OT,Leech Beds???????

In this area the aerobic spray dispersal units go in cheaper than an inground system in clay soil. If you have sandy soil, cost flips.

Systems installed in early 70's had several design flaws that were corrected over years of trial and error, also personal water usage has increased thus drainfield size requirement has increased. Now, media between rock and sand cover is geotextile fabric this keeps the sand from filtering down and filling the holes between the rocks but allows the moisture to wick up to the surface (this is void space to hold effluent from the pipes until it can be disposed of through soil or sunlight). Esperience has shown that tank capacity should be divided to two tanks or compartments. Never metal, but concrete or fiberglass. Tanks should have turn downs to help separate soilds, grease, hair etc from liquid so the soilds don't flow down into drainfield and clog up holes which reduces the total amount of drainfield available which makes the effluent surface.

The drain field lines should be within 24 inches of the surface to make it easier for the effluent to evaporate or the vegetation roots to tap the moisture and draw it up into the plants.

Now, most enteties have some kind of inspection program to ensure that systems are put in properly. Talk to them, most will help in any way they can because it is easier to make changes with a pencil and paper to correct an error than it is to redig and relay pipe and gravel. The biggest mistake tha most first timers make is to try and install drainfield lines going down the slope. If they do, all the effluent goes to the bottom of the slope and surfaces. Think of the drain field lines as a soaker hose and run it in a level contour of the land so that the effluent soaks inthrough the total length of the line.

This is long but I hope it helps.

In this area the aerobic spray dispersal units go in cheaper than an inground system in clay soil. If you have sandy soil, cost flips.

Systems installed in early 70's had several design flaws that were corrected over years of trial and error, also personal water usage has increased thus drainfield size requirement has increased. Now, media between rock and sand cover is geotextile fabric this keeps the sand from filtering down and filling the holes between the rocks but allows the moisture to wick up to the surface (this is void space to hold effluent from the pipes until it can be disposed of through soil or sunlight). Esperience has shown that tank capacity should be divided to two tanks or compartments. Never metal, but concrete or fiberglass. Tanks should have turn downs to help separate soilds, grease, hair etc from liquid so the soilds don't flow down into drainfield and clog up holes which reduces the total amount of drainfield available which makes the effluent surface.

The drain field lines should be within 24 inches of the surface to make it easier for the effluent to evaporate or the vegetation roots to tap the moisture and draw it up into the plants.

Now, most enteties have some kind of inspection program to ensure that systems are put in properly. Talk to them, most will help in any way they can because it is easier to make changes with a pencil and paper to correct an error than it is to redig and relay pipe and gravel. The biggest mistake tha most first timers make is to try and install drainfield lines going down the slope. If they do, all the effluent goes to the bottom of the slope and surfaces. Think of the drain field lines as a soaker hose and run it in a level contour of the land so that the effluent soaks inthrough the total length of the line.

This is long but I hope it helps.

Our system was installed in about 76 and I don't believe it has a leach field. Never been pumped out to my knowledge.

Don't seem to have a problem, but we may be doing some renovations and I'm sure we'll find out something is seriously wrong . . . money pit.

Ballpark?

If not, or you wish to ignore such issues, figure out why you are having problems. Has the tank been pumped of late, has it rained a lot, a change in the # of people living there - what? If you have a septic problem, you need to figure out the real cause so you can really fix it.

Most codes require something way different than what the folks here are suggesting, so proceed with an open eye....

--->Paul

I've spent many years in the earthwork field as an operator and early on in that line of work, I was employed by a small to medium site contractor who used to do new septic systems as well as other site work. Aside from setting the tank, it did not take long before I was doing 2 systems per day, by myself, used to load up the tandem dump with #2 stone, hook the tag trailer with the hoe on and off I go. Depending on the site location, the additional stone I needed was usually nearby, make a few runs to the quarry afte unhooking, we used to stock all the small components like pipe, and distribution boxes etc., so I'd load that on too. All I needed was the plan for the system and to have the hole ready for the pre-cast outfit to set the tank and the rest was seemingly easy. Not bragging, but those days were a little long, but recall many where I did 2 per day, which made the company decent money, and of course I was treated well for my hard work.

You can tie in a new leach field from the distribution box, might even add a new D-Box, you can set each lateral to take an even amount of discharge by setting the plastic leveling devices that come with the box. I'd pump out the steel tank though, but for the cost of a concrete one, I'd prefer to just replace that too, if it was in poor condtion or the size was not to my liking, that is me though, does not mean it is necessary, I'm a little big on overkill sometimes LOL !

