$eptic installation?

patrickg · Sep 25, 2002

I was wondering what folks have paid recently for septic installations, exclusive of perk testing. I have been quoted $2500 for a 1000 gal tank and 500 ft of lateral lines installed with gravel and geotextile cloth. This is a real easy dig soil, high sand content, no rocks at the depths of interest.

I have been told that over time in certain conditions that the ground up tires substituted for gravel in leach fileds can try to "float" up to the surface since they are les dense than the wet soil. This of course ruins the leach fileld.

As a side note: Here in OK within the last year or so the old fashioned practical demonstration style perk test seems to have become obsolete. Gone is the "dig a hole and put water in it according to a prescriptive method" test, replaced by soil testing, if I understand what I have been told. A lot of folks are ending up with systems that "digest" the waste and store the effluent liquid in a tank for late night lawn sprinkling. I have a cousin in a development of nice new homes on 2 1/2 acre lots near Lawton, OK and the whole development has these "engineered" systems.

Sure glad the septic instaler for my moms house warned me in advance so I could get the perk test for my new house registered with the DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) prior to the change. I don't like the frequency of repair problems that seem to plague the "new and improved" systems. It is bad enough that I may have to have a small storage tank with macerator pump to flush my basement toilet uphill (its close but not decided yet) depending on final slab height of the walkout basement and final precise elevation of the leach field. I could put the toilet on a raised platform one or two steps up I suppose. I've seen that done (especially with composting toilets) and it can be done without looking too odd.

Patrick

mikim · Sep 25, 2002

<font color=blue>$2500 for a 1000 gal tank and 500 ft of lateral lines installed with gravel and geotextile cloth.</font color=blue>
cheap --- same thing here would run twice that

Mike_Dumond · Sep 25, 2002

As Mike said, cheap. I'd have it done before someone raises the price.

Chuck52 · Sep 25, 2002

I was quoted $5000 as a starting point for a 1000 gal system, with added cost if longer leach runs were required. Here in middle Missouri, you have to get a "soil engineer" to do a test for soil percolation. I think they take cores and study the soil type.

Chuck

Carl_NH · Sep 25, 2002

Patrick,

Thats a very inexpensive price!! Here in the NE minumum is $10-12K from what I have seen, and if you do the sand mound with pump it can be 20K range I have heard.

Regarding the pump up toilet, I would do what is needed to do it without this system by raising the foundation 7-10" then adding fill around the house and or lowering the leach field/tank setup by a similar amount.

I replaced a system at an old house previously and was 6" to high for code so a pump out tank was specified. I was told after the fact by the state inspector that I should have asked for a variance and would have likely gotten it. This was especially frustrating the one day in January, 10 degrees and snowing that the pump decided to fail and I was digging through frozen ground to the tank cover to replace the pump..

Carl

BB_TX · Sep 25, 2002

When I built my shop on my acreage, I was allowed to put in a conventional 250 gallon with 150' of lateral for the bathroom I built. I don't have a house there yet, so the small one is adequate. That cost me about $1000.
I live just outside of town in an area of 1+ acre lots. I have a conventional system, but I believe all new homes around here are required to have the new type systems. My neighbor across the street has one. If it is especially rainy,his sprays a lot, day and night.

Chillimau · Sep 25, 2002

Patrick,

Sounds about right. I was quoted $1700 for a 1000 gal and a lagoon which is a simplier project than laterals. A 1000 gal concrete tank will cost about $400 delivered from Purcell and the rest is pvc, gravel and labor. I spoke with a couple of installers in the city and about $3,000 was their rate for tank and laterals, but that might have included travel to the "country". The other system you speak of is an aerobic. Uses one or two tanks, aerator, clorinator and a pump to spray the lawn. About a $5,000 system plus $200-250/yr maintence for the life of the system. New pumps every 3-5 years. No electricity, no septic system!

Have you priced underground electric? I spoke with PEC and underground primary is $6/ft. Not bad but mutiple times 1200 ft. OUCH! Thought I wanted to go totally underground, but will just do up around the buildings on the transformed side.

DUMBDOG · Sep 25, 2002

Two years ago, I installed a 1250 gallon tank and 300 feet of drain field, cost was $3500.00.

rstcso · Sep 25, 2002

Last week in central Texas, 1000 gal tank and field... $4,000. They no longer use the perc test here, either. Two 5' holes are dug, one at each end of the where the field will be placed, and the soil "analyzed". Mine had some clay about 24" down, so needed a larger field, but this only added a few hundred dollars. Jump on the price you were given, but get it in writing!

Will_C · Sep 25, 2002

Patrick,
I will agree with the other posters, that seems to be a fair price. This past spring, I upgraded my system. My brother does this for a living, as my father before him did. I added a 500 gallon tank to my existing 800 gallon tank. I connected my garage to the system, and the whole thing discharges into a 12' by 34' sand filter. I paid two thousand dollars for the system. That did not include any charges from my brother, and any material that he had left from other jobs (sand, stone) that we used, I did not have to pay for. Based on that, your price seems fair.
Will