100 yards from house to septic tank?

[flusher]

I am thinking about locating my septic tank behind my (not yet built) pole barn so that I can have a bathroom in the pole barn. The pole barn will be about 100 yards from my (not yet built) house and there is sufficient fall between the house site and the pole barn site. Is there a problem with with this distance?

If not, I plan to have the water line and electrical drop go first to the pole barn and then run uphill (underground) to the house. I'll use my tractor to do most of the ditching for this.

Comments? Suggestions?

Save yourself future problems and use separate systems for your house and for the pole barn. The septic tank for the barn can be a lot smaller than the one for the house. My county health dept made me put in a 1250 gallon septic tank for my 3BR/2BA house. The size is determined by tne number of bedrooms, not by the number of bathrooms. For your barn a 500 gallon tank would be plenty big.

 

[CTyler]

Depending on your codes they may require a seperate septic system for the house and shop. I know we had to do, wasn't real happy about it either.

 

[srs]

Depending on your codes they may require a seperate septic system for the house and shop. I know we had to do, wasn't real happy about it either.

Seems kinda crazy to have to have a separate system for the barn. What's the difference of going to the bathroom in the house or going to the bathroom in the barn? You could have 15 bathrooms but you only use one at a time. Am I missing something here?

 

[kmdigital]

Put in a single system if they allow it. No reason to spend thousands extra just for one in the barn. And the ideal slope is 1/4" per foot, but the Uniform Plumbing Code and BOCA codes both allow 1/8" per foot if necessary. Use a 4" line, either SDR 35 or SCH 40, depending on what your code requires.

Most important is properly bedding the pipe so there aren't any dips or humps in the line. And make sure that you put in cleanouts about every 90'. 100' is required, but remember that most sewer snakes are 100' long, and you need to account for the length of the riser coming up to grade so that the snake will reach to the next clean out. If properly installed and bedded, you will probably never have to actually clean the line out if it is PVC, as long as you keep grease out of the line. Otherwise, it is smooth enough inside that it is very unlikely to ever plug up. Also, make sure you use sweep 90s or two 45 degree ells to make corners, and it is usually best to install cleanouts every 135 degrees of angle change.

 

[CDsdad]

Check your local regulations. When we built 3 1/2 years ago ours had to be pretty close to the house. I don't remember exact distance. A licensed installer should know. I think the regulations may be specific to each town/county even though the state did my inspection.

 

[Chris_in_Oz]

This may be waaaay out there, but I'm just about to run one system for my house and my 40'x20' shed. The shed is about 330 feet from the house. The contractor said that the long runs can put the tanks lower than the water table and they are trying to "float to the surface" all the time. Even the concrete ones (ever seen a concrete boat?). He showed me some great pictures of tanks that have busted off pipework this way (so he says). I'm running a separate pump pit and keeping the whole system above the water table.
I called a few other contractors and they agreed with him. Good advice? Local conspiracy theory? Your choice!! Might be all different here to the way you guys do it, but I'm sorta thinking that "brown stuff is brown stuff", so the treatment for brown stuff should be (at least) similar, wherever you are???

 

[MrJimi]

Here is another thought on moving a ? "product" 300 feet, it should be wetted to keep moving and if not it may get stopped somewhere down the pipe? Kinda like spraying dirt from the slab, it will move while wet.
Jim

 

[Chris_in_Oz]

One last thing about "pumping this stuff" - all the guys here say to put the system near the place where the LEAST waste will be generated and pump from the place where the MOST is generated. This sounded strange to me, but they all agreed again (spooky, eh?) that when you immerse a pump in this sludge, they keep working longer when used more! They tend to rust out quicker than wear out!!

 

[tydp]

I was going to suggest a pump pit near the house. I am using a "Little Giant 9S" pump and 2" line out to new tanks about 150 feet away. No problmes in 4 years since installed. Works well for me.....

 

[Jay4200]

When I was installing systems in Ohio most counties would require 1/8 per foot drop on drain pipe (3 in.)

I believe 1/8 per foot drop is for the tank to the d-box run (only liquid passage). 1/4 per foot is standard out to the tank - apparently, 1/4 per foot is the magic number to get reliable passage of solids.

OTOH, I do know of systems that have much more drop from the tank to the field, so maybe 1/8" per foot is only a minimum number.

Jay