Aside from any munincipal or health dept. requirements that mandate minimum size of the system, over building here is never a waste of money and pipe, stone etc. it is cheap when you consider the increase in service life and the future expansion it will allow you.

My preference is to double the size requirement, from the tank capacity to the leach field size,if posssible, my present residence is double capacity and has given almost 30 years of service with no trouble.

The problem a leach field faces is when the tank is not pumped when needed, the fine particles get into the stone bed and clog it up, which renders the field useless, it can be rested and re-used, or replaced, but in any event you still have a problem. Read up on how a septic system functions, bacteria plays a key role in this, at this place, only toilet discharge goes to the tank, all other discharge goes to a drywell, effectively eliminating soap water and household chemicals from the system so it does not kill the bacteria. At this place, the tank had never been pumped until 2002, it was set in 1978, but it was much larger than required, we had a weird series of events late that winter '01-'02 and the ground became saturated and the frost line would not allow any percolation, so it backed up, pumped it and it was fine, now I do it every 3 years, I found a chart on this on the internet not to long ago.

Your basic lateral profile is about 12" of clean crushed #2 stone bedding, + or - , it's been awhile, then run your perforated pipe, holes to the side, on 1/8" / foot pitch min., you can use an optical level to set your grade or use an accurate 4'-0" hand level on top of each length of pipe to insure pitch, then bury in crushed #2 stone, we placed red rosin paper over that then backfilled with 2'-0" of good material, no large stones etc. You want to excavate your lateral trench on pitch, allow for a healthy bed of stone at least 1'-0", then your 4" pipe, stone cover, and top off with what you excavated or something suitable that won't crush the pipe. I used to backfill with a dozer and go across each lateral, not parallel, a dozer has much less ground pressure than a rubber tire hoe like you have so you may want to use the hoe from a vantage point that will keep you from driving over the new laterals with a full bucket, that is why it's good to plan out your moves from digging to backfilling. When I had a dozer I could leave the entire field open for the inspector to see, then work my way across to backfill, other times where there was not inspection and a dozer was not present, I'd do one line at a time and back fill it with the hoe, that is if I couild reuse the material I took out. Really not a hard task, do your research, get an approved plan and or design if need be, plan out your job, check your material list, call the 800 number "before you dig" and have a go at it, I've done a few systems with buddies on a saturday, enjoyed a cold one afterwards, usually more fun than work !

PS, I always thought the red rosin paper on top of the stone covering the pipe was a joke as it would seemingly rot away soon after, but I guess its to keep the cover material from choking the stone up while backfilling only, and I assume if you used something like plastic, it would stop evaporation from happening or similar by making a barrier and screwing up the works somehow, I never figured that one out, but was and probably still is, the accepted practice to use this paper over the stone covered pipe before covering.

Best of luck !

If your drain field doesn't have much cover over the top of the stone, I would try to dig it up in a few places to see if the pipe is plugged. Many times, you can just replace the pipe and the top 8" to 10" of stone and you will be good as new.

The infiltrator systems work pretty well in the right soil conditions. I am skeptical about them vs. stone & pipe because they are more designed for storage than seepage and they don't give you near as much ground contact as the stone pit does. With the stone design, you have ground contact with the sides and the bottom. The infiltrator will give you good bottom contact and about 3' height of side contact, but the stone pit is usually much deeper giving more ground for the liquid to seep into.

If you end up putting in a new drain field, make provisions to tie the old one in to the distribution box. After a year or so, that old field will be ready for another go and will make a good backup. A friend of mine has a house on 1/2 acre and the drain fields are too small. His distribution box favors the shorter of the two fields so it started to fail. We opened the D-box and created a brick weir to limit flow to the short field and everthing works fine now.

The health department doesn't like it, but that old field would make a nice drain field for the washing machine. Most times drain field pipe failures can be attributed to lint from the washing machine so it's nice to keep that seperate if you can.

By the way, I've used all the Infiltrator type products over the last ten years and they have had their share of problems. I saw a new car dealership parking lot cave in with about 20 cars going into the hole. The units were installed per the manufacturer's design and still failed miserably. One thing you learn in the business is that people will say just about anything to sell their product. Hancor is good people, but they will be sorry that they ever got into the "doghouse" business.

Here in central Virginia the trenches are the same depth, stone and Infiltrator. Difference is the required lines. Infiltrator reduces the leach field size by 1/3. Our health department clearly believes stone systems to be inferior for leaching.

The guy I routinely recommend uses almost nothing but Infiltrator now. His price per system went down significantly. They"re working fine. The one I had installed for a client house has had light vehicle traffic, no damage.

--->Paul

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