Got the new septic tank installed last week, and now I have a backyard of dirt and rock to clean up again. I was glad to get it done though, as the tank was the only part of the original system that hadn't been replaced. It wasn't really big enough for the house by code, so there were several good reasons to replace it.
Here are some pic's of the install. I had the utilities marked beforehand. White paint is marking the work area, red is the power to the house, orange is the phone-line. The line to the old tank is between the red and orange lines.
In addition to installing the new tank, I had the installers put in a drain line for the two downspouts in the first image over to a gully next to the house. You can see a white dashed line running toward the top of the image. The water from the downspouts was draining on top of the area we are about to dig up, and was causing an erosion problem. I also had them make a connection to the sewer line I had run under the garage upper bay when it was built to give me an RV dump station in front of the garage.
Looking the other direction. The little wooden stake close to the foundation is marking the end of the sewer line under the upper bay.
The old tank of course got pumped out, then about 75% of the top was sawed off, leaving just enough to support the retaining wall that was sitting on top of it. The sewer line between the house and the tank was replaced several years ago, and the hope is that they will be able to avoid digging behind the retaining wall. I remember that a portion of the wall was taken down so the plumbers could get the hatch on that end of the tank off. We're assuming that was so they could run the new pipe inside the tank, and install a new "T" on that end. If that's true, there should be enough pipe inside the tank to connect on to. All I can say is: "I'm happy to pay a plumber to do this kind of work for me!"
The guy on the track-hoe was amazing to watch. He has been using them since he was a kid, and it shows. He wasn't just OPERATING the machine, he was WEARING it like an article of clothing. He crawled it all around the edge of the hole, at times even scaring the two guys working with him. The machine would start to tip into the hole, and he would just calmly use the bucket arm to push it back into place. His coworkers both said "I can't even watch him when he's doing that".
The new tank arrives.
I think this is the longest truck that has ever driven into my back yard. He's going to have to back all the way out, too. There's not enough room for him to turn around.
That stump needed to be trimmed down so the truck could drive over it.
Backed up to the hole.
Lifting the tank. This arm is amazing. It can extend out 30' with 10K lbs hanging on the end of it. My little tank is only about 1000 lbs.
The outlet side is connected, and they are starting to bury it.
Inlet side plumbing. The line heading under the track-hoe is from the RV dump station.
Putting it all back. After filling in the old tank, and the void created by removing one of the big stumps that used to be in this area, there really wasn't a lot of excess material left over.
All the rocks are raked up. I'll cover the area with straw until the next phase of destruction starts.
:):)
