Getting close to done on plumbing our off-grid, rainwater catchment, greywater tire bale house...

I just posted another update on our tire bale house build.
This one is on plumbing... which we have been working on for years. We still aren't done, but we have running water in the house now, so I figured it was time to pull the trigger and post!

https://www.brownkawa.com/post/plumb-tuckered-out

We will be trying to live off of rainwater catchment in our 10-inches-per-year dryland environment. The post shows our whole-house utility & filtration, embedding waste pipe in a road base subfloor, splitting greywater and rainwater, using point-of-use mini tank heaters with thermostatic valves, running hose bibs through 6' thick tire bale walls...

It has not been a joy. But it is progress, and THAT is always a joy!

Not yet covered in the blog is that we are having initial challenges with our filtration system throttling our pressure. So I will probably be digging around elsewhere on this forum as we work through that...

Anyway, I hope the post is useful to someone.

Kimi so glad to hear about your progress, that is a big deal.  I lived for years without a water heater or indoor plumbing... but a chilled waterfall was nearby.  Getting that indoor plumbing is always a milestone indeed.  

Your house is amazing, thanks for the details of your building steps. I hope to emulate your vermiculture toilet system when I am able. Any details to share about that feature? Keep plugging away, and y'all let us know about your work please

Hi Rico,

Thank you for your kind words!

The blog posts on the worm septic are linked at the bottom of the plumbing post. There is also worm septic info in our site's FAQ and Resources pages.
That's all we have so far.

3 months after our final inspection we will take our first effluent sample in for testing; that is probably when we will update.

We did peek in the other (warm) day before our first flush to find the worms happy and wiggling about just under the surface. The timing should be good for them, since we are slowly starting up as the weather slowly warms!