Septic system

bugstruck · Feb 4, 2005

I hear your pain on the sand mound costs. In north central MD they are becoming the norm and our sand is special and expensive. I see your job description in your profile so you may not agree, but my experience is that properly located, with respectable soils, an old drywell blows leech fields and sand mounds away for durability. Most properly engineered sand mounds are a 20 year solution, leech fields a 20 to 30 year solution, and drywells a 30 to 50 year solution. I know some soils (percs) won't support them, but here they were the norm from the late 60's to mid 80's and they are still working for most residences while newer leech fields and sand mounds are failing at a significantly faster rate. Mine is 33 years old and my friends 40 years old and neither of them are close to failing. We both have clean outs installed and my effluient levels never exceed 3' in a 10 foot deep drywell and his never excede zero with two young kids. His well is under 70' away (too close) and no bacteria in the well with a drywell that won't hold effluent back.

What a con game this new septic technology is. It's like engineered concrete (additives). I have a ton of experience with the concrete. The Romans had it right. The new technology.....It doesn't work so well.

These two areas are nearly the only ones in construction where progress is taking us backwards. My 2 cents.

LBrown59 · Feb 4, 2005

( harleymsn:

Ohio does require inspections on all new septic systems and wells. they can be done by OWNER but the hoop jumping that is required makes it not worth while unless you already have heavy escavating ewquipment a compact hoe will not work to make the cost worth it... anyhow typical cost around here is 6~10K depending on
 house SF & nuumber of bathrooms. 
MakrM /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif )
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depending on house SF & nuumber of bathrooms.
SPIKER
...................
So you have to have a bigger system for a 2500 square foot 2 bath home with 2 occupants than you do for a 1000 square foot 1 bath home with 4 occupants.
The regulations really make sense don't they???
L B 7283

LBrown59 · Feb 4, 2005

Making the tank out of cement blocks was also done. They can collapse too. 
*******
 So can a concrete cast one~~!!

LBrown59 · Feb 4, 2005

( County code requires 150 L/F of leach field per bedroom )

=======
Why?
What purpose does it serve?/

LBrown59 · Feb 4, 2005

( I hear your pain on the sand mound costs. In north central MD they are becoming the norm and our sand is special and expensive. I see your job description in your profile so you may not agree, but my experience is that properly located, with respectable soils, an old drywell blows leech fields and sand mounds away for durability. Most properly engineered sand mounds are a 20 year solution, leech fields a 20 to 30 year solution, and drywells a 30 to 50 year solution. I know some soils (percs) won't support them, but here they were the norm from the late 60's to mid 80's and they are still working for most residences while newer leech fields and sand mounds are failing at a significantly faster rate. Mine is 33 years old and my friends 40 years old and neither of them are close to failing. We both have clean outs installed and my effluient levels never exceed 3' in a 10 foot deep drywell and his never excede zero with two young kids. His well is under 70' away (too close) and no bacteria in the well with a drywell that won't hold effluent back.

What a con game this new septic technology is. It's like engineered concrete (additives). I have a ton of experience with the concrete. The Romans had it right. The new technology.....It doesn't work so well.

These two areas are nearly the only ones in construction where progress is taking us backwards. My 2 cents. )
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1*What a con game this new septic technology is. It's like engineered concrete (additives). I have a ton of experience with the concrete. The Romans had it right. The new technology.....It doesn't work so well.

Chris
bugstruck
================
 1*I think you summed it all up here. 
 Here is the problem in a nut shell:
Due to the problems and failures with leach fields or leach beds a modern septic tank was introduced that solves that problem.

The reason we still have the problem is because the problem was reintroduced and added on to the new technology.

The two methods are not compatible with each other.

As long as regulators keep trying to resurrect a dead horse the problems, headaches, grief and cost will continue to escalate.

JASTN70D · Feb 4, 2005

Randal

 because they can Of course.!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

But really I just had mine put in about 4 yeas ago by my uncle who is licensed. Believe me the materials are quite expensive. I was shocked. I think the gravel was over 3 grand.! I thought I could save allot by not paying for hoe and labor time I may have gotten $800.00 off the normal price or so. By the way I think if at all possible the old system will stay in the ground it may be disabled and collapsed but unless there is no room it will stay. Of course this is subject to any new regulations that by the way seem to change often when it comes to the County health Dept.

SCB · Feb 4, 2005

So you have to have a bigger system for a 2500 square foot 2 bath home with 2 occupants than you do for a 1000 square foot 1 bath home with 4 occupants.
The regulations really make sense don't they???
L B 7283


Lary,
I beleive that it is about the potential water usage if all the bedrooms are occupied. Just because you only have two people in a 3 bedroom house doesn't mean that the next owner will have the same family size. The system is supposed to support a full house. that's why a 2 bedroom house in our area requires 750gallon tank and a 3-4 bedroom requires a 1000 gallon tank.

AndyM · Feb 4, 2005

The system is supposed to support a full house. that's why a 2 bedroom house in our area requires 750gallon tank and a 3-4 bedroom requires a 1000 gallon tank.


I think Ohio is 1000 gallons for two bedrooms, 1500 for three bedrooms, and 2000 for four bedrooms. We built a three bedroom house with an 8 x 8 foot den/office on the first floor. The county called it a bedroom and we were stuck putting in a larger system... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

That's not the worst part--
We got the soil test and the septic permit when we bought the property. In our county, the septic permit is only good for one year. When it came time to build, I went to the county health department to get a new septic permit... They opened the file cabinet, pulled out our old permit, crossed out the date, wrote the new date in, and collected another 400 dollars! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

SCB · Feb 4, 2005

They opened the file cabinet, pulled out our old permit, crossed out the date, wrote the new date in, and collected another 400 dollars!

But you want efficiency in government right? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif That's just wrong though. They didn't have to do a thing and robbed you of more money. I'm sure it would be the same here. We have a two year permit cycle though. One thing to consider if anyone is getting a new system is the size. It costs very little to upgrade to the next size tank and add some square footage to the leach feild during the installation. If you want to do an addition to you home or add a bathroom to your shop, you will already have the capacity in you system. We are building a three bedroom home and we opted for the four bedroom septic design. Just a thought.

Harleymsn · Feb 5, 2005

SCB, I agree. We will be building a 2 bedroom home (actually a 1 bedroom with a small office) but we got a permit for a 3 bedroom house. There will only be the 2 of us, and I am putting another bathroom in the barn and connecting it to the system. But I figure we will be good to go.