Drive equipment over septic drainfield?

[kmdigital]

Around here they have something called "flowable fill". You buy it from the cement company, and they haul it in a cement truck, but it is somewhat less expensive then concrete. It sets up pretty good, but you can still shovel it even after it is setup, and it is ideal for filling septic tanks.

I agree with Curly, work with your contractor, not against him, or neither of you will be happy with the results. I assume that you hired him becuase he had good references, or you know him, or he has a good reputation, not becuase he was the cheapest. If you hired because he was cheapest, then your are both in trouble!

The one sure thing in construction, particularly remodels and additions, is that there are ALWAYS unknowns! It is virtually impossible to write a bulletproof contract, where you can put all the responsibility for these things on the contractor, and if you could, your attorney's fees and the contractor would be very, very expensive. In fact, you probably couldn't get a contractor to do any work for you unless you were willing to pay twice as much or more then a similar job would normally cost.

So why did you hire this contractor? There must have been some reason, so keep this in mind and be willing to work with him. This job hasn't even started, and if he decides that you are unreasonable or he can't possibly satisfy you, he may just find some sort of loophole and walk away, unless he's desperate for work. In this case, trust me, if you try to make him pay for every little thing, he will find ways to save money on other things or find all kinds of "change orders" that aren't part of the original contract. Remember, many low dollar contractors make their money from change orders.

 

[Defective]

This is looking up

The red "X" is the approximate location of the current tank that they're going to fill in. The new tank will go to the left and will actually be a bit off the picture. Under (downhill) of the tanks is the drainfield.

Since the new tank will be to the left, you can see how the drainfield blocks the access. Also... the yard itself slopes down to a dropoff that is about 3' high so it's not easy bringing a truck up from the bottom. I don't think any of these pictures show the row of trees at the bottom of the yard

Richard,

How wide is the space between that tree and the leech field?

From your picture, it looks plenty wide.

A TLB shouldn't have any trouble with the slope. They could open up the tank, pump in the fill. (They could use a stoneslinger truck for the gravel and a pump for the concrete.) Then drive the TLB over the old tank to dig for the new one. If they bring the new tank in on a flatbed, it should be able to follow the TLB across the old tank.

If that space is as wide as it looks, I'd put markers up around the field and tell them to go ahead. Just stay between the tree & the markers.

 

[Richard]

How wide is the space between that tree and the leech field?

I've not measured it. The only measuring that anyone has done has been by eyeball, looking at the grass lines and presuming the greener/longer grass is what's covering the septic system.

He doesn't think the slope on the hill will allow anything to sneak between the tree and the field. To come in that way will mandate coming in at essentially sideways to the slope and for concrete truck or perhaps, block truck or gravel dump truck... he thinks that is putting them at risk if tilting sideways. (that's the implication I'm getting from him)

Another issue is height.... if he were able to drive a vehicle within 12" of the tree....then the height of the truck will probably start clipping branches off.

As the one who mows around this darn tree...I personally don't mind if it was taken out. The wife is very clear to me though.... we've put a LOT of effort throughout the build process to keep/protect this tree and she really loves the idea of how the deck we're going to build (after room addition) will come out to the tree and let the branches be used to create some shade....

They're due out Tuesday to "scratch around" as the excavator guy said.... not to dig footings, just to lightly dig around & verify where the major junctions are (septic outlet of house, inlet of tank, outlet of tank...)

I'm planning on being there tomorrow. Going to be interesting to see how this develops.

As aside...I asked above about the logic of putting something down (plywood? geotext fabric?) and dumping a "dirt road" on top of it for them to work on/drive over. The "road" would be made with topsoil instead of the dumptruck of rocks they want to bring in (to achieve same goal).

Is there any merit to laying down some 1/4" or 3/4" sheets of plywood and then dumping several truckloads of topsoil on top of them to help raise the height and spread the weight out?

If they use topsoil then I can simply work that in later...if they use rocks... then no matter HOW much they say "oh, and we'll clean them up when we're done" I know I'm going to be left with a freaking TON of them mashed into the yard, working themselves up over the years as mower projectiles.

I'm sensative to this a touch because I've hand raked this entire yard about seven times (yes 7) to get all the rocks out...and each freaking time I did it, we had a torrential rain to ruin it. I'd bring more dirt in, hand rake it again.... and another torrential rain.

Finally I said the heck with it... I gave up knowing I can't whoop Mother Nature.

Picture attached of my butt baby smooth side yard prior to Mother Nature whipping my hiney

btw, I swear I did it 7 times. Really frustrated me

 

[tlbuser]

If the dogwood is a primary concern, why not temporarily relocate it until after the construction is done? We're closing in on the dormant season and hopefully you'll have it back in before spring. For comfort sake, dig as big a root ball as your tlb can move.

The second septic guy sounds very reasonable in the fact that he can't guarantee anything until they do some digging.

A concrete pumper would be nice, but they are pricey. I'd want them to pour the tank and foundation at the same time to defray some setup /transport costs.

Tracked machines are nicer because they have a lower ground pressure per square inch, however not every contractor uses them. Not everybody can afford to buy up to bigger and better stuff the day after it hits the market

 

[Richard]

Here's a bit of an update.

They got the old tank opened up, pumped/emptied. New tank is in place. They connected the new tank today.

I DID see some tire tracks where their John Deer backhoe/loader was traipsing across my drainfield (smaller than my JCB but still a full sized machine)

Had a chit chat with the builder about that this morning and firmly held my ground.

oh...soemthing I don't think I mentioned...

When they unearthed my existing septic tank, they found water puddling at the exit pipe of it.

Was my drainfield clogged?
Was the pipe leaking?

As we were trying to figure that out (I had come home from work and was watching while they were looking at it), the builder told me if my connector pipe was full of water, it meant my drainfield was somehow plugged and I was basically "screwed" but that's not the word he used

I have NO place for a natural (gravity) second drainfield and if this one plugged up, I'd have to build one UP the hill and pump to it. Something I really do not want to do.

Fast forward a bit...he drills hole in pipe and the pipe is EMPTY!! I turn water on and it flows on through pipe...so it now seems the exit of the tank is leaking which is good news.

Fast forard to this morning when I'm discussing him NOT taking heavy machinery over my drainfield he said he "thought" it would be ok and still felt that way.

I said "just yesterday, you told me you thought if the drainfield was clogged that I was majorly screwed (not the word I used ) and he agreed to that memory. I then said, well then, it's the risk of anything happening (and I realize it might NOT happen) that is making me so protective of this drainfield as you yourself pointed out to me what a major problem I have if something happens to it"

He basically shut up at that point because I was right.

Today, they had the 2x10's laid out as a "road" for the hoe to drive on to help spread the weight.

Now he's talking about bringing in some other machine to even out the dirt mound that he's created and I'm trying to work WITH him by telling him not to worry about the dirt mound, that I'll just take the box blade to it and redo the yard (which needs to be done anyway)

In fact, I told him to not worry about the dirt/yard as well as the mound of rocks in my driveway (blocking 1/2 of it) that they filled my tank with. When they're done with those rocks, I'll just spread them over the driveway also.

No need for him to pay for a dozer to even that stuff out.