ToughButterCup

Quite right. But, I'd like to have a go at making one. There's a couple of jobs that need to be done first (finishing off) but I have had a hankering to build one for a good while. It's an itch. And it's mine to scratch.

@jack it was who told me -years ago- to make a plan and stick to it - and then to take photos of what actually happens and tag them so the photos are searchable. Or repent at leisure. Well thats what I'm doing now : repenting. This post is about trying to make the best of it - by building a grease trap. This thread is about how to design build and install one We had no idea where our kitchen sink was going to be. So instead of being able to duct the foul drain out under the foundation, I had to bodge. Drill a 50mm hole in the wall after the sink was installed, pipe it to a trap outside the house. It worked for a while, and worked well. Until she decided that it would be great to have a kitchen garden. Some plant roots push soil up and outwards. Not a lot of people know that. I do - now. The plants picked up the pipe bedding that was round the drain and dumped a great deal of it inside the drain. It took me a year or more to notice it. I had no idea that pipe bedding was really good at filtering kitchen fat and waste. Man did it stink ! But through it all, the kitchen sink drained fine. Slowly, but well enough for us not to notice a problem: until I did. Based on @saveasteading 's post here I thought I'd design, build and install our own - in parallel with the current system. And then switch systems once the grease trap is shown to work properly. I've looked at grease traps online now for a while. They're either to expensive or too small, or frankly sloppily designed. The trap needs to be easily maintained. Easy and quick to empty as well as easy to clean. My first question is how big ( volume ) should it be? Some advice says 40 to 50 litres. Ideas?

... erm , stronger positive correlation I think. 😁

When someone - anyone at all - finds acoustic insulation that works, please send me a postcard. You can still hear flies fart in our bedroom when we're outside. I propose swapping the aphorism Money for old Rope to Money for Shite Acoustic Insulation.

Yes. Yes. I had the same 'jangle' that you are having. And to a lesser extent that feeling remains. Its almost as if keeping foul drainage inside the house rather than getting rid of it out of the house as fast as possible is 'wrong' . I still feel a small 'is-that-necessary-wince' every time I hear the passage of foul drainage inside the house. And that 5 years after the piping was successfully pressure - tested. And it still hasn't leaked

@Alan Ambrose , to the point as ever. @flanagaj hints at the trauma suffered by self-builders when the trust-building exercise faulters: they suddenly 'go-dark' , lay bricks with a muck-spreader. Pulling the project back on course when stuff goes wrong - now that's an art form.

Your question is fundamental. It goes to the heart of the horror that self-building can become. And is the main cause of self-build-sleep-deprivation-syndrome Humility, respect, time, trust, effort, plain speaking. And knowledge of their (the trade's) networks Self builders are - to the trades we deal with - mostly one off customers. And because we self builders have to invest so much more time , emotion and 'fizz' into our builds than those who 'simply' sign a cheque, many self builders ( not all) think we're special. To trades people, we aren't. We're one of many jobs they have on the go at any one time. Either invest in someone who can manage the situation for you or take the time to understand the trades networks so you can break through their communication blocks and accept that substandard work does occur and that some work will have to be remedied but most of all - be lucky DIY know when an error is something you just have to accept - and when not. After more than 10 years at it, I'm only just getting to know like and trust a core of people who communicate well, do what they say they will do, when they say they will do it to an acceptable standard. 10 years to many people is just too long.

So forget the problem.

Kept goats free on the Malvern Hills for years. ( 1960s: Commoner grazing rights) Some stayed, one or two just buggered off, sometimes bought back by - politely annoyed - neighbours. Flail, scythe, forget the problem, find a suitable teenager, hire a Pyrenean goatherd.

Your idea isn't simple enough. Others above have - between them - listed many of the barriers to entry into the self build sector. Solve any single one of them , and you're in business.

Next door neighbour - knows you are away - pops round for a quick top-up 🫤

Keep it simple. Ask a couple of well - regarded local firms to come and 'have-a-look-at-the job'. No exploratory work ( as in "Well to answer your question, we'll need to take this out and that down and fiddle with this" ) . Listen hard to what the people say. You'll learn a good deal from those conversations. Then get back to us and we'll make it all much more complicated than it needs to be. 🤔

Sane living means ease of use. And that means efficient storage. Efficient storage means reduced self-build stress.

Manager ? In reality I'm the resident labourer, and got fed up falling over stuff left behind by others. So the role evolved into - every day- clearing up after everyone else. Clearing up is a very necessary job: bit like oiling the cogs in a machine. Clearing up wet concrete has to be done at the time - but mostly you cant do that. So it needs planning for. @TerryE's suggestion saved my sanity. I would have blown a fuse if I'd been faced with @Spinny's ermmm, dump We have about half an acre, so a good few nooks and crannies . House is about 10 by 10m I think it was @TerryE who -years ago - suggested self builders make a storage plan - so I did. Very glad we did TBH.

Washout is useful. Now, 5 years later, I find myself wishing we had more. We built a 10 by 8 , and 6 inch deep lined pit. The resulting washout area became a useful base for all sorts of things during the build after concreting. And then, when broken up it was piled up out of the way. We found a use for very last bit of it.