Water and Septic Systems Can Be Tricky in a Little House
Part I – Deciding on a Water System that Best Suits Your Needs
By Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell
Water systems and sewage disposal can be a tricky thing when you are building a tiny house in the country.
This has been an issue for us since we built our Little House over six years ago. First, we had to decide on the water system. During construction, we were running out of funds, so we first had a huge tank system and water was trucked in. That was expensive at $140 a load, (I’m not sure of the tank size, but it was huge). However, when we didn’t live here full time, it worked. I think we typically had to buy 2-4 tanks per year.
Photo Credit Kevin Pieper (Mother Earth News)
After we moved here full time, it just wasn’t economical. Even with trying to conserve water, we went through 1 tank every 2-4 weeks.
We decided to go for it and have a well dug. We estimated the cost, but wells are tricky. The person ¼ mile down the road might have lucked out and hit clean water at a shallow depth, but of course, that wasn’t our experience.
For three days, they kept digging and hitting only mud caves. They finally found water when we were $5,000 over budget. When it started spewing and they told me they had finally hit a source that would eventually run clear, I started yelling as if we had just struck gold!
Since our “clear” water still comes out muddy and is filtered through a small filtration system we can afford, we opt not to drink it, which causes more issues with plastics, etc.
The thing is, when you’re building in the country, you have limited choices for water.
Two other options include:
- Rainwater system that catches the rain. The upside is that if you live in a wet area, this can work and it is free. The downsides are drought and questionable cleanliness for drinking water.
- If you’re building a small house on someone else’s property, hooking up to their system.
Other things to take into account when choosing a water system is to research if your jurisdiction has codes for water systems. For example, when we built our Little House, all that was required was that we have running water, they didn’t care where we drew it. Now, it seems, they require a well to be dug.
We are going to have the county test our water, and if it doesn’t come back too contaminated, I would also like to find an affordable filtration system that will allow us to shed the plastic bottles and drink the water from the well.
We would like to hear your experiences with outfitting your tiny house – or country home – with water and any experience you have with affordable filtration systems that would allow us to drink the well water from our tap.
On, December 4, I’ll write a post on waste disposal in a tiny house.
Kerri’s Little House in the Big Woods is featured in the December/January issue of Mother Earth News starting on page 68. She blogs about life in 480-square feet at www.livinglargeinourlittlehouse.com
18 Responses to “Water and Septic Systems Can Be Tricky in a Little House”
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We have a creek, other neighbors have springs, seeps, or drilled wells.
Everyone I know who shares water systems regrets it. Water (especially during dry periods) is such a vital thing it quickly becomes a source of contention and worry.
i’ll start by adding, I’m long overdue writing about plumbing, water and waste for small homes as a professional for Kent’s blog site
One of the big mistakes is to fall in love with a location without understanding basic needs like water and onsite waste treatment. Many tiny homes fall under the radar of building inspectors and jurisdictions and for good reason. Those of us on the front edge of smaller is better tend to exclude what sometimes is a daunting task of approval through building departments. Non the less, following code which was written to protect health and promote safety, just makes good common sense..
Part 2. Any rural water source in the US today is going to have a set of challenges not faced 50 years ago. Cost is the first. In my area of northern central coastal California wells can range from $35 a ft+ and that does not mean water. Surface water including creeks, spring boxes and lake have a host of environmental issues even the EPA make clear. I my area we have ph from 5.9 to nearly 9, iron from none to over 50 ppm, HS2, manganese, salt water intrusion, high nitrates sometimes at 200 ppm in rural farm lands, contaminated streams and creeks from upstream neighbors failed septic systems and a growing concern of pharm runoff.
Part 3; Water Needs
If you are living with a one bath and kitchen that means each plumbing fixture has a value for both required flow and disposal. A kitchen sink equals 2 fixture units or 2 cubic ft per minute drain capacity which gets into plumbing design for an article later. a toilet or water closet can be 4-6 units, a lav sink 1.5 units and a shower 2-4 units. the total design flow for this would be 2.75 GPM for the shower, 1.25 for the lave sink, 1.29 gpf (toilet) and 2.25 for the kitchen sink. That is a total requirement for design of over 12 gallons per minute capacity of flow. For each person, a minimum according to the american water works Association is a daily 120 pallon. In my area actual use is an average of 70 gallon. in my house it is 22 gallons per person. Depending on fixtures and personal habits. flow and volume, vary. this does need to be on paper before ever considering building and occupancy especially when 6 friends show up to share a meal in your 120 sq ft palace.
Part 4; Waste Treatment
Onsite waste treatment and disposal is changing so fast. In California, many areas require not passive septic systems but aerobic digesters to reduce nitrates and biological oxygen demand. Here a distance of 175″ must separate septic from the well of house. However the septic tank can be as close as 5′ from the dwelling. Caution in off the grid systems must be taken as to not allow waste runoffs into a watershed, stream, creek or lake. large algae blooms are evidence of failed septic systems many times. A pre manufactured septic or aerobic is advisable and these add to the cost of a fixed loaction tiny house.
