Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 07, 2009 10:17 am Hi guys,
Has anyone requested or had their houses built 'grey water ready' with any of the volume builders. I am considering building with PD and I am wondering if it can be done, and what cost I should expect. What I mean by 'Grey Water Ready' is having the waste water pipes from ensuite, showers, bathroom and laundry exposed outside the external walls rather than through the slab into the sewage/storm water drains. By having the pipes accessable, can install various 'grey water diverters' etc so that grey water can then be used on the gardens. An example of what I mean can be found on the below link. http://www.enviro-friendly.com/greywate ... alve.shtml All my 'wet areas' are on the dead side of the house so I am not that concerned about aesthetics. I think it would be a lot more convenient to have this diverter installed rather than showering with buckets etc to water the garden. I am interested to hear about your comments. Built in now city 2009, now moving to the country to embark on another build. Check out our previous blog http://ourpalazzo.blogspot.com/ Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 2Jan 07, 2009 10:24 am Good luck with that. Put your hard hat and your body armour on.... you're about to step into a minefield.
See how you go though. Good luck. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 3Jan 07, 2009 10:31 am What do you mean? Don't you think they would do it?
Also, is it correct that you cannot use a water tank that is plumbed to the toilets with a 'tank flush' system on the gardens as well?? Built in now city 2009, now moving to the country to embark on another build. Check out our previous blog http://ourpalazzo.blogspot.com/ Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 4Jan 07, 2009 10:35 am Most of the volume builders just aren't ready to deal with such things. And it becomes a major drama.
As far as I'm aware, if your tank is plumbed to the toilets it can't be used for the gardens. Not sure on that though. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 5Jan 07, 2009 10:37 am Jas 'n' Rach What do you mean? Don't you think they would do it? Also, is it correct that you cannot use a water tank that is plumbed to the toilets with a 'tank flush' system on the gardens as well?? Not true see: http://www.savewater.com.au/uploads/pdf ... ne2007.pdf Quote: Toilet flushing: A toilet can use up to 12L per flush so installing a tank to toilet system can lead to major water savings. An average person uses 20L of water in the toilet per day or 210L per week. We recommend a system with an automatic diversion directly from mains water if the rainwater tank is empty. We do not recommend a trickle top up system as this legally changes the whole tank to mains water which means it cannot be used on the garden during water restrictions. Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 6Jan 07, 2009 10:40 am joles Most of the volume builders just aren't ready to deal with such things. And it becomes a major drama. As far as I'm aware, if your tank is plumbed to the toilets it can't be used for the gardens. Not sure on that though. Our rainwater tank currently captures all of the water from the roof & is plumbed to the washing machine, toilets & garden taps. When the level in the tank is too low, it just switches back to use mains water. Not sure if this is the norm though. Our builder just followed the NSW Basix recommendations. We don't capture any greywater, just rainwater. We are loving living in our new home ! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... &start=315 Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 7Jan 07, 2009 10:41 am I think you'll have a struggle. They don't seem to like doing things that are "out of the ordinary". If it's too much trouble, the big builders simply say they can't do it, or quote an outrageous price to put you off.
I'm not sure how you'd go with an occupancy permit either, unless diverters were already in place and possibly a storage tank or whatever system you plan to use. I don't know much about plumbing though, so it may not be an issue. You can always ask.... As for the rainwater tank, the idea is to not flush drinking water down the toilets. So if you're pulling water out of the tank to give your thirsty plants a drink, you'll run down the supply and be back to flushing drinking water. That kind of defeats the purpose, unless of course you have a HUGE tank (and a collection area to match). We planned to add a second tank for the garden ourselves, but not having a lot of land, we're still considering where it will fit. Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 8Jan 07, 2009 10:43 am Rikster joles Most of the volume builders just aren't ready to deal with such things. And it becomes a major drama. As far as I'm aware, if your tank is plumbed to the toilets it can't be used for the gardens. Not sure on that though. Our rainwater tank currently captures all of the water from the roof & is plumbed to the washing machine, toilets & garden taps. When the level in the tank is too low, it just switches back to use mains water. Not sure if this is the norm though. Our builder just followed the NSW Basix recommendations. We don't capture any greywater, just rainwater. Rikster, the volume builders have pretty much got the rainwater thing going in Vic... it's the greywater that confuses them. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 9Jan 07, 2009 10:47 am I had a grey water diverter installed from my laundry to outside wall, like most laundries it is onto back or side of house so appearance there wasn't an issue for me either, builder agreed to install it without any drama - all I have to do now is install the actual piping ( easily available from hardware store) to reach the back garden - when I have one.
Re tanks, we were rather surprised to find that our tank which connects to flush toilet, does not have an outside tap so we cant water plants from it anyway - except by using inside tap- we requested an inside rainwater tap into the laundry, but thought there would also be an outside tap on the tank itself. We are now in the process of installing another small tank on the other side of the house which will be used for watering plants and for 'pure' rainwater to drink - ie will not be 'contaminated' with top up mains water like the main tank does when rainwater level in tank falls low. Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 10Jan 07, 2009 11:05 am Helyn,
Which builder did you use and how much did they charge to install the grey water diverter, and how much did they charge to add the rain water tap in the laundry (I assume you will use this water for your washing machine?). What size Tank does everyone have? And those that have moved in already.....was it big enough? Too big? Built in now city 2009, now moving to the country to embark on another build. Check out our previous blog http://ourpalazzo.blogspot.com/ Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 11Jan 07, 2009 11:25 am Our builder was McCracken Country Homes, relatively small builder, mainly does country SA (so not much help to you in Melbourne ).
