. Arizona encourages the use of gray water.

 

[JB4310]

My parent's dry well took in the wash machine discharge. They had problems with the soap scum lining the pit and preventing drainage. Any one else have that problem?

That's why I think a trench may be better than a hole, I do drainage work and we have a little laugh when ever anyone mentions a dry well, we call them "wet wells". around here we have alot of areas that are just pure clay, I mean the type you can put on a potters wheel and make a bowl! Once the drywell fills with water the first time, that's it, it's got a finite capacity and takes forever to dry out again.

People think they can manage storm water with a drywell, I tell them that with a drywell when they need it the most it will fail the worst, I know that's not good English but just trying to make it simple.

Of course storm water and a washers discharge is not a fair comparison. but usually the deeper you go, the soil is less permeable and the walls and bottom lining of the dug hole can become clogged, (not just by soap scum). The use of filter fabric for lining can exsasperate the problem. IMO a trench can be made long enough to have much more permeable surface area, higher in the ground than even a large drywell.

I said if the trench system ever failed then another could be dug next to it, but even easier would be to just extend it further to provide more area for percolation.

As a side note:
In our built up suburban area there are almost no septic systems left, as I was growing up the few systems that were remaining were getting to the end of their serviceable life and the "honey pot" was often in the neighborhood to do a clean-out.
Whenever we would see that truck coming, every kid on the block would follow it to watch them do there dirty work, it was great entertainment, you'd think a Hollywood actor was in the neighborhood with all the kids trying to get a look

JB.