I want to put a drain pipe over my septic tank

[flyingcow]

My tank is hooked to a leech field on the discharge side. I would give a little thought/pause in putting the gutter drain into/over the field. Especially if you have drainage issues. Wouldn't that effect the field working properly? Just thinking out loud,.....

Good Luck.

 

[NOTV8]

Maybe you could replace the wife?

I almost spilled my drink when I read this... . If it's me, I'll make the flower bed wider/longer as other suggested... :thumbsup:

 

[radioman]

Im with kennyd on this one. I dont see why you cant attach the pipe more to the left in pic into the mulch beds. no need to go all the way into the evergreen and just enough for the door to opened by couple inches.

Afterall if the pipe does show , I'd just add more mulch. :thumbsup:

 

[Richard]

Update:

I bought some elbows and bent the drain pipe around the access door to the tank. I got it almost all the way off the tank but, going over the access door was my largest concern. Now, years in the future when I have the tank pumped....if I REMEMBER what I did (took pictures), I might be able to get to the access door without screwing up the pipe.

Otherwise, I dug down maybe 12-18" (depending where I was on the slope) and put the pipe in yesterday.

Something I'm not sure if I mentioned.... We had to replace the power line from the transformer into the house since for the remodel we did, it would have otherwise been buried UNDER the house.

This drain pipe was heading right to where the powe line went across the yard. Fortunately, when the power line was installed 2 years ago, I specifically asked the installer to put it in, lay his red tape BUT... in this area of the dig (pointing to where I felt this drain pipe would be) would he STOP backfilling after he put his tape in so I could have a visual idea of how deep I could go.

He obliged and I've had this 24" (guessing) deep trench, maybe five feet long sitting there. This was my target. Since the trench had sides and a bottom, my goal was to dig no lower than the bottom.

As it of course turned out, the trench I was digging did not angle properly to this location but I could still use it as a reference. I was digging my trench VERY slowly and very carefully.

To make a long story short, if you take a Kleenex tissue and tear a 2" corner off of it.... I had a red plastic "corner" stuck to my bucket. I knew instantly what it was. Got off the machine and went to look. Sure enough, I had skimmed the bottom of the trench and about one inch below is this red tape. I really couldn't have dug it more perfectly other than the tooth catching a bit of the tape and tearing it off.

The moment I saw that I knew I was done digging, even if I wanted it deeper....tough.

Laid the pipe in and as I discovered today, after I backfilled a bit.... I pulled the pipe down the hill about one inch and now my downspout doesn't match up perfectly with the drain hole. Not sure how I'm going to fiddle with that as I only discovered it this morning prior to leaveing for work.


The main purpose for me trenching all 4 corners of the house and putting pipe down to carry the water away is primarily because I live on a hill and get enough natural water coming down the hill. It has washed out my yard as I was tossing grass seed down, about 5 different times. (really ticked me off) I'd hand rake the entire yard, toss seed, put straw out and it would downpour, washing it all away. I'd replace the dirt, rake it, seed/straw....and it would downpour, washing it all away.

Happend about 5 times and I finally said.... well... this is a public forum, never mind what I said.

Let it suffice that today, I still have a sucky yard because I've gone on strike.

I can guarantee you that it doesn't look this baby smooth today.

 

[Highbeam]

I have a super shallow septic tank like yours and I cringe every time I run over it with the riding lawn mower. I can't imagine running a tractor over it! Once you see how deep the poo is and how much of a mess that a collapse would make, I like the idea of making that a non-lawn area.

 

[Richard]

The tractor I use is an International 444. I specifically asked our tank/field installer if I could take the tractor over the (old) tank and he said no problem.

To clarify....the old tank was replaced because of our addition. It was caved in, filled with gravel and topped with concrete and then dirt.

This new tank is way too close to the house to drive the tractor over so I won't ever have to worry about that. The most it would have is the finish mower backed up to it. Truth be told.... it's tucked in an area where I simply use the string trimmer. not to keep the tractor out but using the string trimmer is turning out to be easier. That's a nice bonus.