I want to put a drain pipe over my septic tank

[Richard]

I don't know how to word the title other than that.

I have a downspout. As it turns out, it exits right over the top of my septic tank (which runs parallel to the sidewalk). The downspout is right at the end of the tank as you can see in the picture.

I knew the tank was there but, thought it was 5' or so to the right in the picture. Frankly, I'm GLAD I found it so now I can mark it for future pumping purposes.

Regardless.... wife wants me to bury a drain pipe to carry the downspout water away.

What I've done on the other 3 corners of the house was to dig down maybe 12" or so and lay a run of scheduel 40 solid pipe. I'm wanting to do the same thing here, especially the Sch-40 since I cut the yard with a tractor... I want to be sure to not compress a corregated type drainpipe.

As you see in the side shot, I only have something like 6" of dirt covering the tank as it is. I have some plants to one side and the rest of the tank length to the opposite side.

I don't really want to run the drain 8' (or what ever the length of the tank is) to the right (uphill) and then cut across the tank and come back down the hill.

I also don't really want to take the drain pipe to the left of the tank since that will get into the roots of the evergreen my wife planted AND it will also get into the piping taking the septic tank 'stuff' out to my drainfield.

I'm sort of in between a rock & a hard place and am not coming up with any creative or destructive ways to lay the drain.

The wife REALLY wants the drain pipe hidden. What this means is, I can (somehow) bury it and forget it.... or, I can roll it out for a rain.... pick it back up and put it away when the sun is out..... get it back out for a rain....and roll it back up... point being, she does NOT want it in sight. (sigh)

I'm open to any creative ideas on how to bury this. This downspout carries all the water on the left/front quarter of the house (as defined by the MAIN roof in the center of picture). The octagon roof on the left side also drains to this downspout but... this roof is blended into the original roof so I don't count it as much. The lower roof (above porch) is split between two downspouts. The breakpoint for the lower roof is on the other side of the little tree you see. From that point left goes to this downspout and from that point to the right, goes to the garage side.

 

[Chuck52]

Can you go left, between the evergreen and the patio or walkway? Is there another downspout that direction with a drain you could tie into? If so, you might be able to run it at almost ground level, but covered with mulch at least near the downspout.

Chuck

 

[kennyd]

Just bury it very shallow there over the tank until you get passed it...Possibly also raise the grade there a little so you have i bit more topsoil over the pipe.

 

[hawkeye08]

Maybe a piece of heavy steel pipe (so it doesn't crush) until you get past the tank, then go deeper and continue with plastic?

 

[SARG]

If I understand your situation ......... the downspout hit at the end of the discharge side of your tank. If correct I would just run the rain pipe under the discharge pipe which should be about 8-10" below the top of the tank. If you wanted to use the solid plastic a couple elbows would work. That's all assuming there's enough grade to take the rain water away from the house.

 

[Chuck52]

They also have those things that roll out when it rains and then roll back up automatically.

Chuck

 

[teg]

I would make the flower bed larger... expand the mulch area so that you will not have lawn in this area to mow with the tractor. Bury somewhat shallow.

PS. nice scrape mark with the backhoe Also, do you really want to drive over the tank with a tractor weekly? Make a really big mulch area for annual flowers...

 

[inveresk]

How about moving the downspout so it's clear of the tank?

One other observation - there are a number of reasons it's unwise to site the septic tank too close to the house. You're more likely to be adversely affected in the event of a blockage. It's right under your nose when you have to replace it. It limits what you can do in terms of altering or extending your house without moving the tank and it can add substantial costs if you do need to relocate it. Where practicable, it's best to locate the tank some distance away. Unless there are reasons it can't be done, I generally specify the location of septic tanks a minimum of 50' from the buildings they serve. This is code in some countries.

 

[Richard]

How about moving the downspout so it's clear of the tank?

One other observation - there are a number of reasons it's unwise to site the septic tank too close to the house. You're more likely to be adversely affected in the event of a blockage. It's right under your nose when you have to replace it. It limits what you can do in terms of altering or extending your house without moving the tank and it can add substantial costs if you do need to relocate it. Where practicable, it's best to locate the tank some distance away. Unless there are reasons it can't be done, I generally specify the location of septic tanks a minimum of 50' from the buildings they serve. This is code in some countries.

This IS my replacement tank and I didn't have any other options short of replacing the entire septic system with one of those pump systems but even at that.... I don't have room on my property for another field... so I was screwed either way I turned.

Some good ideas

 

[silverdollar6]

Maybe you could replace the wife?