House Update: Fun with Septic Systems
So a couple of people have asked how the house rebuild is going. For a while, all I had to say was, "We're still waiting to hear from the permit office." which tends to be more a tweet than an lj post. Now that we finally have heard from the permit office, well..
Here's the thing. If you live in a city or a suburb, you don't tend to think about sewage -- well, not until the large tree in your small front yard has blocked your connection to the sewer system with its root mass and your basement is now ankle deep in everything that's gone down the drain in your house for the last three days. And sure, if the person in the apartment upstairs gets drunk and tries to flush his roomate's favorite Leaf's jersey down the toilet in a fit of pique and the whole mess overflows into your bathroom, you'll definitely notice but, as a rule, if you're hooked into the sewer system you assume it's going to work as advertised and may live your entire life without having to think about it at all.
In the country, we have no sewer system. We have septic tanks and, as it's called in my part of Canada, a weeping bed. (also known as a tile bed, a leaching bed, a filter bed, and a tile field)(but not around here) The septic tank is essentially a large concrete, well, tank, with an intake and an outflow. The outflow runs on a slight downward grade into a series of plastic perforated tubes laid out on gravel and/or coarse sand then covered with a minimum ten inches of soil. If the bateria in your tank is working well, then it's all liquid going out the other end which then percolates through your weeping bed and back into the ground water. (Don't worry, the whole system has to be a mimimum of 100 feet from the well.)(This becomes important later.)(I know, but trust me, when it works, it works fine -- most people still have their wells tested for ecoli about three times a year.)
If you have a septic system you have to be very careful about what you put into it. A lot of the cleansers on the market will kill the bacteria. Fancy toilet paper won't dissolve. Too many loads of laundry and/or a lot guests flushing/draining a lot of water can overwhelm it. You have to think about what you're doing all the time. Since I spend a good part of my time inside my own head, this is tricky for me.
Fun fact: They make packets of bacteria for you to dump into your system to help it run better. When we first bought the house, the system hadn't been used for a year and needed a jumpstart. The real estate agent told us to use three packets once a week for the first month. The aged uncle told us to find some road kill and just heave it in.
Theoretically, when you build a house in the country, you file the plan of your septic system with the county health department. In 1976, when two drunk brothers built our house -- having burned down the previous house on this site due to an inability to find the woodstove one chilly night -- they didn't bother filing a plan. We knew where our tank was -- hard to miss, the top is about four centimeters below grade. (grade is the level of the lawn)(essentially) The grass is not greener over the septic tank, the grass is greener over the weeping bed. The grass over the septic tank, is usually dead.
We never knew where the weeping bed was although we assumed it was on the west lawn because that's where all the fill had been brought in and there were no trees to stuff the pipes with roots. City trees, country trees, it's all about the roots.
So, having filed our house plans and our demolition plan, we got a call from the planning office. And they said, "We need to know the capicity of your tank and the dimensions of your weeping bed." And we said, "Well, they never filed a plan when they built the house." And they said, "Got a shovel?"
Rain delay.
Extended rain delay.
When we could finally get out there and dig -- and yes, fine, we may have been delaying a bit on our own behalf because seriously would you look forward to digging up a big tank of effulent? (If you answer yes to this question, I don't want to know.) -- we uncovered the top of the tank easily enough, measured it, measured where it was in relation to the house (about eighteen inches away from the toilet actually)(this also becomes important later) and started looking for the outflow pipe.
The only way to find a hidden weeping bed is to follow the pipe.
The pipe did not lead to the west lawn. It headed straight as an arrow (I was going to say straight as a Tea Party member but thought an international crowd might not get it.)(Although it's possible the international crowd stopped reading about the 2nd paragraph in.)(where was I?)(Oh yeah...) ran straight to the front lawn. Where there are, and have been for oh, as long as the house has been here, three large trees and one small one that I planted because we thought the weeping bed was on the west lawn.
On the bright side, it's a big weeping bed.
So, we had the basic facts and we called the permit office and they said, "Well, because for a time you'll have six bedrooms (the three on the new addition and the three in the part that's being torn down) we need to know your system can handle twelve people so we need the volume of the tank." And I said a few rude things. After hanging up, of course. Word to the wise: NEVER PISS OFF THE PERMIT OFFICE.
Now, at this point I thought, I'm tired of assuming things, I'm calling in someone who knows what the hell they're talking about and booked a hour consult with my plumber.
Time delay. (He's plumber. That's a given.)
