I have been spending lots of time exploring ideas on where your house plumbing should go using permaculture principles. So much thought has gone to where to lay this PVC pipe in the heat of a TX construction site, that I redid the bedroom side of the house. All part of the process of laying down my foundation I would say.
More info on the video below, but to explain part of the process I had to rearrange the east side (the bedroom side) of the home to work with how the drainage will flow from one side of the house to the other. If I have to loop that PVC drain around to connect the different sides of the house, I wanted to use the least amount of bends which can clog in the future.
Consider: Efficiency of material and pathway
I worked to keep the plumbing close to the perimeter so that it can be easier to reach from the exterior wall should something go wrong. I did not want to break out any finished floors in the living room and pile dirt indoors where I sit to read with my kids.
Considering where a septic/public sewer may be at, the layout had to have some flexibility to work without rearranging the rooms too much once an actual project site is selected.
Consider too, that as the lines make it’s way around the house, the trenching becomes deeper for the pipe slope to work. I reduced bends for the main line as it looped where it had to. Smaller sized pipes will need to be detailed using the same permaculture concepts I apply for the main line.
In the process of shuffling around spaces, a space opened up as a good location for a rocket mass heater. Honestly I have not seen these up close and have only a general idea of how they work. I don’t know how much benefit they would have for Texas winters but we do have fireplaces here. I don’t know how these would appraise a home, compared to a conventional fireplace. Hopefully the market will get over that in time and will see these for the value that they have.
Below is a video of the exercise. Odysee link here.
My goal at Alt-Ark is to Make Architecture More Permaculture, to help you build that permaculture house on the homestead.
Alt-Ark 