Septic Opinion?

[Birdman2447]

I am trying to advise a customer on which route to take. We are building a single bed/bath guest house that needs septic. There is an existing septic onsite that is designed for one extra bedroom so the capacity is there. Problem is that it is 400ft from the house. The slope is perfect for me to get a 1/4"/ft pitch but I am worried with flowing solids 400ft. If we go this route it would be 4" pipe with clean outs. Any advice? We are already digging a trench for power so there is no added cost there. Adding a small septic would add cost to the project that the owner would like to avoid.

 

[td25c]

Sounds like you have plenty of fall from the homesite to the septic.Would it work?........ Probably work fine.Septic systems vary allot from different states & countys.Dont know what local laws are in your area.Will the county health department have to sighn off on it? Or do you even need them to? Generally its best to have the tank close to the home,say between 15 to 30 feet.Then you would just be running water 400 feet to the leach bed.Like I said the ruels & regulations are different everywhere so ya might need to check out the local regulations for the customers sake.Some times power companys are funny about letting other utillities in the same ditch with the power line.It would be handy if you could install a septic tank at the new guest home and then tie in the overflow to the existing leach bed .

 

[d9gdon]

No way would I run solids that far, just too much risk for plugging. Tanks are cheap. Then you could run the water to the existing drain field, or even to the other tank. Sometimes there are regulations about how many dwellings can be tied into the same system in a certain amount of land area, but I think those are more about city lots and not in rural areas.

 

[watglen]

No way would I run solids that far, just too much risk for plugging. Tanks are cheap. Then you could run the water to the existing drain field, or even to the other tank. Sometimes there are regulations about how many dwellings can be tied into the same system in a certain amount of land area, but I think those are more about city lots and not in rural areas.

That makes sense to me.

I would try moving existing tank closer to within 30 or 40' of the house, closer if possible. The septic tank discharge will flow to the existing tile bed no prob I would think.

Make sure you use solid pipe until you get to the bed, wont make that mistake again!

:drinkup

 

[Shenandoah]

Adding a small septic would add cost to the project that the owner would like to avoid.

In my county the PTB could care less what the owner wants as they are very strict about the types of septic systems used. I would get in touch with the local soil scientist that handles those systems in your area and get his/her input. Here we try to avoid the county people making those decisions and hence the third party route. For us it's cheaper to have the SS determine the needs versus the bureaucrats.

And having the tank close to the house so only watery fluids have to run the distance to the leach field make sense. Just be sure the regs haven't been upgraded to disallow for that option. Starting next year we won't be able to develop a property without an expensive survey of how the rainwater runoff will be affected by any new structures/driveways, etc. Those boys stay up late at night thinking of ways to spend our money...

 

[d9gdon]

OK, but he has enough fall to easily make the 1/4" per foot that he desires so every 4 feet of pipe he falls 1" or every 48 feet he falls a foot. That must mean that his guest house sewer is about 8.33 ft above the existing inlet of the septic tank(cause he was thinking about sending solids to the existing system which has to be the tank cause nobody sends solids to the drain field), so he can't move the existing tank and still serve both houses. He has to add a new tank at the guest house and hit the existing tank inlet or straight to the existing drain field (which has to be a foot lower than the tank outlet according to Texas).