Dig septic bed with front end loader

[wacnstac]

Im not sure what you mean by septic beds. If your referring to infiltrator beds, there popular up my way. My system is like the one pictured, its 29 years strong. It was covered using large excavator. We dont drive over it with anything larger than lawn mower.View attachment 3534353

See my earlier post. My Infiltrator system was only 12 years old, used seasonally, and was almost completely filled with sand.

 

[olenjohn]

Scrap the pipe and stone bed system. Install an “Infiltrator” drainage dome system. Installation is simple, no truck loads of stone and should be on a smaller footprint.

 

[Fxfymn413]

Is the spoil clean enough to sell? If so a contractor may be willing to trade some or all of the excavation work for the sand that is removed. In my neck of the woods sand brings a pretty good price.

 

[dodge man]

Scrap the pipe and stone bed system. Install an “Infiltrator” drainage dome system. Installation is simple, no truck loads of stone and should be on a smaller footprint.

The post above yours he said he had that system and it failed.

 

[rider89]

Hello, I am faced with digging a rectangular septic bed with size of 14' x 40'. Inspector requires open bed as opposed to trenches. All I have is a Kubota 2650 with FEL. Not sure a backhoe (at least ones without a lot of size) would be of much help anyway with a bed.

I do have a box blade with scarifiers to loosen up the top soil and grass.

The soil is pure sand. Anyone tackle such a project with a FEL? I know I will need a ramp to get down the desired depth. I don't know how long the ramp will need to be. I'm really stressed about keeping this level with a FEL. I suppose I could use the box blade to help with that.

Getting the rocks and the backfill in around the pipes is another story!

There are so many videos on YouTube on doing this with trenches but I can't find any with an open bed design.

I would treat it as a simple trench. Drag dirt with the blade past the end of the bed and when the spoils pile up too much to drive over, use the FEL to move the spoils out of the way. Lots of passes needed, but you'd be able to keep the bottom plane flat and tidy. you didn't divulge the important dimension (the depth) but your spoils pile will probably get pretty large. Unless you have a lot of time to invest, I would instead get a local guy with a medium to heavy skidsteer. He'd have it done in a few hours and it wouldn't cost all that much

 

[5030]

Reading the thread, my only comment is, quit trying to be cheap and have a professional do it. You lack the equipment to do it and if it's sand like you say, the more you remove to get to depth, the more the it will fall in.

All you will accomplish is beating up your tractor and burn a bunch of diesel fuel.

Some tasks are better left to people with the right equipment and experience.

 

[aircommuter]

When I was in the grading and undergrad business we dug similar pits for storm water retention. They were filled with drain rock. Pretty similar. The ones I did were 5’ deep and 50x80. Plus other sizes would come up. I used my Case 855D loader. I have dug swimming pools with the same machine. Pretty fast and I could take the dirt further away when needed.

 

[5030]

When I was in the grading and undergrad business we dug similar pits for storm water retention. They were filled with drain rock. Pretty similar. The ones I did were 5’ deep and 50x80. Plus other sizes would come up. I used my Case 855D loader. I have dug swimming pools with the same machine. Pretty fast and I could take the dirt further away when needed.

Night and day difference between a wheeled loader and a small tractor.

 

[rScotty]

When I was in the grading and undergrad business we dug similar pits for storm water retention. They were filled with drain rock. Pretty similar. The ones I did were 5’ deep and 50x80. Plus other sizes would come up. I used my Case 855D loader. I have dug swimming pools with the same machine. Pretty fast and I could take the dirt further away when needed.

What would be a ballpark charge for using an 855D for digging the OP's pit in sand? 14'x40'x24" deep.

The post above yours he said he had that system and it failed.

Infiltrator systems have their tricks like anything else. Infiltrators are usually better. Sounds like his was an installation failure, not an infiltrator failure.

 

[Lavender Valley]

The "septic bed" can be designed so there is soakage and evaporation; the soak pipe is only 6 to 10 inches deep. Here, we can lay the soak pipe on the ground with flaxes and grasses that help clean the water. If the septic is set up with multiple chambers, the water that comes out of the end of the soak pipe theoretically can be used to drink. I am not that brave, but it does look clean.