Have shower...Water garden

Step 2 Plumbing

Disconnect drainage pipe from shower outlet under your house. Connect your pipe and fittings and run it along underneath your house in a way that pleases you to the edge of the house. Either have a small amount of fall in the pipe from the bathroom to the back of the house with the pipe tied onto the bearers and then use elbow joiners to make a vertical drop to the ground or do the vertical drop underneath the bathroom and run the pipe along the ground. I got my pipe for nothing. That's why it's painted funny colors as it was part of an art 'installation'. You may get lucky if you have some pipe lying around.

Boring, but important to read if you are actually going to make this system.
It is important to use a good length of PVC pipe before you start using the cheap poly pipe. It would be bad if the water from your shower was suddenly squeezed into a very small 19mm-3/4 inch pipe. I didn't try it but there would be a good chance of the water not been able to flow away fast enough and been forced to rise up back into your shower. My PVC pipe runs about 12 meters under the house before it gets to the back yard and joins up with the small pipe. If your bathroom is at the end of the house near your garden, then I'm afraid I can't give you any exact guidelines on how long the PVC pipe needs to be.

Comments

[shadowofblood]

Aw man, I was hoping to be able to do this instructable. Turns out our shower's drain pipe runs straight through the concrete foundation our house is on =(

[gemtree]

My idea, since I take baths instead of showers is to use a suction hose running to a pvc pipe that shoots thru the floor, hangs under the floor joists and runs to a barrel. Drip system from the barrel. I don't use soaps. Just stuff that is certified organics that can only be bought from the internet or a farmer's market locally.

[bauble]

gemtree, just some ideas for you: I don't think you need a barrel. Even though your bath water is untainted by soaps etc, it's probably best not to store it for too long. So why use a barrel? Just hook the bath water up directly to your drip system so that the water gets used straight away. Barrels make things complicated too as the barrel has to be lower than your bath outlet, but still a little bit higher than your garden. And remember to follow the principles in step 7. That is, block the far end of the pipe and have the holes closer to the top than the bottom. This way the pipe fills with water and then comes out all the holes evenly instead of gushing out of the first hole. It's always good to use what you've got laying around or readily available but I don't think it would be wise to use pipe any less than inch & a half/40mm in diameter.

[gemtree]

Ah, thanks, Bauble, I appreciate the comment but I have a huge yard. If I decant it to a barrel below the deck, the water will flow easier. I just have to siphon the water out of the tub. Save electricity that way. I may be able to use a small pump to get it going then shut it off. I have found once you get the siphon action going, you can turn the pump off and it will continue to drain. Then... have several spigots at the bottom edge of the barrel branching off to several areas of the yard. I have the barrels already. It would be very hard to find gutter that does not cost me an arm and a leg. I also have a spigot or two. I can also decant all the hand washing to the barrel. I am still trying to get the idea in mind but your idea definitely gave me some good ideas. I have learned from a few other 'ibles and actual local people that you need it to be a bit off the ground to get good pressure going from the barrel. I hope to be able to have water from the roof also go to barrels. I just hate wasting all this nice water from my home. Your gutter and hole position ideas really did make sense. I wish I could make concrete gutters but it might be kind of hard to lift them up enough to keep the flow going. But then, maybe larger pvc might work. Got to go look at prices at the local big hardware stores and check my freecycle group.

[bauble]

For another similar garden watering project I didn't have any old gutters. So I wanted to buy black flexible unslotted agi pipe.

In a big barn type hardware store, the agi pipe was much cheaper in the builder's section than in the garden section. And wider too, about 2 1/2 inches/65mm which suited me. From memory the builders pipe was about the same price as the garden pipe but twice the length.

Good luck with all your ideas.

[gemtree]

Thanks for the great inspirations and the advice. It really does help, you know. Especially this last one about the different areas to buy the pipe. :)