DIY septic tank and drain field?

[LouNY]

About 17 years ago I had a house built. The house was done but we could not move in because the septic was not done. Reputable septic installers were about 6 months out so I decided to do my own septic. Even though I had never even sat on a backhoe I bought a Case 580 CK backhoe.
I was required by the county to get the septic system engineered. So I did that. The system I had engineered was an infiltrator type system. This required, at a minimum, 4 feet of sandy loam for the drain field. For the 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms I needed to dig 4 ditches. Each ditch was two feet deep and fifty feet long. The ditches were 40 inches wide. The ditches needed to be flat and level within one inch over the 40 inch width and fifty foot length. I could not add material to make the ditches level and flat, all the earth needs to be undisturbed.
I had to make a blade that fit over the backhoe dipper that was flat. This blade fit over the teeth of the dipper. This made life much easier. I dug the ditches depth just slightly less than needed and used a shovel and rake to bring the ditches to final depth and level. I marked the handle of my rake with a Sharpie in 1/2 inch increments and used a laser that showed me the depth of the ditch so that I could use the rake to achieve the final depth and level requirements.
Though I had never even sat on a backhoe or done any kind of earthworks I was still able to install my own septic system. The county health inspector even brought other employees to see my system as it was installed. At first to show folks the wrong way and then, as I learned, what the right way should look like. When I was done the health department said my system installation was one of the best they had seen and employees were brought to my place to be shown what a proper installation should look like.
So, based on my experience, you should be able to install your own infiltrator type septic system.
Some things you should think about:
The drain field is not meant to continually absorb and drain away water. What it does is act like a sponge that collects water and then this water evaporates away. This is why, where I live, 4 feet of sandy loam is required. I don't know what is required in your area. Water flows into the ground in pulses, like from showers or from the washing machine. The water then evaporates away during periods between these pulses. Where I live, and I imagine this is how virtually all systems work, the water introduced into the septic system is meant to evaporate away. It is NOT supposed to continually soak into the ground because this would tend to contaminate ground water.
The septic tank is meant to hold solids. So the septic tank is always full. Mostly liquid. This liquid flows, in pulses, to the drain field. The solids are trapped in the tank. The pulses of liquid, water, flow into the infiltrator ditches, soak into the ground just beneath the ditches, then spread into the ground on either side of the ditches, and then finally evaporate.
Based on my experience you could indeed install your own septic system. Whether or not you get a permit is up to you. But you should understand how a septic system works and if you think you have the wherewithal to do the installation.
Eric

Nice write up, but not applicable to many areas of the country.
If as you believe that the effluent water all evaporates why is a perk test required?
In areas that have very low perc rates yes hopefully vegetation roots and evaporation will remove the leach field water.
However areas that have decent perc test results the water will migrate down through the soils slowly cleansing itself untill it gets too the under ground aguilfer. Some will also migrate upward from capillary action within the soil to evaporate or be adsorbed by vegetation. However locations that get frost in the ground during the winter will not have any evaporative loss in the winter.

 

[MossRoad]

My county counts a room with a closet, as a bedroom. When I bought this house, it needed a new septic. The county thought this was a 4 bedroom house, needing a 4 line field. When I pointed out there are only 2 rooms with closets, the size of the required field went down by half, since they said it's only a 2 bedroom house. They took my word for it, and didn't want/need to come for a looksee.

Same here.

A wardrobe doesn't count. Has to be a closet.

 

[EddieWalker]

They do the closet trick on a lot of houses in CA where I'm from. There was talk about changing that rule when I was moving away, so I don't know if it still works or not. More important then septic, they used the number of bedrooms for taxes!!!

 

[N80]

Just curious, how do such county officials stay in power?

Well, for one thing, the same way that all such officials stay in power all the way to the national level regardless of party or ideology.

But it is worse than that here. First, it is a very poor county in South Carolina. There are certain realities that this implies. If you don't know what I mean I won't discuss further here. Education levels are terrible despite the county schools getting among the most per capita dollars in the state. There is no accountability because there is no press in the sense of what the press used to be. There is no investigate and expose because there is no press and also, because no one outside of the county cares. There is high unemployment despite plenty of jobs in surrounding counties (10-15 drive). Decades if not a hundred years of perpetual failure at all levels of county government have taught no one, anything. They built a huge facility and infrastructure with a rail head for Mac Truck back in the 80's. Let them pay virtually no taxes. Lasted maybe ten years at the most. Now it is a deserted facility. So what are they doing now? Buying and building infrastructure at another huge tract of land while the Mac facility is empty. There are potential industries looking but no commitments.

But this final fact will tell the story even better: The Walmart closed. Why? Theft. By shoppers? No. Employees.

Having said all that, this backwardness is what keeps the county rural. It is a bitter pill to swallow. You want things to be better for people but you also don't want the county paved in strip malls, exploitive industry and godless suburbs. Catch-22.

 

[dieselscout80]

Well, for one thing, the same way that all such officials stay in power all the way to the national level regardless of party or ideology.

But it is worse than that here. First, it is a very poor county in South Carolina. There are certain realities that this implies. If you don't know what I mean I won't discuss further here. Education levels are terrible despite the county schools getting among the most per capita dollars in the state. There is no accountability because there is no press in the sense of what the press used to be. There is no investigate and expose because there is no press and also, because no one outside of the county cares. There is high unemployment despite plenty of jobs in surrounding counties (10-15 drive). Decades if not a hundred years of perpetual failure at all levels of county government have taught no one, anything. They built a huge facility and infrastructure with a rail head for Mac Truck back in the 80's. Let them pay virtually no taxes. Lasted maybe ten years at the most. Now it is a deserted facility. So what are they doing now? Buying and building infrastructure at another huge tract of land while the Mac facility is empty. There are potential industries looking but no commitments.

But this final fact will tell the story even better: The Walmart closed. Why? Theft. By shoppers? No. Employees.

Having said all that, this backwardness is what keeps the county rural. It is a bitter pill to swallow. You want things to be better for people but you also don't want the county paved in strip malls, exploitive industry and godless suburbs. Catch-22.

Are you talking about Fairfield?

 

[dmccarty]

When we built our house, the rules were that the septic system was sized by the number of bedrooms. A bedroom is a room with a closet.

NC does have Low Pressure Pipe(LPP) septic systems that require inspection each year. The homeowner can take a class and perform their own inspection. There are spray systems that might require inspections but I can't remember.

We had plans for a LPP site on one lot. The cost to install was $15,000 or so if I remember right. We had engineered plans and I could not see how that installation would require $15K. Figured I could install it, mess up the inspections a couple of times, and still save a bunch of money. In the end we built on a different lot for a variety of reasons, one of which it could have a conventional system.

 

[N80]

Are you talking about Fairfield?

Yep.