[SlowLerner]

I'm looking at building a house in the country, a small place, nothing fancy. The first thing I need to consider is the septic, even though it will probably be the last thing to go in. I think the drain field will be located where trucks need to pass over, so I'll do the septic at the end. But I need to figure it out first.


The only septic system I ever dealt with was one that was divided into "brown water" and "gray water." The commode flushed into one tank, and the other water flowed to another tank and then on to the drain field.


The other day somebody told me not to bother with that, to just dump everything into one, but the other system made sense to me when I was helping to maintain it.


Any thoughts on this? I expect both brown and gray water would overflow into the same drain field, but should I split the outflow from the house like that? It's a from-scratch project, so I should be able to put anything in the ground that I need.


Thanks.

 

[joed]

Check with your local health department. Some places do not allow separate grey water systems. Everything goes to the septic.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Consider researching Aerobic septic systems. Aerobic systems are used frequently where the conventional drain fields are nearly impossible because of soil conditions.


If I were in your shoes, and if necessary, I'd check with the health department to determine if the laundry unit could have a separate septic / drain system. The reason is the synthetic material of clothing. I have no proof that synthetics are bad for septic systems but it just stands to reason non-biodegradable material can't be a good thing.

 

[SlowLerner]

Yes, I plan to talk to the septic inspector before long. It's a rural county and guidelines are lax, but I want his advice on an efficient system.


The soil's very sandy and absorbent.


Mainly here, I'm wondering if splitting the types of water makes sense. I was surprised that somebody said I should run everything into one tank. Showers, kitchen, laundry...why dump all of that in with the commode?

 

[Old Thomas]

In NY a new septic system has to be designed by an engineer and stamped plans are required. A good place to start is with the authority having jurisdiction.

 

[joed]

Mainly here, I'm wondering if splitting the types of water makes sense. I was surprised that somebody said I should run everything into one tank. Showers, kitchen, laundry...why dump all of that in with the commode?

I will ask why not? That water is not just water. It contains grease and oils from the kitchen, fibers, soap and dirt from the laundry, what ever else you put down the drain. None of this stuff hurts the septic tank. The water just flows through the tank into the tile field.
If you do bypass the tank, you need another tank or your tile field will be clogged before you know it.

 

[Mystriss]

I thought all septics had two tanks; everything goes in the first tank and the solids sink to the bottom to be sucked out and the liquids head out to the leach field to be filtered by nature.

I recall our inspector friend, who was a wastewater engineer, said we had the "best system," which has a mound leach field. I'm not sure if he meant the best system we can have with our high water, or just in general, table though.

*As I understand it, there's a certain number of feet that you have to have before hitting bedrock or water-table depending on your soil. Because our water table is so high, and the bedrock so close to the surface, we have to have a special leach field with imported sand and what not so the dirty water has enough matter to clean itself off on.


That said, ours is almost 20 years old and we've had no major problems with it until this year, and that's not the system's fault - seems the guys we had sucking the tank were doing the wrong side so now it's half full and solid (maybe the earthquake helped settle it in too.) We're gonna have to see if our new guy can get it cleared out this summer and decide if we need a new tank or not >.<

 

[mark sr]

All the older systems were single tanks, some of the newer systems require a baffle to separate the tank and some will use multiple tanks. The health dept has the final say as to what they will allow - they have to approve the septic system plan before it's installed. This could also include a perk test.


Personally I'd separate the washer from the rest if allowed. The bleach and detergents used aren't friendly to the tanks operation. I also would not have a garbage disposal on a septic system!

 

[Davejss]

In my neck of the woods your septic system design would be based on a deep hole test and a percolation test. The size of the system is based on the square footage of the house and the location is determined by the soil tests. This should all be completed early in your project as it my affect the size and location of the house and other buildings as well as the type of septic system. You also need to consider the location of your well or public water supply relative to the septic system location.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Previously mentioned, the perk test and water well location were No. 1 and No. 2 on the health departments list when we had our house built. Somewhere on their list is the type of perforated PVC pipe for the leach field because the contractor ordered the incorrect type and it was returned with the correct type delivered.

 

[mark sr]

size of the system is based on the square footage of the house

Locally they could care less how big the house is or even how many bath rms it has BUT how many bed rms does make a difference!

 

[Mystriss]

Up here it's based on number of bedrooms in the house. They had to do perc tests to figure up how big our leach field had to be - it was under x so we have the mound style.

Tank's gotta be some number of feet from the well up here too.