Driving over septic ?

[Soundguy]

I think that was a bit of unluck. As a GC I have to do house demolitions on a semi frequent basis. On most of the 50-60 year old houses and (younger) trailers we take down.. they all have intact septic that has to be pumped, filled and lid crushed perCounty / DOH/DEP specs.. etc. Hav'nt found a caved in one yet.

Soundguy

 

[NewToy]

If you get down around Zephyrhills in Florida it's possible to have a basement in some locations.(On one of the hills) But, most of the state you can pull good irrigation water from a shallow well 10' deep. Strange place that Florida. lived in the Tampa area for 10 years or so and then in Orange Park another 10. If yoou would go down to Miami it could just as well be another country. Quite a diverse state.

John

 

[citytransplant]

I would appreciate it if any of you septic gurus could share your wisdom in the Rural Living forum: "steel tank/system component" thread. Thanks.
Tony D.

 

[Highbeam]

I wouldn't be concerned about the trank top falling in but the access manholes are often capped with a plastic dome type lid or at best a thin concrete casting since they need to be light enough for a man to lift yet wide enough to access the tank. The manhole lids are the weak spot. Worse yet are the old metal lids that rust out from the corrosive gasses.

The incoming line from the house to the septic tank is at the same elevation as the outgoing pipe so in a shallow tank installation both sides of the tank have pipes that are pretty shallow.

You need air to be able to enter the drainfield from above. It is not for evaporation but to supply oxygen to the air loving bugs that are providing secondary treatment of the effluent from the septic tank. If you place too much fill above the drainfield, the transfer of oxygen will be retarded and the oxygen loving, and fast eating, bugs will die to be replaced by the slow eating anaerobic bugs. Your system will fail. Don't add too much fill, I wouldn't risk adding anything more than a couple of inches of topsoil for grass.

Yes, the effluent goes down. The groundwater from below interferes with the transfer of oxygen to the bugs, and effectively stops secondary treatment if it floods the drainfield.

 

[LBrown59]

Don't drive over the tank? Crap, I wish you had told me that before. I have been drivng over my system, including the tank, continuously for the last 18 years. The first 16 years with a 2000# JD 755 and the last 2 years with a 3000+# JD 4310. Now how am I going to mow the grass?

Jeff

I'd be more afraid of the Tank caving in than damaging the leach field.

 

[MadReferee]

You need air to be able to enter the drainfield from above. It is not for evaporation but to supply oxygen to the air loving bugs that are providing secondary treatment of the effluent from the septic tank. If you place too much fill above the drainfield, the transfer of oxygen will be retarded and the oxygen loving, and fast eating, bugs will die to be replaced by the slow eating anaerobic bugs. Your system will fail. Don't add too much fill, I wouldn't risk adding anything more than a couple of inches of topsoil for grass.

Yes, the effluent goes down. The groundwater from below interferes with the transfer of oxygen to the bugs, and effectively stops secondary treatment if it floods the drainfield.

Not quite true for ALL systems. Some systems are designed to be located beneath driveways and parking lots. Some are designed so that they can have 18" or more of fill above them.

You cannot make a generalized statement like what you made. It all depends on your system's design. When in doubt about what you have, there are government resources available in just about every state that can give you the correct information fot the system thet YOU have installed.

 

[Soundguy]

I agree.. I have a deeply burried system.. by design.. not accident.

Soundguy

 

[Highbeam]

Wow, drainfield under asphalt? Couldn't pull that off up here without providing secondary treatment upstream. Do those systems have some sort of aerator chamber upstream? It is one thing to simply dispose of treated effluent, you don't need air for that, but to feed the aerobic bugs you need air and you won't find that 6 feet under ground or under asphalt. I've engineered a few of the standard systems and a few overly complicated ones but haven't spent much time in the middle.

I suppose in some areas you can still get away with cesspools so it really does vary by state.

 

[Pooh_Bear]

I think code around here requires that your leach line be 3ft deep.
Has to have so many inches of gravel under it and so many over it.
And someone came out and measured all this to make sure it was done to code.
Then it had at least 2 feet of dirt on top of all that.
I remember this from when we put the septic system in
for my parents house 10 years ago. The whole thing was in a flood plain.
The flood plain part mite have been why it had to be done that way.

Pics from the flood of 2003. Tank and system are in the back yard.
http://web.infoave.net/~poohbear2767/floodpics.htm

Pooh Bear

 

[Soundguy]

air and you won't find that 6 feet under ground or under asphalt. I've engineered a few of the standard systems and a few overly complicated ones but haven't spent much time in the middle. .

I have large plastic, completly enclosed cage structures in my septic system.

6' down works just fine... And is to code.

Soundguy