Perc test failed... what now??

Silkie

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, not sure where is more relevant for this.

Anyway, we had perc test carried out on site and had results back yest evening. It's not good! Yer man said it's highly unlikely we'll get planning with the soil as bad as it is but he's going to put together a good proposal for the planning and we'll see what the council comes back with.

If we fail on this, is there anything we can do/any way around it or what happens? We don't have the option of another site unfortunately so this is it

Anyone been in a similar situation, what did ye do? we'r dealing with meath co.co aswell, which are supposed to be notorious for refusing planning on anything they can find...

sydthebeat

the first thing you need to do is to understand that not all pieces of land are suitable for using as a 'site'.

in the current climate of european court cases and heavy fines for water pollution, planning authorities will always lean to the conservative side when deciding on the suitability of land for treating effluent.

unless an engineering proposal can be put together that will show the eventual discharge will be safe, they will always tend to refuse.
There are options such as importing good soil, raising site levels, raised beds and tertiary treatment such as reed beds etc, but all of these have to be looked at in the context of the site and soil conditions.

one 'plus' you have going for you is that its your only land holding, but its a small plus against a very large negative.

Silkie

Hmm, it's not looking great. The soil is poor, only about 3 feet of good topsoil then it's "lack" (?!) which is just useless apparently! He said sand, gravel or even peat would be better than what we have.

Would a reed bed system even be feasable with that poor of soil I wonder...
My brother built his house just down the road and put in the reed bed but he built about 8 years ago, before the perc tests were mandatory so I don't know if we'd get by with that proposal now with the new regs.

sydthebeat

Silkie wrote: »

Hmm, it's not looking great. The soil is poor, only about 3 feet of good topsoil then it's "lack" (?!) which is just useless apparently! He said sand, gravel or even peat would be better than what we have.

Would a reed bed system even be feasable with that poor of soil I wonder...
My brother built his house just down the road and put in the reed bed but he built about 8 years ago, before the perc tests were mandatory so I don't know if we'd get by with that proposal now with the new regs.

"just down the road"...???
what about getting your brothers discharges tested and proving to the council that his system works???

thats an option that i would definitely discuss with the planners prior to any testing, as theres no point going to the expense if the council wouldnt accept such an approach. This also assumes that soil conditions are exactly the same.

Silkie

sydthebeat wrote: »

"just down the road"...???
what about getting your brothers discharges tested and proving to the council that his system works???

thats an option that i would definitely discuss with the planners prior to any testing, as theres no point going to the expense if the council wouldnt accept such an approach. This also assumes that soil conditions are exactly the same.

Yeah, literally just down the road. My (proposed!) site is on one end of the road frontage, then my mam's, then his. He said the soil is the same all over, he had the same on his site when he was digging for foundations, geo heating and reed bed and same on another part of land when my father dug pit for slatted shed a few years ago so it's no better anywhere else.

If getting his reed system tested would that not bring a world of trouble on him if his is not up to new regs?? Despite the fact that it wouldn't help my cause obviously!

You'd want a degree in engineering yourself when going through this planning process, 'tis a minefield!

sydthebeat

Silkie wrote: »

Yeah, literally just down the road. My (proposed!) site is on one end of the road frontage, then my mam's, then his. He said the soil is the same all over, he had the same on his site when he was digging for foundations, geo heating and reed bed and same on another part of land when my father dug pit for slatted shed a few years ago so it's no better anywhere else.

If getting his reed system tested would that not bring a world of trouble on him if his is not up to new regs?? Despite the fact that it wouldn't help my cause obviously!

You'd want a degree in engineering yourself when going through this planning process, 'tis a minefield!

the tests will be done by a private company. if it turns out that his system isnt working properly then obviously he should take remedial steps to determine what the problem is.
If it shows excellent results however, and soil types and topography are shown to be similar, then its a strong argument. The fact that your brother required a reed bed system 8 years ago when test werent as robust is a bit worrying though.

Silkie

sydthebeat wrote: »

the tests will be done by a private company. if it turns out that his system isnt working properly then obviously he should take remedial steps to determine what the problem is.
If it shows excellent results however, and soil types and topography are shown to be similar, then its a strong argument. The fact that your brother required a reed bed system 8 years ago when test werent as robust is a bit worrying though.

I don't think it was a requirement for him at the time, I think it was just the way he wanted to go with it rather than a traditional septic tank.

Anyway, I suppose we'll wait to see what proposal comes back to us for planning first and discuss the option of having brothers system tested in the hope it'll be a good arguement for ours...

Thanks for your input

No6

Silkie wrote: »

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, not sure where is more relevant for this.

Anyway, we had perc test carried out on site and had results back yest evening. It's not good! Yer man said it's highly unlikely we'll get planning with the soil as bad as it is but he's going to put together a good proposal for the planning and we'll see what the council comes back with.

If we fail on this, is there anything we can do/any way around it or what happens? We don't have the option of another site unfortunately so this is it

Anyone been in a similar situation, what did ye do? we'r dealing with meath co.co aswell, which are supposed to be notorious for refusing planning on anything they can find...

When he does the report go for an official preplanning on it, do not under any circumstances go to the expense of lodging a full planning application on a failed test, its a waste of your money, I don't know about Meath but a fail is a fail in Mayo (who don't allow domestic reed-beds either!!) Good luck with it.

bold_defender

We also had a failed perc test. The holes just filled with water to the top. Not sure how it may work on your site, but our site is on a slope and we moved perc area and re dug about 40 metres away and higher up and got far better soil conditions. Tests passed with flying colours.

Dry weather will help too. We dug first holes in very wet weather in February and second ones in dry weather at the start of May. Though the weather won't overcome bad soil conditions it could help tip the balance.

who what when

There has been a very small amount of reed beds being accepted here and there! You need someone who really knows their stuff though. However some county councils wont accept anything if the test fails.
You'd think that in a time when we can fly to the moon, we'd surely be able to purify domestic amounts of effluent!