The Septic System - Doing It Ourselves

In the past couple months, we've learned more about septic systems than we ever wanted to know. For those of you unfamiliar with a septic system, this is a system designed to get rid of waste (pee and poo) right on the site of residence. The gray water (water that's been used in the house) leaves the house in a pipe that goes into a large septic tank (concrete or plastic). The solid waste sinks to the bottom and is decomposed by bacteria, while the liquid waste collects on top. Once the liquid reaches the height of the outlet of the tank, it travels down the septic pipes to a leach field, where the liquid is distributed into a series of perforated pipes (pipes with holes on the bottom) which are buried one foot in the ground above 6" of stone. The liquid seeps into the ground and is absorbed by the soil under the stone.

This week we had the concrete septic tanks delivered - Dave from Woodard's came with them on his truck and used some remote control device to lower them into the holes. We have two tanks, one for the main house (tank #1 below - 1250 gallon tank) and one for the workshop/studio (tank #2 below - 1000 gallon tank). In our case, the tanks will be connected by septic pipe and flow into one leach field. Before this, Joe came to dig the holes with the big excavator and 6" of stone were placed on the bottom of each hole for the tanks to sit in.

Rob is making sure the tank is level

The box on top is called a distribution box and goes at the beginning of the leach field - see below.

The hole for tank #2 by the studio is in the wetter part of the property - apparently water is not a problem for a concrete tank.

Rob is making sure tank #2 is level

After the septic tanks were in, Rob and Joe started on the major project of digging and installing the leach field pipes. Rob and Joe put in the distribution box, which sends out the liquid equally to the eight leach field pipes (35' long each), and installed the first three pipes.

The process for installing the leach field pipes is as follows: 1) mark the line for the ditch with upside-down spray paint - the ditches are 6' apart on center; 2) dig the ditch using the mini-excavator trying not to let the mini-excavator fall into the ditch; 3) make sure the bottom of the ditch is level using Rob's super cool laser leveling device; 4) spread 6" of 3/4" washed stone into the ditch using the excavator to drop in the stone and a rake to spread it; 5) make sure it is still level using the super cool laser leveling device; 6) place the pipe into the ditch making sure the holes are down; 7) cover the sides and 2" above the pipe with stone; 8) place filter fabric over the stone to keep the soil from getting into the stone; 9) dig the next ditch placing the soil into the ditch before...whew!

After four days work and help from our neighbor Justin, all the pipes are in!

Step 1 - Marking the line for the ditch

Step 2 - Digging the ditch

Super cool laser device for Step 3 and 5

Step 3 - The little device on the stick beeps when it is level with the super cool laser device shown above

No pictures for Steps 4-6. This is Step 7 - Stone around pipe and 2" above

Step 7 from another view

Step 7 completed - Getting ready to put on filter fabric (on left)

Step 8 completed

Some dirt is placed on fabric to keep it in place

Step 9 - Move on to the next ditch!