A co-worker told me about this site. I'll try to keep this succinct since time is money for a lot of you.
I have some land I plan to build a small structure on. It has a septic system in place that was there when I bought the property. There was a trailer 3-4 years ago. I had the tank inspected last summer and they said it was in good condition (concrete tank). The leech field has clearly been driven on and compacted over time. The records for the system I got from DEQ show the system was installed in early 2000.
The area I plan to build is a clearing with a slightly higher side on the west. Probably 10 - 12 inches (I may be estimating a bit high) in the highest area. Looking at the drawing the leech field is entirely on the lower portion with 600 feet of lateral line.
I want to bring in dirt and add to the lower side. My goal isn't to make it 100% level. There will be a slope. I just don't want as much of a difference as there is now. This is where my question comes in. I will be adding almost a foot of dirt on top of this leech field that is already 8 - 14 inches underground. So the leech field will need to be raised no matter what.
What I want to do is replace the entire septic system and upgrade to a 1500 tank. I want the new tank to be opposite of where the current tank is because the current tank sits near the property line on the west. Moving it opposite to the east would allow me to build a house if I wanted in the future and tie into it. Plus My structure will only have plumbing on one end and I'd like that end to be on the east side. having the tank over there would make things easy on me. Plus I could angle the lateral line going west keeping more of the East clear to park on.
My problem is I don't know the rules on this. I'm trying to research and get numbers of who to call and ask. I don't know if this technically counts as reusing the same leech field since the leech field will actually be sitting higher and with new dirt around it. I don't know how replacing a septic system is classified either. This would be a replacement, so I'm scared they'll say I can't re-use the leech field. (But I'm almost positive the field would be dried up after 4 years of not being in use.) I don't know if I can just classify this as making repairs and under that guise replace it.
The leech field needs dug up and repaired regardless. I know dirt is compacted into the lines and the header is slightly too far back to allow me to build. So it'd need to come forward a bit.
I'm just looking for advice on how to tackle this - what to know / research, what order to do it in, what to ask, what to look for, etc.
Should I just start by having a new perc test done? The last perc test was in 2000 obviously. The dirt on the ground seems to have gotten pretty hard over the years from being driven and parked on. Should I add new dirt before the test? Would that even give better results? Seems a shame to waste money if it won't make a difference. I'm scared to death it won't perc.
My ideal way of doing this would be to just get the leech field dug out, dirt added and the elevation I want reached, then just have the whole system installed. It'd be so much easier to work on the lot without having to worry about adding the dirt and then ripping out the old field 2 feet down.
Thanks.
I have some land I plan to build a small structure on. It has a septic system in place that was there when I bought the property. There was a trailer 3-4 years ago. I had the tank inspected last summer and they said it was in good condition (concrete tank). The leech field has clearly been driven on and compacted over time. The records for the system I got from DEQ show the system was installed in early 2000.
The area I plan to build is a clearing with a slightly higher side on the west. Probably 10 - 12 inches (I may be estimating a bit high) in the highest area. Looking at the drawing the leech field is entirely on the lower portion with 600 feet of lateral line.
I want to bring in dirt and add to the lower side. My goal isn't to make it 100% level. There will be a slope. I just don't want as much of a difference as there is now. This is where my question comes in. I will be adding almost a foot of dirt on top of this leech field that is already 8 - 14 inches underground. So the leech field will need to be raised no matter what.
What I want to do is replace the entire septic system and upgrade to a 1500 tank. I want the new tank to be opposite of where the current tank is because the current tank sits near the property line on the west. Moving it opposite to the east would allow me to build a house if I wanted in the future and tie into it. Plus My structure will only have plumbing on one end and I'd like that end to be on the east side. having the tank over there would make things easy on me. Plus I could angle the lateral line going west keeping more of the East clear to park on.
My problem is I don't know the rules on this. I'm trying to research and get numbers of who to call and ask. I don't know if this technically counts as reusing the same leech field since the leech field will actually be sitting higher and with new dirt around it. I don't know how replacing a septic system is classified either. This would be a replacement, so I'm scared they'll say I can't re-use the leech field. (But I'm almost positive the field would be dried up after 4 years of not being in use.) I don't know if I can just classify this as making repairs and under that guise replace it.
The leech field needs dug up and repaired regardless. I know dirt is compacted into the lines and the header is slightly too far back to allow me to build. So it'd need to come forward a bit.
I'm just looking for advice on how to tackle this - what to know / research, what order to do it in, what to ask, what to look for, etc.
Should I just start by having a new perc test done? The last perc test was in 2000 obviously. The dirt on the ground seems to have gotten pretty hard over the years from being driven and parked on. Should I add new dirt before the test? Would that even give better results? Seems a shame to waste money if it won't make a difference. I'm scared to death it won't perc.
My ideal way of doing this would be to just get the leech field dug out, dirt added and the elevation I want reached, then just have the whole system installed. It'd be so much easier to work on the lot without having to worry about adding the dirt and then ripping out the old field 2 feet down.
Thanks.