greywater newbie-- plumbing challenges-- please advise!

Hey all!  I've read a lot about grey water and feel pretty capable with the part of the system that goes outside the house, but I'm not a plumber at all.  I got Brad Lancaster's book (volume 2) in hopes of learning more about the indoor plumbing, but it doesn't really answer my questions at all.  I want to install a diverter so that my shower and bathroom sink water can be piped outside into a grey water system.  The plumbers were in to fix something the other day and I asked them about the possibility.  They pretty much blew it off, first saying that they weren't allowed (though our NM code definitely allows it) and then saying that they'd have to rip up the foundation of the house to do it.  I live in a ranch house (c. 1970) built on a concrete slab.  Both bathrooms are on the back wall of the house (brick house, if that matters).  Does this sound right to you all?  Is there not normally a way to access the pipes in the walls?  Has anyone else run into this kind of problem when wanting to install a grey water system?  From the sound of it, the only way to install a proper system involves mega construction, eek.

I would love to install something permanent and properly done, if that makes sense.  Our family is super-busy and the likelihood of hauling buckets and all that is just not realistic for us.  But at this point I'm considering the siphon pump option for the tub as a backup, though I don't like all the clunkiness of it and having all kinds of bits and pieces and extra hoses running through the bathroom and shower.  Any ideas how to get this done?

It sounds to me like you will most likely need to hire someone to do this though maybe one of our members can walk you through an easy setup.  

Here is some information specifically for New Mexico, the first one is by Art Ludwig and is probably good info:

http://oasisdesign.net/greywater/law/improve/nmtestimony.htm

https://www.ose.state.nm.us/WUC/PDF/NewMexGWGuide.pdf

I've done a fair amount of plumbing and it depends. Does your house have a crawl space? The pipes will certainly be in the floor. Our house has a basement so we just go down there to get to them. Pipes in the walls require the removal of the drywall to get to them. Then we patch it back up. If you aren't comfy with plumbing and aren't handy I'd think twice about doing it. I admittedly have screwed up plumbing more than once and water is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO UNFORGIVING!!! You don't do it right and it'll leak everywhere. At the same time it is rather basic. My biggest problem was not having the pipes at the right slant to encourage water to drain. Just installing a diverter should be easier than whole new plumbing works. But, I've never installed a diverter, just moved all the things.

cement slab. Just saw that. Yeah, it's likely to be a lot of work. To do any plumbing in the basement requires a jackhammer, as the pipes are under the cement.

I had a Santi best electric toilet commercial unit in a rental unit that pumped all the gray water and sewer  for bathroom and kitchen sink in a rental unit that was located in the basement.  They sell gray water tanks etc also.  You might want to look at what they offer That would give you a lot of options. I bought two units for about $4000 so if one failed I could switch it out. They can pump water through a garden hose really far. When I sold that building, I sold the two units to a couple that wanted to pump grey water from their house to a greenhouse project they had a ways from their house. Good luck and get the biggest ruggedest unit you can afford (better yet do what I did and get two).

I think the issue your plumber is running into is how you can attach the shower drain to the three-way diverter and keep that inside the house.  If your shower isn't raised off the ground, then you'd have to tear into your floor, replumb the shower drain to the diverter, replumb it to the outside plumbing, put this all in an access port that you can open inside the house.  It's the shower drain that causes the issue.  I'm designing our greywater system for our new house right now, and I don't have any good way to keep the three-way diverter inside, so it's going outside the wall.

But as far as giving the plumber ideas, maybe this is what you are looking for.  It's from Oasis Design, and it shows how to plumb in a three-way diverter valve that would be accessible in the home.  It's pdf with guidelines for AZ and NM:

Oasis Design Greywater stub out details for Plumbers

Then here is the corresponding info on Brad Lancaster's site - but with different pictures and ideas:
Greywater plumbing image gallery from Brad Lancaster

It's really hard to find the three-way valves right now, as reported on both Oasis Design and Lancaster's sites.  I'm building a greywater system, as well.  This is the one I'm ordering:
Pent-air three-way valve that can be used for greywater distribution

Hope that helps.  Let us know what happens!

Redefine the problem
Your kitchen, laundry and bathroom water is all greywater except for your toilet.
What if you just sent the entire plumbing that leaves your foundation wall/house to a greywater tank/mulch pit vs the septic tank after we remove the toilet from the rest of the house plumbing?

Toilet
So where will the toilet/blackwater go? They have some toilets that you can add to a basements or slab floor without having to rip-up the wall/slab. They are pretty nifty, you could even use it to convert a bedroom closet into a bathroom (toilet+basin+shower) Let me know what you think of them.
https://www.saniflo.com/us/home/74-sanicompact.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjYL3beEcx4&t=80s

Lift Station/Drain Pump
Another alternative would be to raise the shower/bath, 6inch off the ground. Then have both the shower and the basin (maybe washer+kitchen sink too) all drain to a shallow container with an automated pump, that you can then send to the mulch pit outside, maybe even throughout the winter too depending on how cold it gets. And if you do need to send the grey water back to the septic/sewer system you can just have an alternative path to the old shower drain (or sink). We don't have to completely DIY it, they already have a complete package for sale that does that. https://www.saniflo.com/us/installing-a-kitchen-or-laundry-room/94-sanishower.html/


Smash it all
Smash the old bathroom and install a new one in your closet. This way you get to start over new, and direct the water where you want it. It could even be a summer time only bathroom. As seen in the picture attached below you dont even need alot of space, just 3ft by 9ft.  FYI: I'm being a bit funny by saying smash it all, but technically you could just make another bathroom, depending on where you are even a full outside bathroom say next to your hottub/etc.

Hi Trish,  Exactly where in the house is the toilet?  If the toilet is near the outside wall of the house then you can disconnect the toilet, remove the flange and cap the pipe. There are a few ways you can run pipes where you need them.  Build anew floor to hold the toilet and run the pipe through a wall into the ground and from there into the holding tank. You shouldn't have to carry that many buckets of dirt.