Buying an acreage worried about the septic field.

[fat tire]

Looking at an acreage, and the only thing that concerned me was the way the septic is laid out, the house is a walk out so the site is flat and drops off at mid foundation to a walkout . The septic tank is on the side of the house mid slope and the leach field travels up hill approximately 15-18 feet, it looks like a decent size field but appears to not to be a rectangular or the field is shifting somewhat.
my concern is the elevation as the tank sits much lower than the field. Anyone can give some advice on this and how to know if this is a common thing, as I have minimal knowledge about septic systems. Probably not the way I would have planned this system.

 

[sled_wrangler]

i dont know much about them my self but i do know my tank is higher then the field , my concern would be that the tank is unable to drain cause they are a gravity feed to the field . If this was myself looking at this place i would get someone in the business to look at the tank and field .

I had a friend buy a place and the field was pooched and from what he told me it wasnt that big of a cost to fix so do let it sway you from buying the place !! Just get it looked at first

 

[tex78]

Our place has a lagoon.

Works 100%

Every 5 year's u get a truck in and stir up the solids and suck it out.


Otherwise its self activated and does its thing best when its hot out



from my HTC

 

[fat tire]

i dont know much about them my self but i do know my tank is higher then the field , my concern would be that the tank is unable to drain cause they are a gravity feed to the field . If this was myself looking at this place i would get someone in the business to look at the tank and field .

I had a friend buy a place and the field was pooched and from what he told me it wasnt that big of a cost to fix so do let it sway you from buying the place !! Just get it looked at first

Thanks, I will have a pro look at it, after reading some of the previous post on here and always getting some really good feed back in the past , I thought I would at least ask here first, and maby even find a connection if I needed the work done.
thanks for the response.

 

[InFeRnO]

I'm no expert either but I know that your tank has to be higher then your field and the field should be level for proper drainage. Also in the winter time be sure not to drive your snowmobile/quad over the area to much because this will drive the frost deeper into the ground and you might risk cracking the pipes underneath.

 

[fat tire]

Our place has a lagoon.

Works 100%

Every 5 year's u get a truck in and stir up the solids and suck it out.


Otherwise its self activated and does its thing best when its hot out



from my HTC

Tex so not sure if the lagoon is lower than your tank, my problem is I don't know if the leach field height being higher than he tank is what concerns me, not a lot of land here either under 2 acres.

 

[Badass69]

So this is gravity fed only with no pump.... Odd setup. My mothers acreage has a tank field system with what I thought was a pretty standard fare having the pump to pump the liquid side out. In fact any acreage I have looked at when I thought I needed to move elsewhere from where I am had an in tank pump and field.

I have the good old above ground discharge for the liquids side on my tank.... Simple and trouble free but only allowed by grandfather I believe now.

 

[sled_wrangler]

Lagoons are no longer allowed in alberta . The only way you can have one is if you had it before they changed the laws then it will be grandfathered but if you have to do any repairs to it then you have to go to a field ( or just do the work and dont say anything )

Our place has a lagoon.

Works 100%

Every 5 year's u get a truck in and stir up the solids and suck it out.


Otherwise its self activated and does its thing best when its hot out



from my HTC

 

[tex78]

Tex so not sure if the lagoon is lower than your tank, my problem is I don't know if the leach field height being higher than he tank is what concerns me, not a lot of land here either under 2 acres.

A lagoon is just a big open tank with no field.



from my HTC

 

[Moose]

the tank being low is normal. there should be a pump in the tank to pump the fluid up to a distribution box of some sort then its ussaully gravity feed from that box to the field.

befor everyone jumps on me about having a low tank......If u have a flat piece of land with a house on a basement the basement is in the ground say 5' then the sewer line from the house comes out from under the basement foundation so say thats 6' below surface, now that line goes into the septic tank at the top and the tank is 5' tall so now the bottom of the septic tank is 11' below surface and ussuallythe pump sits close to the bottom of the tank. Now move to the septic field which is only allowed 3' under surface level if i remember right thats a rise of 7-8'. So just trying to show that the tank doesnt ALWAYS have to b above the field and unless live on a decent hill gravity feed probly wont work

hope this helps fat tire

 

[POWDERSLUT]

lagoon or lapoon?

