Installing a new septic system. Are septics safe, of course, they are! It’s when they are not cared for when problems can just pop up

Funny Story

Before we go on here I wanted to tell you the reason I was installing a new septic system. There are two houses on this property. The front house, built-in 1840. Now when this house was built, they didn’t even have bathrooms, funny right. And the back house built-in 1940. After I purchased these houses I decided to look into what kind and where the septics were. Turned out that the back house didn’t even have one to be found, and the front house was a “dry-well” type. That pretty much means, a hole in the ground.

So here we go, lots of money later it’s done. But here’s the funny story now. After filming this video, my son, who lives in the front house while we renovate calls me and tells me the old septic for the front house is not working. Yup all filled and plugged up.

Can’t beat that kinda timing for sure. Ok enough funny stuff let dig in.

Engineering

Do you need engineering? Well if you’re installing new septic, you bet you do. Why, well these are the guys who will design a system that will work and work well for you and you only. Your neighbor and you can have two completely different systems altogether.

Perk Test

So what is a perk? Perk means perkulation. And it’s measured in the amount of time it takes for water to soak into the ground. The engineer will come out to the site and basically dump water into a few test holes and time how long it takes to soak into the ground. They will do a few holes. A deep test at 8 feet deep and a shallow one, I think of three feet. This is the most important part. Too fast of a perk and that’s not good. Hard to get one of those. Too long and you may not be able to even have aseptic. But the time it takes will dictate what system they design for you.

Types of Systems

There many types of septic systems, the most basic system which is 4″ perforated thin pipe embedded in crushed stone. A chamber system, like I show in the video, easy to install, but a little bit on the expensive side. A mat system, big bucks, and even a mound system. That’s when you bring in special septic fill, create a large mound. These are just a few.