Help with new brewspace!

[kshuler]

Hi Everyone-

We will be moving into a new house next month and I am trying to convert an area to a brewspace. It is a strange 10x12 cutout area of the house, covered entirely by a roof, but is outside. The challenge I have is this-- we are on a fairly steep slope and I do not want too much water escaping into the yard for fear of destabilizing the hill. The space has a dirt floor, with about 10 foot ceilings. This means I get to design from scratch and do it right the first time. I have always wanted to have floor drainage for easy cleanup, so I was thinking of a concrete pour with a slot/trench drain or some sort.

I brew on a Kal clone type system. What I was thinking of is running a trench drain either from the laundry room to the garage or the other way from the bathroom side to the outside, and sloping a new concrete floor 1/8 of an inch per foot to the trench, covered with urethane cement. But I am completely inexperienced at this and wonder where people would put it. I thought of in the center of the room either way, but someone suggested I put the drainage trench all the way at the far edge of the area so the whole floor slopes in the same direction.

The other question I had was if I should dig a sump area and pump the waste water out to the sinks that will be there (draining to the laundry room sewer on the other side of the wall), or collect it in barrels and dispose of later. Only reason I ask is I am worried that if the sump pump doesn't completely empty the water, it will stagnate and potentially get stinky, cause infections in the beer, attract vermin, etc. Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks for any help!

Klaus

 

[Aristotelian]

I have a sump pump in my basement that gets water after a hard rain. Even down there in the dark it gets bone dry after a few days. If your floor is sloped properly it will dry out and I don't think you will have anything to worry about. Especially since the space (if I understand correctly) is outside and so it should have great ventilation.

 

[brewster2012]

Can you tie into a plumbing drain line presumably located in the exterior wall of either the laundry room or bathroom? That would be my first option.

Otherwise I would slope the slab evenly away from the house (from bathroom towards outside in your drawing). You could then use a French drain setup (or perforated pipe covered by gravel/rock) at the edge of the new slab with a perpendicular underground line down the slope to slowly drain the water. Think of it as a septic drain (field) line for your water runoff.

 

[kh54s10]

If you collect the water in a barrel, it WILL get stinky. I have a 55 gallon plastic barrel that I drain my wash sink in. The water from cleaning and the IC go in there. There is enough debris that what doesn't drain out of the spigot to the yard (about 2-3 inches) is nasty green smelly gunk.

If you can't capture all the water and run it to your sewage drain, slope the floor of the area toward the outside, away from the bathroom. You could install a french drain across the open side. You then should run piping from that well away from the house and downhill.

 

[John Paul Stoddard]

I am guessing from your diagram your not enclosing the back wall...It that is the case I wouldn't worry about installing a drain...Your not gonna be exposing the lawn to thousands of gallons of Water at a time.