Ankle deep in P&P

[crispy_wafer]

As it was a weekend of water in's and outs, I started my attempt at connecting the new house to the old waste. I was finally getting fed up with the mound of earth on my patch of grass. 

 

The septic tank we have is a strange affair, I dont know much about these things really, but we have like a big brick built chamber before the onion. and its chokka full of 'stuff'  The septic tank hasnt been 'serviced' for what must be nearly 30 years...  My missus got both barrels (I guess I'm at fault too) for not organising and getting it all vacuumed out.  Anyway as soon as I cut the pipe...  Lets say, I was glad I was wearing wellies and not trainers (happy fathers day).  At the minute the inspection chamber is full, backed up, going somewhere but not in a hurry, must have been like that for a while, I'm hoping that once the tank is cleared that it will all flow nicely, otherwise it could get expensive, It would be a cost I've not really accounted for.

 

I'll look back and laugh at this one day.

 

Following this guide mainly - Inserting an Inspection Chamber | Pavingexpert

 

 

 

[ProDave]

You definitely need to get the old tanks pumped out, then try it with just clean water.  If it still does not drain away, then the soakaway / drainage field is clogged, if so time for a lot of digging.

[crispy_wafer]

👍 On the case, thankfully I know which direction the drainage to drainage field goes, in the paddocks you can see where the ground is ever so slightly lower, and the grass is greener...

[saveasteading]

In case this helps in any way:

 

I have what is called 'country drainage'. Just a single brick chamber but with in and out pipes turned to mid depth to avoid floaters escaping.

It takes rainwater too, which is a bad thing, but mostly doesn't matter.

This goes 20m to soakaway in a nearby field which isn't ours.

 

It had been used by the previous owner for at least 30 years and for all we know was never cleaned.

For many years we left it untouched with a 6" crust on top and 6" sludge on the bottom.

It shouldn't have worked, then one rainy day it didn't, and mucky water came out of the outlet manhole.

My rods and a karcher drain clearer didn't help, as the outlet pipe was solid.

 

I had it pumped out and also got the pump about 5m along the outlet when the driver wasn't paying attention (not meant to do that).

 

Since then (5 years?) all is good.

Therefore I think the remaining gunk in the pipe, and also the soakaway, must have continued to digest their contents once the overloading was prevented, clearing the way for the drain to run.

 

Moral: I don't think an annual pump-out is necessary, and have no plans to do it for  a while.

 

BTW when the chamber was empty I got in and shovelled out what was left.. No comment about most of what shouldn't have been in there.

But there was also a great lump of hip tiling, all cemented together, and some wood attached. Some cowboy in the past had decided not to trouble himself with disposal, and had chucked it in the chamber.

 

 

 

 

[crispy_wafer]

I've given the poo'berg in the brick chamber a good monching today with a bit of roofing batten and loosened it up, we've got a company in tomorrow to suck it all out.

 

I've drawn a diagram of the setup and for the life of me, cant understand why it is as it is.  I dont know alot about drainage, but to me out should be lower than in, but It's always worked and must have backed someway up the pipe, just because I've now interfered with it have i seen the issue of the backing up, inspection chambers upstream have never shown the issue either which is the reason I say it's always worked, and i've been here 25 years...  I guess this causes an issue with any future building inspection, and signoff. 

 

Guess I now know why my back garden has always been so green 🤣

 

I dont really want to spend, if I have to, then I have too but any suggestions.  I'm thinking maybe a suspended pump in the brick chamber to lift to the outflow, but it will be running alot when the levels rise so maybe not a long term solution. 

[crispy_wafer]

On 20/06/2022 at 14:56, saveasteading said:

In case this helps in any way:

 

I have what is called 'country drainage'. Just a single brick chamber but with in and out pipes turned to mid depth to avoid floaters escaping.

It takes rainwater too, which is a bad thing, but mostly doesn't matter.

This goes 20m to soakaway in a nearby field which isn't ours.

 

It had been used by the previous owner for at least 30 years and for all we know was never cleaned.

For many years we left it untouched with a 6" crust on top and 6" sludge on the bottom.

It shouldn't have worked, then one rainy day it didn't, and mucky water came out of the outlet manhole.

My rods and a karcher drain clearer didn't help, as the outlet pipe was solid.

 

I had it pumped out and also got the pump about 5m along the outlet when the driver wasn't paying attention (not meant to do that).

 

Since then (5 years?) all is good.

Therefore I think the remaining gunk in the pipe, and also the soakaway, must have continued to digest their contents once the overloading was prevented, clearing the way for the drain to run.

 

Moral: I don't think an annual pump-out is necessary, and have no plans to do it for  a while.

 

BTW when the chamber was empty I got in and shovelled out what was left.. No comment about most of what shouldn't have been in there.

But there was also a great lump of hip tiling, all cemented together, and some wood attached. Some cowboy in the past had decided not to trouble himself with disposal, and had chucked it in the chamber.

 

 

 

 

I think it does help, thanks, it's good to understand these things, those before us had good knowledge and experience of how things 'work' on a less 'technical' level, whereas these days there is so much book theory and reinventing of the wheel to sell us something new that we 'need', sometimes we need to understand the ways of our fathers.

[saveasteading]

5 hours ago, crispy_wafer said:

out should be lower than in

Whatever the 'out' level is controls the level of the standing 'liquid'.

Also we want the 'in' pipe to decant all its contents and not have anything left in it.

So out should be 100mm or more lower than in.

 

Whenever some liquid enters the tank, the same amount must leave, preferably cleaner, hence it needs some barrier to the stuff going straight through.

 

[crispy_wafer]

Getting the brick chamber emptied today fingers crossed.  I'm hoping to find evidence that suggests the out has been altered (moved) in the past to suit the inlet of the fiberglass onion, I wonder if one of the previous incumbents who installed the fiberglass tank had an issue with getting the depths. Either that or it was built back to front...

 

I do have a land drain running through the field about 50m away I suspect a treatment plant and outlet to drain might be an option

[crispy_wafer]

Emptied the brick unit and yes found an old outlet from the brick chamber, clambered in and had a good look and poke at it, it's been concreted up and the newer outlet cut a couple of bricks higher, can only guess that the persons who installed the fibreglass unit had an issue with depth or another reason.

 

Feeling a little deflated by this, one of the reasons behind building my own, was to get away from the general lash up of other people and this sodding bungalow.  I'll call out a drainage company to see what options I have.  A little unexpected, no doubt be on beans on toast for a few extra months.

 

Thankfully I guess we can install downstream of the brick chamber and day to day usage wont be disturbed. 

[saveasteading]

6 hours ago, crispy_wafer said:

had a good look and poke at it,

How many showers have you had , and thrown the clothes in the bin?