And Rick looked at where the tank was and where the new bathroom is going to be and said, "Well, here's the thing. Even if you can use the old system you're going to need a pump. If you want a gravity feed, you're going to need to raise your house a minimum of two feet, maybe more. The only reason your system is working now is because the tank is so close to the bathroom, the pressure is forcing the effulent down the pipes. Also, I've been in your crawlspace, the guys who built this place did a crappy job. Since they also put in the weeping bed, I'm not assuming they suddenly knew what they were doing."
"They were roofers," I told him. "And the roof has problems of its own."
"If it was me," he said, "I'd replace the whole thing. Just so you know."
Oh joy.
So I called a septic contracter.
And Chris said, "Okay, if the rock is only twenty three inches down...
(Hang on. Did I mention why our septic tank is only 4cm below grade? Because the bedrock is only 23 inches down. Yes, I mix imperial and metric but I'm a professional, don't try this at home.)
...I can probably chop out a hole to set the tank deeper with the big backhoe but I'm never going to get the weeping bed low enough to gravity drain the tank. You're going to need a pump in the tank. Now, I hate putting pumps in tanks because when it breaks, I'm the one they call but there's no way around it. Sixty percent of this county has to use pumps because of the rock. On the bright side, it'll take two people a while to fill a 100 gallon tank so if the pump goes out, you're not stuck for a toilet until I can get out here to replace it."
And I said, grasping at straws, "What about raising the house two feet?"
And he said, "Sure, but you'll pay about the cost of the house again paying for an extra two feet of fill all the way around."
And I said, thematically, "Well, crap."
So we called the permit office and asked them to put a hold on the building permits (we can hold for a year without resubmitting) and some time this week the septic contracter will be back to dig a test hole and tell me how much it's going to cost. If it's clay down there -- and hey, it's clay everywhere else -- the price goes up because clay doesn't drain. We'll need to dig out the clay and put in a bed of sharp sand and gravel. Also, in order to be 100 feet from the well, he'll have to move more than halfway out onto the west lawn... (pause for effect)... which puts the edge of the weeping bed too close to the property line.
Fortunately, we own the next peice of property.
So we went in to see our lawyer and began the process of making the two 12.5 acre pieces into one 25 acre piece. Hopefully, it won't need a new survey but I'm not holding my breath.
That's the story thus far. Hopefully, we won't need a survey, Chris won't need to replace a quarter of an acre of clay, and, for a while, we'll have two full septic systems. The one attached to the old house to be made redundant summer of 2013 and the one attached to nothing at all hopefull to be put into use on the new addition 2012.
Oh, and did I mention the beloved's riding lawn mower died after seventeen hard working years and had to be replaced? Please keep buying books.
Here's the thing. If you live in a city or a suburb, you don't tend to think about sewage -- well, not until the large tree in your small front yard has blocked your connection to the sewer system with its root mass and your basement is now ankle deep in everything that's gone down the drain in your house for the last three days. And sure, if the person in the apartment upstairs gets drunk and tries to flush his roomate's favorite Leaf's jersey down the toilet in a fit of pique and the whole mess overflows into your bathroom, you'll definitely notice but, as a rule, if you're hooked into the sewer system you assume it's going to work as advertised and may live your entire life without having to think about it at all.
In the country, we have no sewer system. We have septic tanks and, as it's called in my part of Canada, a weeping bed. (also known as a tile bed, a leaching bed, a filter bed, and a tile field)(but not around here) The septic tank is essentially a large concrete, well, tank, with an intake and an outflow. The outflow runs on a slight downward grade into a series of plastic perforated tubes laid out on gravel and/or coarse sand then covered with a minimum ten inches of soil. If the bateria in your tank is working well, then it's all liquid going out the other end which then percolates through your weeping bed and back into the ground water. (Don't worry, the whole system has to be a mimimum of 100 feet from the well.)(This becomes important later.)(I know, but trust me, when it works, it works fine -- most people still have their wells tested for ecoli about three times a year.)
If you have a septic system you have to be very careful about what you put into it. A lot of the cleansers on the market will kill the bacteria. Fancy toilet paper won't dissolve. Too many loads of laundry and/or a lot guests flushing/draining a lot of water can overwhelm it. You have to think about what you're doing all the time. Since I spend a good part of my time inside my own head, this is tricky for me.
Fun fact: They make packets of bacteria for you to dump into your system to help it run better. When we first bought the house, the system hadn't been used for a year and needed a jumpstart. The real estate agent told us to use three packets once a week for the first month. The aged uncle told us to find some road kill and just heave it in.
Theoretically, when you build a house in the country, you file the plan of your septic system with the county health department. In 1976, when two drunk brothers built our house -- having burned down the previous house on this site due to an inability to find the woodstove one chilly night -- they didn't bother filing a plan. We knew where our tank was -- hard to miss, the top is about four centimeters below grade. (grade is the level of the lawn)(essentially) The grass is not greener over the septic tank, the grass is greener over the weeping bed. The grass over the septic tank, is usually dead.
