Installing septic system

[kolmstead]

Attached (I hope) are a couple of pictures of my L39 at work on a "fixer-upper" house I bought. The L39 has been enormously useful; I've put nearly 100 hours on it since August. Mostly moving junk, but I had to find the old septic system, which took a lot of digging, and I had to replace it because the tank was full of roots and the top was in bad shape. Pictures are of the new 1000 gallon plastic tank and the infiltration chamber sections. Soil was extremely hard clay/caliche mix, with fist-sized stones for aggregate. Needless to say, digging was slow.

The house is visible in one or two pix. New roof, new siding, windows, and whole new interior, eventually. I estimate at least one year for the whole project. Over twenty dump runs to date, with a 8' x 16' x 2' dump trailer. Biggest load was 12,400 pounds, nearly all concrete. Septic tank pieces and parts of old slabs and sidewalks.

Mojave Desert near Ridgecrest, CA. Mountains are Sierra-Nevada Range. Had the L39 nearly two years; about 230 hours on it. This was the first time I had used the 24" backhoe bucket.

-Karl

 

[BeezFun]

Great machine, great mountains, great septic tank. You're lucky you're in an area where you can do that kind of work yourself, around here there'd be inspectors and bureaucrats falling over each other telling you why you couldn't do it yourself. I'd like to push them all in the trench and use them for backfill.

 

[Randyj]

Karl,
Looks like your doing a fine job! Although a lot of work, very rewarding, when complete. Thanks for sharing the images. We all like photo's.

 

[Egon]

Thanks for the pictures!

I'd like to push them all in the trench and use them for backfill

Now now, some of those fellows have to make a living too and remember you don't want organic material in the trench. It decomposes and settles. There has to be another use figured out.

Unfortunately the Bureaucracy is essential to making our civilization possible but will ultimately grow to the point of self destruction.

 

[NuBota]

Nicely done Karl!

I get out your way a couple times of year for work, i.e. China Lake. Have made the drive from LA many times when I don't take the hop to Inyokern. The desert is something to behold!

Beez/Egon - there are plenty of desolate areas out there where no one would find you......

Ever see "The Hills Have Eyes" movie?

 

[dodge man]

I agree, very nice machine.

 

[rdsaustintx]

New roof, new siding, windows, and whole new interior, eventually. I estimate at least one year for the whole project.

Just finished the same list on an old house, except saving the septic for last. Five years so far, including the hernia surgery.

*cough* <ouch>
*cough* <ouch>

 

[bx24]

Pictures are of the new 1000 gallon plastic tank and the infiltration chamber sections

Karl

I have heard good things about the infiltration chambers. The logic seems much better than using the traditional fingers in gravel method. Did you price out each? How much smaller of a field did you end up with using the chambers?

 

[kolmstead]

The old septic tank was still about half full, so I needed to empty it out before I tried to pull it out of the ground. The L39 backhoe did a pretty good job of bailing the yucky stuff. I kept the breeze at my back. The fellow who was helping me was putting a new roof on the garage, which happened to be directly downwind. He kept making choking gestures. I ignored him.

A little while later, the stench suddenly got overpowering. I looked up, and my "helper" was holding a big electric fan, pointed right at me.

My 6K forklift wouldn't lift the whole tank out of the ground, but it would pick up one end. I wound up "floating" it out by lifting one end, then dumping dirt under the lifted end. Then I'd let that end down and pick up the other end. The tank walked right up out of the ground. Then I had the joy of busting it up. Dropping heavy concrete slabs on it worked best. Sledge hammer was way too much work. Three to four inches of concrete, with wire mesh embedded.

The original septic tank was only ten feet from the house. I installed the new one about 65 feet away, in an area that shouldn't get much traffic. I am seriously worried about what would happen if somebody drove over the tank, or the infiltration chambers.

Got the hundred foot trench for the infiltration chamber almost done today. Took three or four days to dig it. Tomorrow will be spent dumping sand back in; I know it's too deep. I have a difficult time controlling the depth of the excavation, and it's easier to go deep than to hand dig later.

-Karl

 

[kolmstead]

BX, I think the chambers are more expensive than the traditional 4" perf pipe and 3' wide gravel bed, but maybe not by too much. The labor saved by not handling the gravel and not having to cover it with cloth, straw or paper is significant. I used the traditional system thirteen years ago when I upgraded my home system.

For my soil, I needed 94 feet of infiltration chamber, vs. 134 feet of perf pipe. The five foot sections of chamber were about $45 each, so roughly $1K for the leach field. I don't know what coarse gravel is going for locally.

The chamber is three feet wide, so it needed a trench somewhat wider than that. The pipe would have required a three foot wide trench, per code. Not a big difference. I hated using the backhoe to dig a trench wider than the bucket; that is really hard on pins. You can see the hoe flexing when you force it to dig with one side and one or two teeth.

-Karl