Cess pit support

[Anonymous]

What kind of company would be able to tell me how big a cess pit is, what strength it is and what weight it could support above it? I want to have the ground over a working cesspit strengthened so that I can have a (tasteful) car port built but I don't know where to start!

 

[Anonymous]

The trouble is that noone has got xray eyes! It is just a matter of finding the edges and then getting a structural engineer to design you a reinforced concrete slab to span over the whole thing.
Engineers are invaluable for this sort of thing. Also - if your car falls in the pooh you've got someone to sue. Hey, I'm a poet as well. Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm. I'm a poet: 'can sue' would be better I feel...

 

[Anonymous]

Nope - should be 'you can sue'.

It's a worrying thought actually... I think I'll stop standing near our septic tank. You never know.

 

[Anonymous]

My own inclination and attitude towards risk would be to park my car on top of it in the, possibly miguided, belief that it will be all right. Employing the precautionary principle might involve getting one of those big steel sheets you see covering up road menders' holes when they've gone home. I guess a steel sheet would be cheaper, stronger, and more permanent than employing a structural engineer. Of course it would remove the joys of a litigious society and involve a return to personal responsibility. If only I could set that out in verse...

PS I don't mean nicking the steel sheet after the menders have gone home. I was just trying to describe the thing you need to obtain legitimately.

 

[Anonymous]

It all depends on what type it is.
My septic tank is a GRP bottle shaped one that is about four foot down. I would imagine that the weight of 4 foot of soil is far, far more than the weight of a car port and car.
There would be a problem building anything near it however, as an enormous hole had to be dug to put it in and even now 7 years later the ground is still settling as is evident by the depression in the lawn that needs leveling occasionally.
If it was a brick one you could probably use the brick walls as footings for the car port!

 

[Anonymous]

What will you do for mending it in future or any modifications?