We Had ONE SHOT to Get This Right (Lavacrete Lodge Sewer Run)

The Lavacrete Utility Lodge is a brand new project, and an important step in providing utilities like power, water, and internet to our hyper-Adobe roundhouse. This 12 by 16 structure will house our off-grid solar system, water filtration and pressurization, fiber internet, and even a small guest bathroom. The twist? It will be made out of Lavacrete, an under-the-radar, alternative building technique that uses scoria sand combined with Portland cement, lime, and rebar to create thermally efficient, highly compressive walls that need no finishing work. In the last video, we cleared the area, raised and leveled the foundation, dug the footing and got the first form set, while finalizing our utility plans and gathering materials. Now we're ready to start the most difficult part, plumbing. Hey, good morning. We are at the Lavacrete foundation. We have so much to do to get ready for the actual concrete pour. As you can see, we already had Wilcox Rock and Sand come in, they leveled and compacted the area. They trenched out for the footing, which is an important part for a Lavacrete building because of the weight of the walls. What they haven't done is set the stem wall form, so there's going to be six inches that come up out of the ground. We don't want to run the Lavacrete down into the ground because it's sort of porous, the way you put it together. It can hold water, so we want to make sure that's up above where water might come. Now, like we said, we have so many trenches and things that need to go into this, and so I've got my plan. As you can see, we have a lot to do. The main thing is really just plumbing. All the other bits that are just going to come under the wall and pop up at the edge, we have some flexibility on where they can go. The plumbing, obviously, has to match exactly the design of the bathroom, and then it all has to get over to the septic, which is back here, and it's got to be at the right slope and the right angle, and all that stuff to make it work. You can't see it, but over here I've got a huge pile of pipes back on this table behind me. I've got all the fittings, I've got everything out here, but what I don't know is exactly where those frame walls are going to be, and so that's where I'm going to start and mark out my framed walls inside this building, make sure I know exactly what to measure off of as we start planning the plumbing. So that's the first step. Well, I marked the middle wall, but as you can see, I kind of scuffed it and removed it because it was wrong, and the reason is these boards are not all the same thicknesses. I just assumed they were all three-quarter because I thought that's what they told me it was. Some of them are over an inch and are less. So I was trying to hook it on the outside of the form and measure and add the amount I needed. Turns out that was all wrong because I was just assuming that they were a certain size. I should have checked it, but I don't know, I wouldn't have thought they would have all been different sizes. I guess they just used whatever they had. So I thought I was going to be able to do this myself and hook it, but I can't now. It's too complicated, so I'm going to need a second set of hands. By the way, shout out, you see the tractor? That's here to help us trench, our friends Jim and Pam. They let us borrow this tractor during the roundhouse rumble and they offered it again for this step, which is going to be a huge help because we have a lot of things to dig and we don't want to have to do it by hand. So we'll still have to do some by hand, but this is going to get us later though. We got to do this measuring first. So what is that? 17? I thought this when you said it was a one foot. Plus a foot. So it's 15 from this side and 12 from this side. I need two tape measures. That is pretty close, and it would be more like that because you'd have to join it. I have a question. Uh huh? Where did you say the thing is? We're going to mark it. Hold on. Let's get a... Where's the scraping? All right. So what are we doing? 96? Yeah, because we're adding the 12 inches. So that's... But we need to go three inches, so 93 and 99. Is that right? But then... You could go almost, yeah. You got to have enough room to put that vent fitting in. Right. I mean, that almost looks like it's right, doesn't it? Is that needed? Or should it all be straight? No, it needs to be set. Just to that? Yeah, just to this one. Is there something that we need to remember to... So if you could grab me the two Ys. They're the 45s. Building a home with your spouse and family is not always sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes it's digging trenches and excessive sweat and mumbling bad words under your breath. Thanks to today's video sponsor, BetterHelp, for giving me some tools to help me communicate a little bit more better, nicely, and clearly. I've been with BetterHelp for a little over a year now, and last year was the hardest year of our lives. And honestly, I'm not sure how we made it out all in one piece. Having someone to talk to on a weekly basis was literally a lifesaver. If you're new here or haven't heard of BetterHelp, it's a therapy service and it's 100% online. And they make it super easy to get started. When you go to the link in the description of this video, you take a short quiz and you'll be matched with a therapist quickly. Plus, you get to decide how you communicate with your therapist. It can be a phone call, video, or even through text. And, if you're worried about being matched with a therapist that is right for you, don't be, because you can switch therapists at any time for no additional cost. 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Just go to betterhelp.com slash tinyshinyhome and you'll save 10% on your first month of therapy. Now, let's get back to finishing those trenches. So, you're going from the center of the toilet, you're going 15 inches to this 4-inch lava creep wall, right? So, 15 plus 4 is 19. And then 19 to the middle of the 3-foot vanity is another 15 inches. That's 30. 18 inches. Yeah, 18. So, 18 plus 19 is 7. 