We never knew where the weeping bed was although we assumed it was on the west lawn because that's where all the fill had been brought in and there were no trees to stuff the pipes with roots. City trees, country trees, it's all about the roots.
So, having filed our house plans and our demolition plan, we got a call from the planning office. And they said, "We need to know the capicity of your tank and the dimensions of your weeping bed." And we said, "Well, they never filed a plan when they built the house." And they said, "Got a shovel?"
Rain delay.
Extended rain delay.
When we could finally get out there and dig -- and yes, fine, we may have been delaying a bit on our own behalf because seriously would you look forward to digging up a big tank of effulent? (If you answer yes to this question, I don't want to know.) -- we uncovered the top of the tank easily enough, measured it, measured where it was in relation to the house (about eighteen inches away from the toilet actually)(this also becomes important later) and started looking for the outflow pipe.
The only way to find a hidden weeping bed is to follow the pipe.
The pipe did not lead to the west lawn. It headed straight as an arrow (I was going to say straight as a Tea Party member but thought an international crowd might not get it.)(Although it's possible the international crowd stopped reading about the 2nd paragraph in.)(where was I?)(Oh yeah...) ran straight to the front lawn. Where there are, and have been for oh, as long as the house has been here, three large trees and one small one that I planted because we thought the weeping bed was on the west lawn.
On the bright side, it's a big weeping bed.
So, we had the basic facts and we called the permit office and they said, "Well, because for a time you'll have six bedrooms (the three on the new addition and the three in the part that's being torn down) we need to know your system can handle twelve people so we need the volume of the tank." And I said a few rude things. After hanging up, of course. Word to the wise: NEVER PISS OFF THE PERMIT OFFICE.
Now, at this point I thought, I'm tired of assuming things, I'm calling in someone who knows what the hell they're talking about and booked a hour consult with my plumber.
Time delay. (He's plumber. That's a given.)
And Rick looked at where the tank was and where the new bathroom is going to be and said, "Well, here's the thing. Even if you can use the old system you're going to need a pump. If you want a gravity feed, you're going to need to raise your house a minimum of two feet, maybe more. The only reason your system is working now is because the tank is so close to the bathroom, the pressure is forcing the effulent down the pipes. Also, I've been in your crawlspace, the guys who built this place did a crappy job. Since they also put in the weeping bed, I'm not assuming they suddenly knew what they were doing."
"They were roofers," I told him. "And the roof has problems of its own."
"If it was me," he said, "I'd replace the whole thing. Just so you know."
Oh joy.
So I called a septic contracter.
And Chris said, "Okay, if the rock is only twenty three inches down...
(Hang on. Did I mention why our septic tank is only 4cm below grade? Because the bedrock is only 23 inches down. Yes, I mix imperial and metric but I'm a professional, don't try this at home.)
...I can probably chop out a hole to set the tank deeper with the big backhoe but I'm never going to get the weeping bed low enough to gravity drain the tank. You're going to need a pump in the tank. Now, I hate putting pumps in tanks because when it breaks, I'm the one they call but there's no way around it. Sixty percent of this county has to use pumps because of the rock. On the bright side, it'll take two people a while to fill a 100 gallon tank so if the pump goes out, you're not stuck for a toilet until I can get out here to replace it."
And I said, grasping at straws, "What about raising the house two feet?"
And he said, "Sure, but you'll pay about the cost of the house again paying for an extra two feet of fill all the way around."
And I said, thematically, "Well, crap."
So we called the permit office and asked them to put a hold on the building permits (we can hold for a year without resubmitting) and some time this week the septic contracter will be back to dig a test hole and tell me how much it's going to cost. If it's clay down there -- and hey, it's clay everywhere else -- the price goes up because clay doesn't drain. We'll need to dig out the clay and put in a bed of sharp sand and gravel. Also, in order to be 100 feet from the well, he'll have to move more than halfway out onto the west lawn... (pause for effect)... which puts the edge of the weeping bed too close to the property line.
Fortunately, we own the next peice of property.
So we went in to see our lawyer and began the process of making the two 12.5 acre pieces into one 25 acre piece. Hopefully, it won't need a new survey but I'm not holding my breath.
That's the story thus far. Hopefully, we won't need a survey, Chris won't need to replace a quarter of an acre of clay, and, for a while, we'll have two full septic systems. The one attached to the old house to be made redundant summer of 2013 and the one attached to nothing at all hopefull to be put into use on the new addition 2012.
Oh, and did I mention the beloved's riding lawn mower died after seventeen hard working years and had to be replaced? Please keep buying books.