How easy is it to install a sewage treatment plant yourself?

19 December 2020,

Watch us install a Vortex water treatment plant system (like a septic tank but newer and better) in our mission to make our derelict barn & 4 acres.

!!!Loads of useful info below!!! It took me ages to find all this out.

In the UK you need to replace septic tanks that discharge into watercourses by 2020 so you could save a lot of money by doing it yourself. How easy is it? Not so easy but doable. Although we haven’t quite finished…

There is lots of really useful information I found –

• Rules about burying pipes in the UK
Jargon buster –
• Granular material –means pea gravel or pea shingle (about £50 a tonne bag)
• Selected fill – can be just soil without large bits in it , MOT or peas gravel would do too but they are more expensive
• Compression material means MOT type 1 (£50 a tonne bag) or probably pea gravel would do.
• The concrete slab do not have to be reinforced as stated at one section in this guidance. Just normal concrete flags is fine. Reinforced ones don’t seem to exist!
• Backfill – just any old soil and rubble.
• flexible pipes means plastic ones
READ THIS PAGES 16 – 19
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/442889/BR_PDF_AD_H_2015.pdf

As a general rule, trench width should not exceed the pipe diameter plus 60 cm or it will put too much stress on the pipe.
• Pipes
Fitting them together. You can get push fit that don’t need connectors or plain ended and connectors. Best to get at least some connectors for when you saw off ends. If you saw off an end, do it straight and plain the end down (file it) to 45 degree angle. Use hacksaw or wood saw to cut. Use pipe lubricant to stick them together. 1 pot serves a lot of pipes! Female connection on pipe should always be on the lower part of run (i.e. downhill). We used 110mm width.
Flexible pipe connector: https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-adjustable-bend-0-90-110mm/14451
Colour – in the UK use that browny orange pipe for underground soil/ sewage pipes.
https://www.screwfix.com/search?search=underground+drainiage+pipe (screw fix not really the cheapest place to get this stuff but not too bad)
• Manhole –
A manhole is a type of inspection chamber. An inspection chamber is anyplace you can get to see the inside of the pipe.
If you are using a 320mm inspection chamber or smaller don’t bury your manhole deeper than 600mm or you won’t get a rodding pole down it. A bigger chamber (450mm) can be installed to a depth of 1.2m.
Need to get right strength of manhole for your surface, e.g. pedestrian, roadway.
You will typically need to use an inspection chamber the following cases:
• Where a branch pipe joins a main drainage run in the system
• When there is a straight run of piping over 22 metres long
• When a drain changes direction horizontally by more than 30 degrees
• When there is a change in pipe size
A “riser” can come with a manhole chamber and sits on top of the chamber with the lid on top of it so the lid will reach ground level.
I like this article: http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain05.htm
• Electric ducting
Bought Twin wall electric ducting 110mm width to run the cable from the treatment plant to the fuse box. This will power the blower houser.
It is good practice to use as few bends as possible and for your duct to follow an obvious route, such as alongside a patio or path. It is usual to dig the trench to a depth of 300mm to 450mm, although with water pipes this depth must be increased to between 750mm and 1350mm to avoid any potential frost damage. There should be no sharp stones on the bed of the trench – best practice is to lay the duct on a bed of 50mm of sharp sand. When backfilling the installation, use a little more sharp sand over the top of the duct to indicate its presence or you can get this electrical warning tape. I couldn’t get any so just put red tape on it. You should actually put the tape a little way above the duct so people see it before they dig into it!

Falls, in the video I think I say it wrong! for a soil pipe like this from a manhole to a treatment tank, A 1:40 fall is 25mm fall over 1m. It’s 1 ÷ 40 = 0.025 So if your drain was 5m long it’d be 5m ÷ 40 = 0.125m (125mm) fall.the gradient should be between 1:40 and 1:80 ? You can check this with a spriti level and metre ruler. If it is too steep then the poo will be left behind!

this is part of our barn conversion project to creata smallholding and life the smallholding life in the UK.

We installed the Vrotex water treatment plant: model 6.2 I think!
https://www.wte-ltd.co.uk/vortex_sewage_treatment_plant.html

MUSIC CREDITS
“River Valley Breakdown” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
“Jerry Five” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/