18 plus 19, Jet. Hey, Siri. 18 plus 19. Math is in our strong suit. Me, too. 37. That's what I was going to say. From this? From this. Straight over? From the center of the toilet, yes. We need another tape measure because we need to keep this where it is. Okay, so after a lot of measuring, we've measured our center wall and our back wall. So, the bathroom is going to be in that back corner over there. And then we've also laid out all of our plumbing fittings. Now, the big question is, come this way, the septic is back over here. And so, what we've got to figure out is the slope from that to here. So, we're going to dig out right here, see how much room we've got. But we need to know that height so we know how deep to dig all of the trenches. So, that is the next step. We also have to give a huge shout out to our friends Andrew and Tiffany and their family. It's always so much fun when they come and help. We love having the extra hands and they really help this trenching part go so much faster. Okay, quick update. We started running our plumbing line to the septic. So, it starts there, goes right here. I love how shallow that is. We're definitely going to have to build this up a little bit. But it's going to go under the form there. And then we've got to start digging in the compacted AV, which is going to be terrible and the worst. I remember doing this on the roundhouse. Andrew and Tiffany had a really good idea because our line is going to be so close to the edge of that AV mix. It's all just going to come off, which means we're going to have to bring more concrete in, which we don't want to do. So, we're going to sort of support that area, dig it out, put the pipes in, and then fill it back up and tamp it in. So that we still have that nice clean edge. Just for posterity, so that we have all this before we start digging it up. The toilet line starts here. It's a straight line. It's three inches. It's going to run all the way here. And then it's going to make a turn. We're missing a fitting here. The black one. It's right at your feet. We've got to do a 45 and a 22 to make the right point to the septic. It's going to come through here. You can see there is a vent that will come up through the framed wall right here. Then we're going to come back this way. We're going to have two 45s. This one's going to point back to the shower where there's a P-trap. This one's going to point right here to an overflow drain which has a P-trap. And then we forgot the sink. Which is all the way up here. 45 and it's going to come to about here with just a 90 and we'll put the P-trap up inside the cabinet when we're done. And maybe a clean out over there if we can get one. And pocket doors. It's nothing to do with plumbing. Focus. Good morning. Later on today we're going to be digging up across the driveway to make a trench for all the utilities that are going to go into the house. So right now I'm literally watering the driveway so that it makes it a little bit softer to dig through. Because after you drive on it for about six years it just really compacts. Hopefully this will make it a little bit easier. We'll see. Alright a few more minor modifications this morning just to make sure we have it all right. Because once we cut this and we commit to this there's no turning back right? I mean you could fix it but it'd be a pain in the butt. Yeah. So anyway we're chopping this off, we're connecting, and we're going up our trench. So we're going to cut it off in two stages so we can reuse this to push down into the new piece and cap it back off. But either way it's going to smell pretty bad until we get everything connected and taped over. Um. Yay. That was way easier than one more cut. Just stay up at the top. This is the hard one. Yeah buddy! That smells great! Oh my gosh. Alright do I look like I'm pretty straight? Uh huh. Alright. Then we have the magic tool. It's got a little razor blade right there. You see that like angle? It just kind of slightly bevels the edge. Don't be afraid to make a mess. Yeah. But you're going to want to get to up here okay? Go for it. All the way around. Wide. Turn it babe so she can see the other side. Can you turn it? This way? No that way. I mean it doesn't really matter because the pipe. Turn. Okay. So. Now here's what we need to see. We need to make sure our trench is right. You don't have to go fast but like you want to make sure you get all the way up to this. And here. Huh? This is going to go on here. Oh. Make sure you get it covered really really well. Make sure you can see that it's all covered. I need a bigger brush. They didn't have a bigger can. I know. It's a very niche. Ready? Get this one. Quick get this drill in. Do this one first. You're probably going to want to come at it this way. I can't lift it up. I'm losing my leverage. Alright. Ready? Yup. Let's get connected. You and me. Let's fish what we need. Let's get connected. We can make the whole world wetter. They're going to stop us if we unify. This is what we're going to do. Everybody got to get together and do this right. Let's get connected. This is what we're going to do. Jump high. Everybody got to get together and do this right. Nothing going to let nothing get in our way. Want to change the world then start living. Let's start living life. Let's get connected. Let's stay connected. Let's get connected. Connected. We want to change the world then start living. Let's get connected. Alright guys. Long day. We got all of the plumbing in. It's all sloped. It's stubbed up at the right dimensions from the sides of the walls and the backs of the walls and all the bright slopes into the main septic line all the way back over there. And you know, I think this is the first time we've like really done plumbing on our own and it actually went pretty well. Not that I like it, but it went pretty well. So we still need to, we really need to come back in and backfill all this and recompact and like, you know, make sure all of the pipes are supported properly. But we are done for the day. So this will happen maybe tomorrow or the next day. We'll see. Alright. Next day of progress on the Lava Crete Foundation. We put all the plumbing in. So we are going to triple check all the slopes on all the lines. We're going to start backfilling, making sure the pipes are all supported all the way down. And then we're just going to cover everything up bit by bit, get this buttoned up, and then we're going to start working on the other trenches.