Septic tank woes...

[Adrian]

There's not really anybody in the same position as us, bar immediate next door. I don't know quite what their arrangement is, but can find out.

[Adrian]

Oh, and - no. But we do know that a previous putative purchaser did, and pulled out _because_ of the tank being "not of recent construction".

No flags against it for function, though.

[JimK]

/> Did you have this surveyed before purchase?

Oh, and - no. But we do know that a previous putative purchaser did, and pulled out _because_ of the tank being "not of recent construction".

No flags against it for function, though. /q

Hmmm :-) lines between reading am I the.....

Jim K

[Adrian]

Go on...

But tbh it wouldn't have put us off the place anyway.

[Adrian]

Yellow line is the boundary hedge. Red circle is roughly where the lid to the tank is, mebbe a metre below ground level at the house. Blue line is the stream, mebbe four metres below ground level at the house. The last metre is a sharp drop at the edge of the stream.

As you can see, there's several big mature trees there. Yew, Cherry, Pine, plus various smaller trees.

[The Natural Philosopher]

If you are happy driving a digger, simply excavate where the outflow runs TO and dig it all out and put in proper herringbone prefs and ballast to get a decent soakaway.

[The Natural Philosopher]

+1

[The Natural Philosopher]

Bullshit

Klargester can discharge into anything. Outflow is 'clean'

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well the simple starter for ten is rebuild the soakaway

The better solution is an aerated sewage treatment unit. For 2 people thats about 5 grand + install.

[Adrian]

Rough ballpark times to install?

[Adrian]

FAAAARK!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Depends.

Given a suitable hole in the ground and pipes and leccy cable leading to it a few hours..

When I ditched my 3 chamber mess I built a new pipe run altogether. Simply heaped shit in the old tank and covered in in a foot of soil. Grass grows like topsy there

Basically you need a 1:60 slope to the tank inlet and the tank outflow meeds to dump into a bit of ground or ditch lower than the tank

Tank is glass fiber so a deep hole and a bit of sand at the bottom., then fill it with ware to weight it, and stick sand down the sides and top off with a concrete ring.

I think it took a few days with 3-4 of us on minidigger, cement mixer and pipe laying.

And needs electricity in armored cable to run the motor.

Firms will do the complete job, but its very d-i-y-able

Remember to tighten the pulleys on the shafts as they come loose..

You need to get approval for discharge from local water board people or whatever they are called.

BCO will tell you who you need.

I don't think you need planning permission

Greatest advantage no more pongs...

needs emptying every few years

[JimK]

Bullshit

Klargester can discharge into anything. Outflow is 'clean'/q

Oh dear.... "Klargester Reed Beds

What is a Reed Bed?

A reed bed is a filtration process used in conjunction with a Klargester Bi oDisc® treatment plant to further enhance the quality of the effluent mig rating into a drainage field or surrounding watercourse."

If it's so 'clean' why would a reed bed ever be required to make it cleaner ?

Also "Environment Agency states in "Guidance for the registration of small sewag e effluent discharges", Version 1.0 July 2011 :-

3.2.3 Discharge to suitable surface waters

"For discharges to surface waters: New discharges only The discharge must only be made to a watercourse that normally contains wat er throughout the year. The discharge cannot be to an enclosed lake or pond .

Treated sewage effluent requires some dilution and dispersion when discharg ed to surface water in order to prevent stagnation and pollution. For this reason, it is not possible to register a new discharge to a ditch or waterc ourse that does not contain water throughout the year in normal circumstanc es.

We would regard normal circumstances to be anything other than a drought or abnormally prolonged period of dry weather. Discharges to watercourses tha t seasonally dry up cannot be registered. "

Jim K

[JimK]

/

Hmmm maybe not klargester then :-

Unwrap at your leisure:-)

Jim K

[The Natural Philosopher]

I said its clean enough for legal purposes.

If you want to make it cleaner that's up to you.

Yoou said reeds beds were NEEDED. I said bullshit.

I stand by that statement. They are not NEEDED.

well that has changed a lot.

and is a bit silly.

OK so recreate an soakaway then

And then when te inspectir has gone, uncipule it.

[JimK]

/I said its clean enough for legal purposes.

If you want to make it cleaner that's up to you.

Yoou said reeds beds were NEEDED. I said bullshit.

I stand by that statement. They are not NEEDED. /q

What you & I said is plain for all to see.

Jim K

[Nick]

In message , Adrian writes

We (2 people) had one installed last year rather than dig out the blocked drainage field. It came to roughly £3k all in and was installed in one day. It included a ~10m pipe to the nearest waterway and an EA permit to discharge into it.

[Adrian]

Ta. Far less scary than I expected.

If you're anywhere near Herefordshire, and you'd recommend the fitters/ suppliers, could you drop us a mail?

[Nick]

Near Spalding, unfortunately. I did check with them and they've just finished a somewhat larger plant in Hereford! They'd do it, but were worried that if anything went wrong it'd take a long time for them to get to you. This is what we've got, anyway:

[Adrian]

NP, ta.