Pajoube Inspired Septic Tank Hole

catsco · Jun 22, 2005

I needed a LARGE hole for a 1250 gallon septic tank, and I've contacted six excavators/installers who could get to it "in a few days".

After waiting nearly 10 weeks, I was inspired by Pajoube's large excavation and went at the digging task by loosening the rocky dirt (really hard digging on our site) and then moving it with the 4 in 1 bucket.

Picture shows how deep the hole is.

Next one shows the tank in place.

This took more time than I would have thought (about 8.5 hrs.), but there were two rocks I had to drag out of the ramp into the hole because they were too heavy to lift; rear wheels wouldn't stay on the ground going up the ramp.

There is a SLIGHT possibility that it took that long because I and pretty clueless about digging efficiently. Practice certainly helped, though.

Mark H.

catsco · Jun 22, 2005

Here's the tank in the hole.

You probably wonder why no one responded in a timely manner to do this digging.

Part of the reluctance is that the site is a bit out of town, but mostly it stems from the building boom here. Who wants to travel to dig a hole in a difficult spot when they can do 50 or so holes for foundations in sandy soil in one subdivision?

Mark H.

pajoube · Jun 22, 2005

Mark,
Thanks for the compliment.
Very nice job on the digging even with the difficult location and ground conditions.
You just paid for the mini hoe. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
PJ

tracdoc · Jun 22, 2005

Job well done! Hats off to you for forging ahead yourself and inspiring some of us (me) to doing bigger projects.

Thanks for sharing the pics with us, too. BTW, what is the composition of that tank, and what appear to be access ports on top?

pairodime · Jun 22, 2005

Do you plan to do your leach field, too?

Any tricks you could describe for efficient digging?

toy · Jun 23, 2005

That looks about like the same hole that I dug for my septic tank. It was during a wet spell that I dug mine and I had a problem with the ramp that I dug to go down in the hole. It got slick and began rutting out as I would go down in the hole and would spin and rare up as I would go up the ramp, at one time I think I had 3 of the wheels off the ground at the same time. now that was a scary pucker. I dug the hole deep enough that the whole machine including the canopy was under the ground level.

toy · Jun 23, 2005

By the way after I got the tank in I used the mini hoe and dug the ramp down level as I could as I backed out of the hole the last time and used that to lay blocks for an overflow hole and dug out from that for an additional leech bed.

catsco · Jun 23, 2005

( BTW, what is the composition of that tank, and what appear to be access ports on top? )

The tank is made by Fralo Plastech. It's a resin-lined polyethlyene tank that is designed as a septic tank, but can also be used for potable water.

The openings on top are for pumping the tank contents when necessary, usually every 5 years or so.

I selected this tank because it is one of the few that can be placed and backfilled without first filling it with water. Very good warrantly also. I will be 123 years old when the warranty exprires.

Mark H.

catsco · Jun 23, 2005

( Do you plan to do your leach field, too?

Any tricks you could describe for efficient digging? )

I will probably do the leach field also, as no one has called with a prospective date to show up. I'm only calling the contractors twice a week now.

Digging was much faster when leaving the 4 in 1 bucket and backhoe curl hoses disconnected (and capped).

Use the mini-hoe by extending until the boom is just past vertical, lower it to the ground, apply some down pressure, and back up. This loosens furrows (which can be fairly deep depending upon soil conditions) which can then be easily dug up with the bucket.

By not using the 4 in 1 and bucket curl hydraulic circuits, it's much easier and faster to change attachments every 10 minutes to make the project go really fast.

I did need to use the backhoe curl to trim up the edges and corners of the hole, though.

Mark H.

MossRoad · Jun 23, 2005

I couldn't figure out what was in the hole until I looked a little closer. YIKES! That's your canopy and bucket in there.

Be careful with high side wall excavations. Lots of folks buried alive each year. Better to dig out way more than needed than take the risk. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Nice looking tank. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif