covering an unsightly septic tank hole

[Eddie_T]

I am going to look at this 24" x 36" x8" mixing tub at TSC. I am thinking for the inlet side I will just leave the concrete lid in place, sit the tray over it, backfill around it then fill the tray with mulch. My idea is that it will be easier to rake enough mulch out to lift the tray than to re-dig the clay soil. Of course in a number of years the mulch will no longer be loose and will have small hostas growing in it but still easier than digging clay. Hostas have taken over that shady part of my lawn. I keep them mowed and they stay small making a nice ground cover.

 

[Eddie_T]

The 24" x 36" x 8" mixing tub at TSC was a waste of time. The measurements were at the outside of the rim.

 

[Sparky617]

My tank is a single compartment with two lids. I am only placing a riser at the outlet side as the poop tech pumped from there. I will make a sketch showing measurement and angle from the center of the riser to the inlet lid in case it needs to be dug up. The inlet lid is only down around seven inches I may put a frame around it and fill with mulch.

Just thinking . . . with five acres I could invest in a trash water pump and . . .

A kid would have a hard time falling through a cracked lid, a 24" x 12" riser and maybe a 20" square hole in the tank.

Remember the young child that fell down a well shaft? It was probably 6 or 8 inches in diameter and she fell over a hundred feet. It still weirds me out and the guy who went down to rescue her committed suicide from the emotional trauma he felt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescu...lure Morales (born March,the age of 18 months.

 

[MrMiz]

I don't know if this it timely or not but my leach field has failed and right now I've been waiting for more than 3 weeks to get back the engineering report for a new one. I've been dropping a pump down in my tank every morning to keep it below the leach field. My lids are the green plastic type and I am thankful they are very easy to remove every day. It costs me about $600 to have my tanks pumped and they go by the gallons they remove. So if I was unable to pump it to prevent the overflow nightmare I would be paying $600 around every 2 weeks. Until the new system is completed. Pumping it rather than letting it overflow has also allowed me to dig up the leach field and understand how/why it failed. So access to be able to easily remove the lid was pretty critical. I do feel like all safety precautions should be taken, but some consideration for access should also be a top priority. If your leach field fails and things are overflowing everywhere that lid is going to be pretty important.

 

[Eddie_T]

The lids appear to be substantial enough to do the job.

 

[bud16415]

I don't know if this it timely or not but my leach field has failed and right now I've been waiting for more than 3 weeks to get back the engineering report for a new one. I've been dropping a pump down in my tank every morning to keep it below the leach field. My lids are the green plastic type and I am thankful they are very easy to remove every day. It costs me about $600 to have my tanks pumped and they go by the gallons they remove. So if I was unable to pump it to prevent the overflow nightmare I would be paying $600 around every 2 weeks. Until the new system is completed. Pumping it rather than letting it overflow has also allowed me to dig up the leach field and understand how/why it failed. So access to be able to easily remove the lid was pretty critical. I do feel like all safety precautions should be taken, but some consideration for access should also be a top priority. If your leach field fails and things are overflowing everywhere that lid is going to be pretty important.

A lot of years ago I had a total failure of my “leach field” the previous owner I found had buried a 55 gallon steel drum as a grease trap and then for a leach field dug a big hole and filled it with a truck load of gravel. The drum rotted out and the ground around the gravel hole just refused to take more absorption. It had worked for them for 40 years but they also had a bad well and hardly used any water.



I was fortunate I had gravity flow to a new location and the rules were not what they are today and back then you could do repairs to your own system without permits and compliance to perk testing and all that.



I got a 200 gallon locomotive air tank .25 thick and cut the round end off one end and dug a hole and planted it sticking open end up about 8” above grade. I then made a big flat spot with a berm 24’x24 and filled it with 14” of stone. I made a big figure 8 out of 4” PVC that was peppered full of holes on just the bottom half and set that into the stone. Covered the whole thing with a foot of straw and then 4” of dirt and seeded it as lawn. A lot of the water soaks in and a lot of it evaporates I think.



