I want to put a drain pipe over my septic tank

[Richard]

I don't know how to word the title other than that.

I have a downspout. As it turns out, it exits right over the top of my septic tank (which runs parallel to the sidewalk). The downspout is right at the end of the tank as you can see in the picture.

I knew the tank was there but, thought it was 5' or so to the right in the picture. Frankly, I'm GLAD I found it so now I can mark it for future pumping purposes.

Regardless.... wife wants me to bury a drain pipe to carry the downspout water away.

What I've done on the other 3 corners of the house was to dig down maybe 12" or so and lay a run of scheduel 40 solid pipe. I'm wanting to do the same thing here, especially the Sch-40 since I cut the yard with a tractor... I want to be sure to not compress a corregated type drainpipe.

As you see in the side shot, I only have something like 6" of dirt covering the tank as it is. I have some plants to one side and the rest of the tank length to the opposite side.

I don't really want to run the drain 8' (or what ever the length of the tank is) to the right (uphill) and then cut across the tank and come back down the hill.

I also don't really want to take the drain pipe to the left of the tank since that will get into the roots of the evergreen my wife planted AND it will also get into the piping taking the septic tank 'stuff' out to my drainfield.

I'm sort of in between a rock & a hard place and am not coming up with any creative or destructive ways to lay the drain.

The wife REALLY wants the drain pipe hidden. What this means is, I can (somehow) bury it and forget it.... or, I can roll it out for a rain.... pick it back up and put it away when the sun is out..... get it back out for a rain....and roll it back up... point being, she does NOT want it in sight. (sigh)

I'm open to any creative ideas on how to bury this. This downspout carries all the water on the left/front quarter of the house (as defined by the MAIN roof in the center of picture). The octagon roof on the left side also drains to this downspout but... this roof is blended into the original roof so I don't count it as much. The lower roof (above porch) is split between two downspouts. The breakpoint for the lower roof is on the other side of the little tree you see. From that point left goes to this downspout and from that point to the right, goes to the garage side.

 

[Chuck52]

Can you go left, between the evergreen and the patio or walkway? Is there another downspout that direction with a drain you could tie into? If so, you might be able to run it at almost ground level, but covered with mulch at least near the downspout.

Chuck

 

[kennyd]

Just bury it very shallow there over the tank until you get passed it...Possibly also raise the grade there a little so you have i bit more topsoil over the pipe.

 

[hawkeye08]

Maybe a piece of heavy steel pipe (so it doesn't crush) until you get past the tank, then go deeper and continue with plastic?

 

[SARG]

If I understand your situation ......... the downspout hit at the end of the discharge side of your tank. If correct I would just run the rain pipe under the discharge pipe which should be about 8-10" below the top of the tank. If you wanted to use the solid plastic a couple elbows would work. That's all assuming there's enough grade to take the rain water away from the house.

 

[Chuck52]

They also have those things that roll out when it rains and then roll back up automatically.

Chuck

 

[teg]

I would make the flower bed larger... expand the mulch area so that you will not have lawn in this area to mow with the tractor. Bury somewhat shallow.

PS. nice scrape mark with the backhoe Also, do you really want to drive over the tank with a tractor weekly? Make a really big mulch area for annual flowers...

 

[inveresk]

How about moving the downspout so it's clear of the tank?

One other observation - there are a number of reasons it's unwise to site the septic tank too close to the house. You're more likely to be adversely affected in the event of a blockage. It's right under your nose when you have to replace it. It limits what you can do in terms of altering or extending your house without moving the tank and it can add substantial costs if you do need to relocate it. Where practicable, it's best to locate the tank some distance away. Unless there are reasons it can't be done, I generally specify the location of septic tanks a minimum of 50' from the buildings they serve. This is code in some countries.

 

[Richard]

How about moving the downspout so it's clear of the tank?

One other observation - there are a number of reasons it's unwise to site the septic tank too close to the house. You're more likely to be adversely affected in the event of a blockage. It's right under your nose when you have to replace it. It limits what you can do in terms of altering or extending your house without moving the tank and it can add substantial costs if you do need to relocate it. Where practicable, it's best to locate the tank some distance away. Unless there are reasons it can't be done, I generally specify the location of septic tanks a minimum of 50' from the buildings they serve. This is code in some countries.

This IS my replacement tank and I didn't have any other options short of replacing the entire septic system with one of those pump systems but even at that.... I don't have room on my property for another field... so I was screwed either way I turned.

Some good ideas

 

[silverdollar6]

Maybe you could replace the wife?

 

[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.