big hill and no soakaway

[charlie-ia]

at the moment our septic tank has no soakaway.
we have about an acre of land (rectangle-ish), and it drops 50' from top to bottom over about 150'. other than a cesspit, or huge amounts of relandscaping, what are our options?

can we lay the pipes horizontally across the hill in a continuous snake shape?
the horizontals would have to be in fairly short runs or we will get too close to the streams that run both sides of our land.

Ive come across your "stepped" soakaway, Chuckey - can you expand a bit please? or any one elses experiences. thanks

 

[MdB]

Some exciting reading for you on this subject. It includes some examples of the size and shape required if I remember right. Excuse me if I don't reread it to check....
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/professionals/en/4000000000382.html

 

[chuckey]

The whole part of a sucessful soakaway is to have a nice depth of sandy soil and not clay over a bedrock 2' down. I have seen some soakaways round here some which are no good and some are excellent. I just built one that is substantially better then the one that worked OK.
The thing not to do is to have a straight pipe laid on a gradient. The water will saturate the ground around the pipe and eventually lead to saturation of the soil at the end of the pipe, unless you have a light sandy soil and low useage of the soakaway.
The top of your pipe and gravel must be covered with plastic to stop soil getting into it (the water will only drain out of the bottom anyway). The whole shebang must be down in the soil low enough to stop routine gardening tasks (and tree roots?) getting into the soakaway, say a minimum of 2'.
I researched the WWW and was frightened by the area and amount of pipe that some people reccomend, this must be based on a clay soil and a good profit margin.
Writing the above statement has made me think! :roll: I wonder if the gradient actually helps to disperse the water, like it soaks down to the clay over bedrock(which I have here), BUT the slope on that layer is away from my property so the underground water literally "runs away". If the natural gradient was the other way, the water would run backwards, towards the septic tank and possibley collect and turn the soil into mud.
Why do you think you have no soakaway? Are you certain it is not just blocked with soil?
Frank

 

[charlie-ia]

thanks mdb, though i think youre fibbing with the exciting bit! had a quick skim, will read it better later. looks like snake shape not a good idea if we have to have a manhole at each bend.

so have you built a "percolation mound" frank, and how is it stepped- like terracing?

Why do you think you have no soakaway? Are you certain it is not just blocked with soil?
Frank

the exit pipe is about eye level, and the water comes out of it when you flush the loo. i think its yet another unfinished item that the previous 2 non-occupying owners didnt finish. we just found out that our house has stood empty for 25years, so it hasnt been an issue.

the slope is away from the house luckily or it could have been much worse

 

[MdB]

thanks mdb, though i think youre fibbing with the exciting bit!

umm sorry....

had a quick skim, will read it better later. looks like snake shape not a good idea if we have to have a manhole at each bend.

I think you just need manholes on bends on pipes to the septic tank. You don't need them in the soakaway but I could be wrong. Diag 1 on page 32 suggests you don't.

the slope is away from the house luckily or it could have been much worse

That makes life easier....

 

[Roger H]

Build a dry-composting toilet?
http://www.cat.org.uk/information/catinfo.tmpl?command=search&db=catinfo.db&eqSKUdatarq=InfoSheet_CompostingToilets

Rog.

 

[Nemesis]

Used to be called the privy...

 

[Nemesis]

It's normal to lay the pipes in a herringbone, but I can't see why a snake wouldn't work.


Use plastic wavicoil.

 

[chuckey]

The construction of my soakaway was based on minimum cost and effort. Here in Wensleydale, rock is free. When Mr JCBman dug the hole for my septic tank, as he backed down my garden he dug a trench about 3' wide and 3' deep for say 70'. As I have seen continous gradient pipes sometimes not work properly, my idea was have a series of mini soakaways, one leading to the next ,all underground. So I started to turn my sloping trench into a series of steps. Now the problem is that if water runs over a soil step, it erodes it away and deposits the soil elsewhere(downstream). So starting at the bottom "pool", the vertical wall was covered with an old fertiliser bag(FB), turning over the edge on to the floor of the next (uphill) pool. The vertical piece of plastic was then kept in place with building blocks on the front edge of the next step up. The mini soakway then had its sides line with more cut up FBs, then filled with big rocks (6-12" diam?), were then covered with smaller rocks (1-3" diam). the next step was done, working uphill all the time. The complete thing then looks like a load of rock filled steps. the lot is then coverd with more cut up FBs, laid like roof slate, so the soil does not get washed in.
Back fill. Go and enjoy a good sit down on the loo.
Frank