I ran my kitchen and washer water straight to the grease trap and the bathroom water goes thru the septic tank. In the tall grease trap tank the outflow is a tee inside the tank so the outflow doesn’t come off the top or the bottom but from the middle. I figured some stuff sinks some floats and in the middle would have the least to plug my leach pipes and with so many holes it would take a long time to plug the leach pipes.



When I pump the septic tank I have them pump the grease trap at the same time and it has a waxy cake on top and sludge on the bottom so it is doing its job.



It has been working fine for 30 years as kind of a forerunner of what the mound systems are today. Pumping it more often than needed costs money but in the long run it is worth doing.

Good luck on getting yours repaired it is no fun and most locals run you thru hoops now with design and restrictions. I know a few people that go rent a skid steer and sneak a repair in DIY as that’s all they can afford.

 

[MrMiz]

A lot of years ago I had a total failure of my “leach field” the previous owner I found had buried a 55 gallon steel drum as a grease trap and then for a leach field dug a big hole and filled it with a truck load of gravel. The drum rotted out and the ground around the gravel hole just refused to take more absorption. It had worked for them for 40 years but they also had a bad well and hardly used any water.



I was fortunate I had gravity flow to a new location and the rules were not what they are today and back then you could do repairs to your own system without permits and compliance to perk testing and all that.



I got a 200 gallon locomotive air tank .25 thick and cut the round end off one end and dug a hole and planted it sticking open end up about 8” above grade. I then made a big flat spot with a berm 24’x24 and filled it with 14” of stone. I made a big figure 8 out of 4” PVC that was peppered full of holes on just the bottom half and set that into the stone. Covered the whole thing with a foot of straw and then 4” of dirt and seeded it as lawn. A lot of the water soaks in and a lot of it evaporates I think.



I ran my kitchen and washer water straight to the grease trap and the bathroom water goes thru the septic tank. In the tall grease trap tank the outflow is a tee inside the tank so the outflow doesn’t come off the top or the bottom but from the middle. I figured some stuff sinks some floats and in the middle would have the least to plug my leach pipes and with so many holes it would take a long time to plug the leach pipes.



When I pump the septic tank I have them pump the grease trap at the same time and it has a waxy cake on top and sludge on the bottom so it is doing its job.



It has been working fine for 30 years as kind of a forerunner of what the mound systems are today. Pumping it more often than needed costs money but in the long run it is worth doing.

Good luck on getting yours repaired it is no fun and most locals run you thru hoops now with design and restrictions. I know a few people that go rent a skid steer and sneak a repair in DIY as that’s all they can afford.

$1100 for the engineers drawing $850 for the county permit and all the documentation says they should last around 20 years. I can totally see why people do their own thing. It would seem to me that somebody should be able to design a system better. Like yours it seems like grey water and waste water should be handled a little different. Of course even if you where and Engineer and you had a better system it would be another 100 years before the national code even acknowledged there was a better way.

I'm just soar because I'm over 2k deep and my "stuff" is still running our everywhere on the ground. Maybe they'll actually get started in another 3 weeks.

 

[bud16415]

$1100 for the engineers drawing $850 for the county permit and all the documentation says they should last around 20 years. I can totally see why people do their own thing. It would seem to me that somebody should be able to design a system better. Like yours it seems like grey water and waste water should be handled a little different. Of course even if you where and Engineer and you had a better system it would be another 100 years before the national code even acknowledged there was a better way.

I'm just soar because I'm over 2k deep and my "stuff" is still running our everywhere on the ground. Maybe they'll actually get started in another 3 weeks.

My nephew had a guy come to his door and offer him close to 4 times what his house was worth. He was close to Lake Erie and his little house and lot was what the guy needed to complete a huge lakefront property without any neighbors. He couldn’t say no so he told the guy pay me for it and let me live here for one year for free and it’s a deal.



He called me up and asked if I would help him build a house in one year and he would do most of the work along with his buddies some in the building trade. I said sure.



He bought 5 acres out in the country and we started. In a million years did I ever think the hardest part of the project would be putting in legally a septic system out in the boondocks where all his neighbors had were grand fathered in little tanks with a ditch of gravel.



