Mulberry View Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 The house we're currently living in was built in the 1950's property and is served by a Septic Tank, I'm certain it's the one that was installed when the property was built. It looks to be brick built as far as I can see, though can't be certain what's going on underground. I'm no expert, but it's condition worries me. It was sited in an area that is now a highly mature garden border which has a number of conifers and a huge Laurel close-by, but there's a beautiful 70ft Swamp Cypress growing almost literally right on top of it. Of the 3 inspection covers, 2 are on one side of the trunk and 1 on the other, no more than 4-6-feet from the trunk! Perhaps the position is why the tree has done so well! Anyway, I'd like to look to decommission the Septic Tank as I've had the opportunity to connect to the mains. As I understand it, the normal process would be to get it pumped out, then break the bottom up to make it no longer water-tight. I don't think we can risk caving the sides in, so what could we fill it with and might it have an impact on the tree? Rubble is an obvious choice and since we have to take down a garage to make way for our build, could this be the best option? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpd Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 4 hours ago, Mulberry View said: Rubble is an obvious choice If it’s not failed in the past and the overflow still works then I would just have it pumped out and then back fill with clean “ish” rubble, I would not bother with trying to get in there and crack the bottom as these old tanks were pretty permeable..... don’t over think it in my opinion. Others may have something to say but KISS - keep it simple Simon would be my approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mulberry View Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 Just now, Cpd said: If it’s not failed in the past and the overflow still works then I would just have it pumped out and then back fill with clean “ish” rubble, I would not bother with trying to get in there and crack the bottom as these old tanks were pretty permeable..... don’t over think it in my opinion. Others may have something to say but KISS - keep it simple Simon would be my approach. Great. Thanks! In all honesty, I don't really know how it works at all, so cannot say about the overflow. All I know is that if I pull the lid off the main chamber, the level is pretty high (about a foot from being 'full'). One of the other chambers is the feed in and that looks fine. I have no real idea what's going on in the third. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, Mulberry View said: ... so what could we fill it with ...Rubble is an obvious choice and since we have to take down a garage to make way for our build, ... Yes. But, tanks are often quite large things. What are you going to do when your garage disappears without touching the sides into the tank: you need a cunning plan for that. ? Edited November 23, 2020 by ToughButterCup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mulberry View Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 9 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said: Yes. But, tanks are often quite large things. What are you going to do when your garage disappears without touching the sides into the tank: you need a cunning plan for that. ? Is that a possibility?! I hadn't realised it could be that big. We'll have the rubble from the double garage, along with the concrete base, but also potentially whatever is beneath that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 1 hour ago, Mulberry View said: We'll have the rubble from the double garage, along with the concrete base, but also potentially whatever is beneath that. think of it as a skip (that you don’t have to pay fir!). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav_P Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 25 minutes ago, joe90 said: think of it as a skip (that you don’t have to pay fir!). That you throw all your old sh!t in. Thank you very much! I’m here all week ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell griffiths Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 All good ideas, but if you want to do it properly your local concrete ready mix company will do a product called flowable fill, it’s a very weak mix that flows out the back of a redymix truck, used for filling voids and around pipes and stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mulberry View Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) As as update to this, we are now in the planning phase of splitting this property up, to sell the original Bungalow with half-an-acre. The location of the current Septic Tank is a piece of land that we'd like to ideally retain. We do have an option to connect to the mains drains, but it's not easy and would have to dodge around the RPA's of 3 or 4 substantial trees. I'm wondering if it would be better for us to install a new treatment plant instead. The property is in need of modernisation, but I can see an easy location for a treatment plant to go (in the drive) and can be easily reached from the current pipework. What else is involved? Of course it'll be a case of choosing a capable treatment plant and dropping it into a hole in the ground with a feed in from the house. What else is there? A separate run-off tank? Soakaway? If we fit something half decent, then it'll hopefully be sufficient for the new owners and should accommodate their future plans without disrupting our land in the future. Hopefully it'll improve the saleability too over the dodgy old stink tank that's currently there. Or is it just too complicated for us to contemplate given that we'll be selling the property anyway? Edited February 15, 2021 by Mulberry View Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell griffiths Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Entirely up to you really. Whats the chances of somebody buying the old bungalow and wanting to knock it down. Could be easier to have it priced up and have the quote ready to reduce the price of the bungalow by. Would be a shame to stick a nice new one in and the new people don’t want it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mulberry View Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 6 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said: Entirely up to you really. Whats the chances of somebody buying the old bungalow and wanting to knock it down. Could be easier to have it priced up and have the quote ready to reduce the price of the bungalow by. Would be a shame to stick a nice new one in and the new people don’t want it. Yes, that's my worry. When we sell, we are hoping to restrict the building line somewhat to protect the privacy of us in our adjacent property and the neighbour the other side. The planned location respects this. In essence, I'd like to get the old septic decommissioned and filled in before we sell, but I'm guessing I can't really leave it connected to nothing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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