The grey water diverta cost $506 to supply and install (and the piping itself will cost less than $100 from hardware store) so not a big outlay and then I can put my washing machine water onto garden. We upgraded our tank from the standard 1000L to 5000L, this cost $3150 which included plumbing a tap into the laundry. We actually intended the laundry tap to be for (shock, horror!) drinking water, the practice of drinking rain water is very common in country SA although has been met with howls of protest by urbanites on this forum. That particular topic has been done to death on here and no intention of re-opening it, I had to agree to disagree with majority opinion on the issue but have no intention of changing my habits now. Unfortunately we didn't really think this idea through however, as the tank gets topped up by mains water whenever level falls too low (which is frequently since we only get 7 in rainfall a year here) and therefore the drinking quality of the rainwater is compromised by mixing with mains water. Hence we are getting smaller tank for 'pure' rainwater. If we'd thought it through properly we would of got 2 tanks in the first place and plumbed the small one which is not connected to mains water top ups, into inside. Oops, too late now. Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 12Jan 07, 2009 12:10 pm Council may have a problem with the grey water diverter better check first.
Helyn We upgraded our tank from the standard 1000L to 5000L, this cost $3150 which included plumbing a tap into the laundry. We actually intended the laundry tap to be for (shock, horror!) drinking water, the practice of drinking rain water is very common in country SA although has been met with howls of protest by urbanites on this forum. That particular topic has been done to death on here and no intention of re-opening it, I had to agree to disagree with majority opinion on the issue but have no intention of changing my habits now. In my rural residential area we are forced to drink from the rainwater tank and only when it is empty it switches to town water tank. In suburbia councils say no to drinking from rainwater tanks. Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 13Jan 07, 2009 12:18 pm I grew up on a farm in country WA and we always drank rain water. Was better quality than the 'town water'.
Obviously due to the contaminants (car exhausts pollution etc) it is not an option in the city. Built in now city 2009, now moving to the country to embark on another build. Check out our previous blog http://ourpalazzo.blogspot.com/ Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 14Jan 07, 2009 2:29 pm Hi,
We are building with Carlisle and asked them how much to have the plumbing accessible for grey water recycling - have seen the full treatment systems. They advised it would cost $6000 to have the plumbing made ready which was obviously an absurd price as they didn't really want to do the job. So as you could expect we didn't go with that idea. Dale. Building the Monaco 32 with Carlisle Homes Check out our blog for photos and progress reports: http://www.beigefreehouse.blogspot.com . Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 15Jan 07, 2009 2:35 pm Im in Perth but our builder had no issue including it in our contract. We ve got the plumbing for the greywater from showers, laundry, kitchen & rainwater tank for use in laundry & toilets. Think it was around $3000 for both. Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 16Jan 07, 2009 2:36 pm Hi again,
Just remembered an article I had seen last year regarding Porter Davis and grey water recycling: http://www.infolink.com.au/c/Nubian-Wat ... es-n744938 So PD would seem to have the setup all under control. Ask the sales rep and see if they know the cost. Dale. Building the Monaco 32 with Carlisle Homes Check out our blog for photos and progress reports: http://www.beigefreehouse.blogspot.com . Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 17Jan 07, 2009 8:53 pm It will also depend on where you are building. We are currently building with PD in Highlands and we have been plumbed to grey water from Werribe treatment plant as this is an estate requirement.
I am sure that if they can do this for us they may be able to help you out. If you don't ask you don't know!!! Good luck Sharon & Paul ********************* Creating Youngs Castle Heywood 29 in Craigieburn http://youngscastle.blogspot.com/ Re: Grey water ready plumbing with volume builders? 18Jan 07, 2009 9:14 pm Sorry, just saw this. We built with PD, and we were going to have the Nubian Grey Water system installed post build , so PD were going to build the house 'grey water ready". It was all organised, but prior to contract signing one of the Big Guys from PD rang DH to say that we were the first people in Vic to ask for this, but they had done it on 2 houses in NSW, and had had a lot of trouble with it - the houses stank, basically!
Because we have 6 toilets, (and 4 of them upstairs) we weren't prepared to take the risk, so we didn't go ahead with it. But, PD will certainly do it for you - unless they've changed their policy on this (we signed up in June 2007!) Solidarity, not solidity.......The Lexicon of Life go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110525 Hi, Seeking volume or semi-custom builder in victoria(east), which have existing double story wide floor plans. Seeking 18-20m wide homes with depth of 12-15m long. Or… 0 25159 i did click it, still couldnt make it out rofl. in any case, doesnt look like too extreme a slope, you may be in luck. Just shoot out some emails to volume builders in… 3 18545 |