We started in with trying to get a permit first thing and it took the full year of stupid testing and digging holes to perk test and endless revisions to the design plans that had to be done by some guy the enforcement guy recommended who wasn’t cheap. On one hand they won’t give you advice and then no matter what we suggested was not allowed. We found out later what people do is go and dig out an area first a year or so in advance and then fill it in with an exact soil mix that will perk, then let some weeds grow up so it looks like normal. When you call the guy out he does his test and guess what you pass.



It is the biggest racket going in this county anyway. Just a eight mile from his house is a dairy farm and they have a manure pit that’s the size of a football field and they pump it out and spray it all over the place, but a single human needed a $30k waste treatment setup with us doing the work.



Even though he had all kinds of areas to let gravity do the work we had to put his mound on a spot 20’ higher than his house and put in lift pumps.

I feel for what you are going thru.

 

[MrMiz]

My nephew had a guy come to his door and offer him close to 4 times what his house was worth. He was close to Lake Erie and his little house and lot was what the guy needed to complete a huge lakefront property without any neighbors. He couldn’t say no so he told the guy pay me for it and let me live here for one year for free and it’s a deal.



He called me up and asked if I would help him build a house in one year and he would do most of the work along with his buddies some in the building trade. I said sure.



He bought 5 acres out in the country and we started. In a million years did I ever think the hardest part of the project would be putting in legally a septic system out in the boondocks where all his neighbors had were grand fathered in little tanks with a ditch of gravel.



We started in with trying to get a permit first thing and it took the full year of stupid testing and digging holes to perk test and endless revisions to the design plans that had to be done by some guy the enforcement guy recommended who wasn’t cheap. On one hand they won’t give you advice and then no matter what we suggested was not allowed. We found out later what people do is go and dig out an area first a year or so in advance and then fill it in with an exact soil mix that will perk, then let some weeds grow up so it looks like normal. When you call the guy out he does his test and guess what you pass.



It is the biggest racket going in this county anyway. Just a eight mile from his house is a dairy farm and they have a manure pit that’s the size of a football field and they pump it out and spray it all over the place, but a single human needed a $30k waste treatment setup with us doing the work.



Even though he had all kinds of areas to let gravity do the work we had to put his mound on a spot 20’ higher than his house and put in lift pumps.

I feel for what you are going thru.

That sounds horribly like what I'm in the middle of right now. The current debate is where we are going to get enough clean fill dirt to top the mound with... CLEAN fill dirt to cover my sh$#. What they really mean is dirt that they certify. All I could do was roll my eyes at the guy when he told me I couldn't just get dirt from anywhere.

 

[bud16415]

That sounds horribly like what I'm in the middle of right now. The current debate is where we are going to get enough clean fill dirt to top the mound with... CLEAN fill dirt to cover my sh$#. What they really mean is dirt that they certify. All I could do was roll my eyes at the guy when he told me I couldn't just get dirt from anywhere.

Yep they wanted this berm built on top of this hill and there were small trees and such up there. They strictly forbid driving a skid steer over the area and we had to cut the trees off flush to the ground but the roots couldn’t be disturbed. We first had ordered a slinger truck to get the stone up there until we found out the cost. So my nephew had to build two huge dirt ramps to get the material up there. God only knows how many tri-axle loads it would have been but he mined it out of an area where he wanted a pond eventually. It is a pretty nice pond now and I always tease him that he has created a wetland and they will be out to close him down because some migratory birds may land in it.

The discharge pipes at the top we assumed we could use pipe like I did with a million half-inch holes to let the water out and not clog. Oh no the holes had to be quarter-inch and drilled and based on the area and pressure drop we were only allowed 12 (I think) .25” holes. He told me after it gets approved he was going up there and put a thousand holes in it with a cordless drill. I don’t know if he ever did it. I know after he finally got done the next year he redid the plumbing from his kitchen and laundry to bypass.

 

[68bucks]

You know there is one thing I always think about when I have a septic hassle, and I've had a few. If you're on a well too, eventually you will be drinking what runs through it. I want mine to work, and my neighbors too. Since I had the county out to bless mine, with couple minor improvements, I now have to renew an operating permit every 5 years. So eventually....