Water butt / grey water

Savvy_Sue

So, full of enthusiasm we bought a water butt. Set it up yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised to find quite a lot of water in it today, didn't realise it had rained THAT hard overnight.

THEN I realised that the downpipe we've attached it to is also attached to the washbasin in the en suite.

So, obviously, I did a bit of a google.

It looks as if I can fit a diverter, if I can persuade someone to go up a ladder. Would there be a reason not to divert it back into the original downpipe below the water butt connection, rather than into the sewer pipe?

Meanwhile I can't store this water or it will smell, which isn't a huge issue, but will toothpaste and soap cause problems? It's not a heavily used facility!

BTW, I also found this on filters, but it looks like quite a bit of faff for a relatively small butt.

I don't really want to re-site the water butt, we chose this downpipe because there's a peculiar drain arrangement at the bottom so in heavy rain it regularly overflows even though it's not blocked. I thought this might help!

Primrose

Don't quite understand the technicalities of your query but if you're concerned about the amount of rainwater you might accumulate could you not fit two water butts up side by side and link them together with a short tube inserted between them at the top? Then when No 1 Butt fills up any surplus water automatically overflows into No 2 Butt. We have done this with two adjacent water butts and it works well but you may not have the necessary space for two.

arbrighton

My grandpa used to use similar grey water on his garden- probably for things other than veggies/ fruit. And his garden was *amazing*

Savvy_Sue

Primrose wrote: »

Don't quite understand the technicalities of your query but if you're concerned about the amount of rainwater you might accumulate could you not fit two water butts up side by side and link them together with a short tube inserted between them at the top? Then when No 1 Butt fills up any surplus water automatically overflows into No 2 Butt. We have done this with two adjacent water butts and it works well but you may not have the necessary space for two.

No, the issue isn't the amount of water, just the fact that it's grey water as well as rain water going into the butt, which will apparently smell and breed bugs if I store it in there.

arbrighton wrote: »

My grandpa used to use similar grey water on his garden- probably for things other than veggies/ fruit. And his garden was *amazing*

Yes, I can do that short term (although I expect the garden has drowned in rain this morning).

It's the storage issue ...

A friend has said 'easiest thing is to re-site the water butt to a different drain pipe', but THIS is the one which regularly has water sitting at the bottom of it! And it's not blocked, it's just awkward and can't easily be made to flow any better.

Primrose

Possibly if you Google "disinfecting water stored in water butts" you may be able to find some safe professional disinfectants which will keep the water in there free of bugs all year round. I imagine this might be more of a problem in the summer months when the water warms up.

andrewf75

We have a similar downpipe and its not one I'd connect a water butt to. Someone (an architect) recently commented that it wasn't technically legal. Sewage water should go into the sewer not into groundwater - which is where the rain drains go. If you have overflowing issues you might want to get it looked at because the drain may not be designed to take anything other than rainwater.

I_have_spoken

Maybe just use organic-type soap?

However, I'd also be concerned about an installation that connects the sink waste to the gutter downpipe rather than the soil stack. Even if your street has a single pipe foul-water/run-off sewer it's not a good idea.

Savvy_Sue

Thanks all.

For the moment, I have put my en suite out of bounds, and emptied the water butt of its mix of rain and grey water, mostly rain! So it will just be rain going into it now, while we think what to do ...

[Deleted User]

spit the toothpaste down the loo, just soap and water will be ok

Savvy_Sue

Well the good news is that I've just heard a friend who does plumbing etc is looking for work, so I'm going to get a quote from him to get it sorted 'properly'. If it's horrific, we'll think again ...

andrewf75

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Well the good news is that I've just heard a friend who does plumbing etc is looking for work, so I'm going to get a quote from him to get it sorted 'properly'. If it's horrific, we'll think again ...

would be interested to know how you get on. Ours causes no issues as we have no waterbutt on that downpipe and the drain works fine, but I know the bathroom water shouldn't be going in the rainwater drain and presumably we're polluting a watercourse somewhere as a result...