where can I buy a septic tank lid online?

aardvark · Dec 6, 2004

I broke my second septic tank inspection lid, and am needing to replace two lids. I have a fiberglass septic tank of unknown size, make, or model, it just came with the house. It has two 24" diameter fiberglass manhole inspection covers. The lids don't bolt down at all, they just set on the manhole and are held down after they are covered with dirt. The manhole lid profiles are as in the attached picture. I found almost exactly what I want from a local supplier, but they wanted $125 for each lid, and frankly, that's about $100 more than each are worth in my opinion. I work in the marine industry, and can make two lids out of starboard pretty cheap, but I'd rather just buy two lids if the prices were reasonable. I figure it must cost about $8-$10 each to make those lids in small volumes, so they must have a huge markup on them.

Has anyone bought what I'm looking for and can point me to the right vendor? Please see attached pic. Thanks.

beenthere · Dec 6, 2004

How does that size compare to the lid of a 55 gal drum? That is what I use.

You should go into the business of making those lids. Probably easy to do out of fiber glass. Sounds like some good money could be made. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

bczoom · Dec 6, 2004

Jared

Not familiar with fiberglass tanks but can it hold the weight of a concrete lid?

aardvark · Dec 6, 2004

I thought of cutting the ends off a 55 gallon drum and using them. I haven't ruled it out yet. I also thought of buying a large diameter polyethylene tank and cutting the ends off. that's still an option also. I was just looking for a vendor as a last ditch effort. It would be *nice* to use a part as it was intended, but in reality, I suspect I will be making something. And yes, I thought of "going into business". It sounds like a good ebay item. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

On the one inspection lid, I actually broke it several weeks ago, so I just dropped a sheet of plywood over the opening and dumped a pile of dirt on it so it wouldn't move around. Now that I've broken the other lid also, I figure it's time to fix both.

aardvark · Dec 6, 2004

I don't think it will hold a concrete lid. Our water tables are real high, and the lids are under about 4-6 inches of dirt. The tank is probably only 12-18 inches under ground. Worst case scenario I was thinking I would weld a lid up out of 1/4' thick aluminum diamond plate, but a 55 gallon drum or poly tank ends would be cheaper/faster.

edit - the reason I didn't think it would hold a concrete lid, is because the manhole on the tank looks to be just 3/8" thick fiberglass. I don't want to overload the riser by setting a heavy slab of concrete on top of it.

rambler · Dec 6, 2004

This does not help you, but how did you break 2 of them so quickly? At that shallow, it is pretty important you do _not_ put any weight in your septic tank area. I think you are going to be a good candidate for a replacement concrete tank in a short time.....

I can't see a simple fiberglass lid ever hold up with only 5" of dirt over it......

--->Paul

aardvark · Dec 6, 2004

The front tire on the BX23 went through both of them. I didn't know the tanks down here are so shallow. Out septic tank when I lived in NY was about six feet underground. The first one was my own fault, becaue I forgot it was there and I ran it over. The second one I never knew existed, until I found it. I don't know how old the tank is. The house was built in 1978, the tank may be original.

I was planning on removing alot of the dirt from over the top of the tank area, and installing some aluminum diamond plate to distribute the loads over a larger area away from the septic tank. I was going to put the plate 3-4 inches under ground.

Tevi · Dec 6, 2004

How about fiberglassing over the old one's

BigAl · Dec 6, 2004

I bought a fiberglass lid extension from my local septic tank dealer. This thing is great . You take off the existing lid ,put on the extension of whatever lenght you need and screw the new lid in place . It sets above the finished ground level and you always know where it is . Here in my state ,it is required to pump your tank every time the home is sold . This extension saves time and money . It ran me about $50 for a 24" diameter by 3'long extension pipe and a new "screw down lid" . I just cut off the amount of pipe needed to make it flush to the ground . The lid is held in place with allen wrench screws so everything is nice and flush.
Big Al

RobS · Dec 6, 2004

Ours are molded plastic and cost about $40 each. I know this as we had to buy a replacement this summer. Seems one of them sticks up bit higher than the other. I had been running the lawn tractor over it with no problem but I put new blades on and the sharp blade caught the plastic instead of glancing off of it.

So we got a new lid and I intend to cut the height down to avoid another mishap. These lids are just access hatches over risers that lead down a couple of feet to the top of the concrete tank. I'm thinking that cutting down should be a piece of cake, right? Well, it seems the top of the riser is molded to accept the lid so any height must be taken from the bottom. That means digging the whole thing up!?! That's what I call poor design.

So maybe we'll wait a bit. Decide if we really want grass there or maybe a planting bed of some sort. Maybe it'll need to be raised ? Do they sell those fake rocks that big?

Anyway, our replacement lid came from our septic company, the same one that did the original install /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif