Home workshops and septic tanks?

[ROUSTABOUT]

What do most of you do with home workshops and septic tanks? Auto waste?

I'm planning on building a new workshop, and doing some auto restoration, generally just me working. Probably some painting. No floor drain (except the shower). Maybe a utility sink, and bathroom sink. However, the goal is to avoid large amounts of shop waste of ending up in the septic. The dump should have chemical disposal.

I could have oily wash water. Washing rags?

I don't really know if there is anything else I can do.

What about power washing outside? Or should I take any vehicle to a commercial car wash? Sand blasting?

I don't know how much liquid waste I'll have. I could build a float tank that could do basic separation of water and oils, although detergents would cause greater mixing.

We've had a shop with a septic for 28 years. This is at a commercial farm. Floor drain goes outside, not in tank. Oil spills get sawdust or floor dry. We don't intentionally wash oil down the drain. Where the drain runs out, looks good. We have spilled gallons of oil at times. Hydraulic blow outs. Fuel leaks.

 

[dfkrug]

When I was a broke teen working on motorcycles I washed some rags in the family washing machine. When I took them out I found there was a scum of oil in the washer. I cleaned it up before Mom discovered it or it messed up clothes.

Since then I use up the rags and throw them out. When they're too oily for wiping hands or parts they get used to wipe up spills on the floor.

Yeah, in the old days folks would buy those reddish shop towels, then wash them in the clothes washer. I still know one old dude (older than I am) who does that. I never do, as that makes no sense, and I have plenty of clean rags that get burned when too far gone.

 

[4570Man]

You shouldn’t put any wash water down a septic besides what dirt washes off your body when you’re showering.

 

[not2old]

Try to add a floor drain to your building plan and tell the building inspector what you are planning to do. Have fun!

I had a floor drain roughed in under 40" of fill for my shop. After talking to the building inspector I capped it and left it under the cement floor. no way was I going to install what they wanted. Oddly enough, I have floor drains in my garage that were installed before current regulations and I wish they weren't there.

 

[ponytug]

I'm with @oosik.

I do my vehicle washing at a car wash; it just isn't worth the chemical / oil waste issues at home. I try not to wash the tractor for the same reason. If I need to clean something for a repair, I put an oil drain pan under it and use non-chlorinated brake cleaner (acetone) to clean it, and capture the run off.

All the oils, coolant, chemicals go to a hazardous waste disposal site. If I don't want to eventually drink it, it gets captured and disposed of off site.

I wouldn't put a drain in the shop.

I'm in the "leave it nicer than you found it camp".

Weird hazardous waste story: A few years back while walking the pasture, I found an intact glass mercury switch 200' uphill from the house in the pasture. No idea how it got there. Pack rat? Magpie? Nothing on the ranch in recent memory would have had a switch anywhere near there. No power for one reason.

All the best,

Peter

 

[edgarrian]

Car washes aren't worth it. Thats why I have a drain in my garage. Soap isn't going to hurt anything. I can wash my truck in the winter or the summer. Its great. I really dont understand why you wouldn't have a drain in the garage or shop. Seems like a no brainer