Thank you, Arlos, for your post. Very informative.
$140 per Tank
2-4 weeks usage per week
Average 3 weeks per tank
52 weeks/3 weeks = 17.3 Tanks x $140 = $2426
$5000 OVER budget
$2426 x 2 years of water haul= $4852
I’m not sure of your actual Budget but this scenario just helps reinforce that people need to consider cost-effectiveness before jumping in.
You’re right, Matt, everyone needs to consider the true cost.
Wells are tough to estimate because you never know just where the water will be. Our neighbors found water at a very shallow depth so we had a range. I say $5,000 over budget, because it was $5,000 over the lowest end of what we expected. I guess I could just as easily say we were $5,000 under because it didn’t hit the ceiling of the worst case. The good news is that we got rid of that ugly tank in our yard and we will never (hopefully) have to spend another dime on water again. As well, that huge diesel truck carrying water is expending more energy and pollution coming way out here.
In my area there is community piped water but not septic. In order to hook into the water you need to have an individual septic sytem which can be quite pricey (around $25,000 for my thickly treed steep hillside). Since I’m only there part time I have a “bucket and chuck it” system using 5L camping water jugs and grey water disposal pit as well as a sawdust composting toilet. The neighbours let me get water from their place but I don’t like to build up obligations. Hopefully by the time I’m able to full time it I’ll be able to afford the septic system. Unfortunately it doesn’t make any difference if you don’t intend to use flush toilets or not, you still need to build as though one was being installed. If you’re going to use rainwater collection systems make sure you don’t use asphalt shingles, they can contaminate the water. The price of my lot was considerably cheaper than most others, but if you add the cost of the septic system it ends up being about the same. The only difference being that it gave me a chance to delay that portion of the expenses and still have a place to go in the meantime.
Thanks for those suggestions, Alice.
I do not have a tiny house yet. We are looking at land at the moment. I just joined this blog. I am so glad I did. You have given me something to think about when we are comparing land prices. We will need to take into account how we will get a reliable source or water. We plan on using grey water, a composting toilet and a rain catchment system. But we live in the Southwest and the rain is as fickle as a pickle. So even if a property sounds like a steal it may not be if there is no water. Thanks for reminding me.
Great advice so far. Arlos is spot on.
These days it is easier than ever to get information. Many states have Well reports/logs posted online that can be searched by location, number, owner…
The USDA has an excellent soil map that not only describes area soils and rates their suitability for things like septic, roads, basements, agriculture, flooding…
Using these sources will help you determine if that “deal” you are getting is really a good one.
Grey water comprises about 35% of the total water generated by an average household and is ideal for gardening. With a little more effort it can be cleaned enough for recharging a toilet even further reducing potable water consumption.
We are going to try and exhibit at next years West Coast Green in San Francisco with our combined aerobic digester/ methane digester and collection system/ algea micro farm (to assist cleaning waste water and sequester CO2 from gas burning appliances) before then I hope we can complete a transportable version of this for above ground installations that is ideal for the small house community.
Bigger is not sustainable! After nearly 40 years in the building trades I’ve seen the failure of the entire system during several recessions that only forces people to work harder to pay down debt that they never should have been forced to. This is not how we were meant to live but I digress here. Learn to live simply!!!
At our tiny place we have the extra concern of being in a natural bio-aquifer…we don’t want to discharge any pollutants into the surroundings, but the outhouse hole probably does exactly that every spring thaw. I have heard about poo composter systems but they require kilowatts which we don’t have…there is obviously plenty of water for us to tap into but we want to do so responsibly. We are considering a well but it will be a big expense…I agree consider your water source/septic when you buy your land.
Dry composting toilets like Sun Mar are great. The optional power vent requires such low energy consumption that a small solar panel and an inverter with a computer back up battery would most likely be all you need.
Thanks Arlo! You are a wikipedia of Tiny House living!
My experience 19 years ago: Had a property in the country, near Lake Oroville, Ca. We had an artesian spring, filling a below ground tank, with a pump, that supplied house water. We had a 5000 gallon above ground tank, that filled from “Irrigation Ditch” water that was not potable, or necessarily reliable. So we drilled a well…which only put out 2.5 gallons per minute. Hardly enough to pump to the house. But it was enough to install a submersible, solar pump arrangement, which could pump all day long into the big tank. Eventually, after one no-rainfall year, the ditch ran dry, and we were happy that our “half-price” well was operational. Just before moving to the city, our septic-tank erupted and we had to replace the dang thing!
Good luck in your endeavors
Thank you, everyone, for chiming in. It’s these kind of discussions that might help the vast array of readers on Kent’s blog!