 

[imdoo'n]

Our place has a lagoon.

Works 100%

Every 5 year's u get a truck in and stir up the solids and suck it out.


Otherwise its self activated and does its thing best when its hot out



from my HTC

so that is what smells out at beaver flats!!! shitty.

 

[imdoo'n]

A lagoon is just a big open tank with no field.



from my HTC

don't eat the brown trout out of the lagoon tex, they may be chewy.

 

[imdoo'n]

so the swimming party at texs lagoon is out as far as i can see.

 

[fat tire]

the tank being low is normal. there should be a pump in the tank to pump the fluid up to a distribution box of some sort then its ussaully gravity feed from that box to the field.

befor everyone jumps on me about having a low tank......If u have a flat piece of land with a house on a basement the basement is in the ground say 5' then the sewer line from the house comes out from under the basement foundation so say thats 6' below surface, now that line goes into the septic tank at the top and the tank is 5' tall so now the bottom of the septic tank is 11' below surface and ussuallythe pump sits close to the bottom of the tank. Now move to the septic field which is only allowed 3' under surface level if i remember right thats a rise of 7-8'. So just trying to show that the tank doesnt ALWAYS have to b above the field and unless live on a decent hill gravity feed probly wont work

hope this helps fat tire

Well the house is a walk out basement. So the tank is in the ground close to the house on the side about mid slope of the walk out, so it doesn't appear that the tank would be lower than the sewer pipe coming from the bottom of the basement. The leech field is on the same grade as the garage which is about 15- 18 ft above the top portion of the tank. The field is about 75 to 100 ft from the tank.

just never seen a set up like that before, and can't get my head around how it works.

 

[250mark1]

I have friend that is a very good septic installer out of lacombe not sure what he would charge for an inspection
pm if you need his number

 

[fat tire]

I have friend that is a very good septic installer out of lacombe not sure what he would charge for an inspection
pm if you need his number

Yes that would be great, actually this place is around the red deer area. So he would be fairly local if he lives in lacombe.

 

[Dazzler]

Well the house is a walk out basement. So the tank is in the ground close to the house on the side about mid slope of the walk out, so it doesn't appear that the tank would be lower than the sewer pipe coming from the bottom of the basement. The leech field is on the same grade as the garage which is about 15- 18 ft above the top portion of the tank. The field is about 75 to 100 ft from the tank.

just never seen a set up like that before, and can't get my head around how it works.

Its a pump out system... There is a pump in the effluent end of septic tank that is run by a float to pump out to the field... very common system... One thing that you may want to check or ask the owner is if there is an alarm to let you know if the effluent pump fails also if there is a sewage check valve in the septic line between the house and the tank... all recent homes would likely have, but earlier homes (15 - 20 years old) may not!!!

 

[fat tire]

Its a pump out system... There is a pump in the effluent end of septic tank that is run by a float to pump out to the field... very common system... One thing that you may want to check or ask the owner is if there is an alarm to let you know if the effluent pump fails also if there is a sewage check valve in the septic line between the house and the tank... all recent homes would likely have, but earlier homes (15 - 20 years old) may not!!!

Thanks, I would still like to have a good septic guy have a look at the system....piece of mind thing I guess... Thanks everyone for the advice.

 

[willbarber1989]

The only field system that needs to be downhill from the tank are gravity feed systems (distribution box with gravity fed runs); if it is a pressure system you can basically put it anywhere. Obvious signs of field failure won't really be noticable until spring, when water bubbles up from the ground in the locations around the field runs. It is still always good to have an installer come and have a look though, tank deterioration/pump failure or any other septic issue are usually fairly expensive.