Our house was built in 1859 with an addition built in 1905. No plumbing in the house then. In 1940 another addition was built onto the 1905 addition. A "modern" kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom were added -- INDOOR PLUMBING--!!!! When we bought the house it was reasonable to assume the 74 year old septic tank and drain field were going to need to be repaired, upgraded, or replaced in the future. Which turns out to be NOW! Back in March when we were plowing the ground for the garden we discovered one leg of the drain field by plowing up part of it. If that doesn't sound too good - your right. So it was really shallow... and it was running straight down hill toward the back property line, which means it was home done job as it has never been OK the have drain field ditches running down hill.
We also discovered that the drain field had two legs. We knew this because we hit the concrete distribution box. Ahhh...... also not good. From the distribution box I hand dug a 3 foot deep trench crosswise to the slope over to the east property line and then north down the slope to the old drain field leg - about a hundred feet. Ooooh my aching back. This routed everything out of the garden area. The area plowed that was anywhere near the old drain field was planted in a cover crop for this year and only "clean ground" well away from the old drain field was planted in veggies.
After consulting with a certified soil scientist (a neighbor who lives less than a mile from our house) we had the contractor here last week to install a new septic tank and new drain field. A one day job costing $5000.00! but hey - we're good for another 75 years - more or less.
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| First you find the old septic tank and pick a spot on the sewer line between the house and the tank where there is a joint in the cast iron pipe |
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| Then you dig a trench from the sewer line to the chosen spot for the new septic tank, dig a pit for the new tank and continue the trench to the spot where the new distribution box will be placed for the drain field |
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| Pipe in the trench leading to the new "D-Box" |
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| New "D-Box" for 4 drain field lines |
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| Next you dig a 65 foot long 6 1/2 foot deep trench across the slope of the land following the ground contour |
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| You put these bundles of Styrofoam peanuts 3 wide into the trench with the perforated pipe running through the middle bundle all connected together in a line with a bundle of Styrofoam peanuts without a pipe in it on each side |
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| Like this |
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| Then you dig three more identical trenches parallel to the first turning the entire back yard into a re-enactment of WWI trench warfare |
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| Next the new septic tank goes in. Everything gets connected together. Sewer line from the cast iron pipe into the septic tank - solid drain pipe from the septic tank to the "D-Box" - 4 solid drain pipes from the "D-Box" to each 65 foot perforated peanut wrapped drain line. |
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| Last everything is buried and smoothed out. Done! |
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Well, no ........ not really done. It seems like that ought to be the end but next comes handling over a big fat check while the crew loads up the excavator. Then we wait for a good hard rain (that happened a couple of days ago). The dirt settles - a few sink holes open up and a few general low spots reveal themselves a giant mud puddles. Now we have the task of moving dirt around the fill the holes and low spots and smooth things out again. Then we can plant grass seed and start to get a back yard lawn again. Then we will be done...... at least with this project.
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