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In a few months time our local water authority is going to put in a public sewer under our garden, just our side of the fence at the bottom of our garden. We'll opt for being connected to it. When the contractor makes the change from our septic tank to the public sewer how long can we expect to be without sewerage facilities?
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Shouldn't be more than a couple of hours if they know what they're doing. If the sewer main route requires your septic tank to be interfered with in any way it will be much longer though.
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what happens to the septic tank?
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Dunno. Could be dangerous leaving it empty.
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>> what happens to the septic tank?
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It will remain where it is, and it will be left full. If it's emptied it could rise up out of the ground if at some time we had a high water table level.
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>>>It will remain where it is, and it will be left full.
Oh come on be fair to the future owners of your place... at least pump it out and fill with soil.
BTW...Your water rates will be expensive next year.
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>> BTW...Your water rates will be expensive next year.
What we'll pay extra in water rates we'll save in not having to pay to have the septic tank emptied.
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We're well in with ours... it only needs the *crust* pumping out every 5/6yrs for £50 and we split the cost with next door who share the pit. The saving in rates over that 5/6yr period must be £400+
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>> Shouldn't be more than a couple of hours if they know what they're doing. If
>> the sewer main route requires your septic tank to be interfered with in any way
>> it will be much longer though.
>>
The inlet pipe to the septic tank will need to be disconnected, and then the pipe connecting us to the public sewer will circumnavigate the tank. Fortunately the pipe run to the septic tank is already pointing in the general direction of the public sewer.
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And you should have an access manhole at every change of direction. This is likely to be a LA requirement. However we only put them in at turns greater than 20 Degrees as a run with a bend of this or less should still be 'roddable'.
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>> And you should have an access manhole at every change of direction.
That'll be two access manholes then.
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Agree that the tank should be emptied and filled ... er if you know what I mean.
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In fact the neatest job may well be to pump out and backfill the tank as part of the change day and pipe through the filled in space to the new sewer in a straight line??
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Do you mean septic tank or cess pit? Septic tanks are mini sewage works, and a decent one hardly ever needs emptying. We have an ancient one somewhere under the garden, and in 25 years to my knowledge it has never been emptied. Probably never in the last 100 years.
It's the worms, I think, an army of little workers constantly carrying the stuff away into the soil.
Cess pits are another matter - they steadily fill up and then need pumping out, like a giant camping loo.
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>> Do you mean septic tank or cess pit? Septic tanks are mini sewage works, and
>> a decent one hardly ever needs emptying. We have an ancient one somewhere under the
>> garden, and in 25 years to my knowledge it has never been emptied. Probably never
>> in the last 100 years.
>> It's the worms, I think, an army of little workers constantly carrying the stuff
>> away into the soil.
>>
>> Cess pits are another matter - they steadily fill up and then need pumping out,
>> like a giant camping loo.
>>
To the best of my knowledge what we have is called a septic tank. It's an onion shape made from fibre glass, installed about 15 years ago. From the top it looks similar to this ....
www.europipes.co.uk/septic.htm
Annual desludging is recommended. The liquid rises to the top and drains off via a land drain system as per the aforementioned website.
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>> In fact the neatest job may well be to pump out and backfill the tank
>> as part of the change day and pipe through the filled in space to the
>> new sewer in a straight line??
>>
Agreed again.
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I think I would call ours a septic tank. It is a large brick chamber around 2m deep divided in two by a partial wall. The drains feed into it about halfway down at the *in* end. The out side which is nearly all liquid has an outlet pipe cloer to the top which goes to a field soakaway.
Ours only needs pumping out when the *crust* in the first chamber gets to a depth that blocks the inlet. The crust floats on the liquid in this first chamber.
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I was just about to bite into my home baked toast as I read that....
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>> I was just about to bite into my home baked toast as I read that....
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Did you like the crust ?
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I just about managed to swallow.
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>> I think I would call ours a septic tank. It is a large brick chamber
>> around 2m deep divided in two by a partial wall. The drains feed into it
>> about halfway down at the *in* end. The out side which is nearly all liquid
>> has an outlet pipe cloer to the top which goes to a field soakaway.
>>
>> Ours only needs pumping out when the *crust* in the first chamber gets to a
>> depth that blocks the inlet. The crust floats on the liquid in this first chamber.
>>
You might be right to call it a septic tank. I wouldn't argue with you. Here's a glossary of building terms. www.michael-roberts.co.uk/glossary.htm
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 13:41
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***Septic Tank - Private drainage installation whereby sewage is collected into a chamber and decomposes through the action of bacteria, with remaining solids requiring removal periodically, and liquids running off to a water course or soakaway.
Yep that's ours... even down to the water course option.
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>> In fact the neatest job may well be to pump out and backfill the tank
>> as part of the change day and pipe through the filled in space to the
>> new sewer in a straight line??
>>
I'll discuss the method with the contractor.
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As my Grandfather said:-
It is maybe poo to you but it is bread and butter to me.
He ran a plumber's business for nearly 50 years - his son bankrupted it in 3/4 yrs after his death - My Grandfather knew how to make money - his son only knew how to spend it!
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 10:37
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I'm surprised yours needs emptying annually.
I am aware of a kennels with 100 dogs and a domestic "onion" which needed emptying every 3-4 months. That's a lot more waste than a few snails produce...
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>> I'm surprised yours needs emptying annually.
I'm not saying it needs emptying annually, but I'd rather keep to Europipes' recommendation than end up with a problem. Better to be safe than sorry. I did leave it 18 months on one occasion and it was OK.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 13:18
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Connecting to a public sewer - Armel Coussine
