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Percolation inspection point from septic tank

  • 23-04-2023 12:38pm
    #1
    JaCrispy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 635 ✭✭✭


    Hi,

    I'm having a problem with my septic tank overflowing with water. My builder suspects that the exit pipe is blocked with "stuff" and needs to be rodded. He said that he definitely put in an inspection point/manhole at where the outlet pipe splits into two but has doesn't know exactly where it is (it is long buried under my lawn).

    Are there any tips and how I can locate this manhole/inspection point without having to perform archeological digs all around my garden?

    I guess it best to dig a hole 2 metres down from tank, try to locate outlet pipe and work from there?



Comments

  • #2
    Wildly Boaring
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,656 ✭✭✭Wildly Boaring


    You can hire a cobra reel or rods with a"CAT and mouse".


    The mouse is called a Sonde. And the CAT is a cable location tool. You screw the Sonde onto the rods and then you can trace it with the CAT.

    https://www.hirehere.ie/cat-sonde




    To get to the exit pipe from the tank you might have to go digging. If the tank's full be hard to get rods into the outlet.

    DIg just down stream of the tank and Dig about the middle of the tank. Probably looking to find a 4inch wavin pipe. You'll have to cut the top off it. Unfortunately it's going to be full of effluent.


    The truth is, all of the above is probably a waste of tme. It's Unfortunately far more likely that you've a flooded percolation field. There is a baffle in the tank so there should only be effluent getting out the far end. And this rarely blocks.


    2 ways to see if percolation field is waterlogged. 1. Go dig a hole in the middle of it. 2. Get your tank pumped. See if a load of water comes back to meet you from the outlet.


    A flooded field is painful and may require serious works to overcome and should involve an experienced professional to assesss and design. Possibly installing a raised bed?


    Hopefully you're builder is right, but basically he's giving you the best case scenario.



  • #3
    JaCrispy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 635 ✭✭✭JaCrispy


    Many thanks for your comprehensive reply. Much appreciated.

    I plan on performing the following actions first. Dig down to find the exit pipe right beside the septic tank. Cut an access hole in the top of it allowing me to rod it both ways. Hopefully clearing the blockage. Then I'd cut a short length of spare 4" wavin pipe I have in 1/2 and place on top of that hole to cover it over and then refill it in the clay?

    As part of this I should be able to rod back towards inspection point until I the inspection point. Then I could measure how far it was away and could dig down (would be useful to know exact location .... going forward).



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