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Thread: How do you locate a septic tank?

  1. #1

    How do you locate a septic tank?

    My folks live on an acerage that was built 84 years ago. They have a private well and septic system. They've been considering building a new garage/shop, and are concerned that the septic tank may be in the way, so they want to locate it.

    They hired someone to locate it, but after 2 hours, the crew was unable to determine its location (I have no idea how they attempted to do this).

    This acerage has only been owned by 2 other families, both of whom are known to my folks. They called them both up, and neither knows for sure where the tank may be, and neither has ever had the tank pumped (in 84 years of use).

    There is a leeching field of sorts on the property, because years ago when some of the land was being farmed, it appears a plow cut part of the network, and there is a small (20'x10') part of a field that is perpetually wet.

    Any ideas on how they might go about locating the tank?

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    I grew up in a country house - 1 acre lot. The location of the septic tank and all the leach pipes was obvious, based on how the grass grew.

    Seriously, there were lines of lush grass in the leach field.

    That's the only suggestion I have, sorry.
    "It's Not About You."

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    North Central PA
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    Most septic tank pumpers carry a small radio transmitter that they flush and then trace with a receiver.
    (The kids keep pulling the stake that's supposed to mark where the lid is, and then I have to sheepishly ask to have them use the transmitter when it's time to pump the tank out.)

  4. #4
    very carefully


    seriously...
    There are usually access covers/manhole type dealeo's for inspecting/pumping.

    The house I'm in has septic, first time for me. There are three covers that are painfully obvious in my yard.
    My first summer there I was going over an overgrown area with a rented mower (was it called a billy goat?) and "found" by accident a fourth cover for the sand filter. The mower actually sheared the top of the electrical box that was out there to provide power to the pump.

    If you have an area that you think is the drain field / leach field, then I would suggest the tanks are somewhere between the house and that field. I would start by looking through all the vegetative growth in that area, even possibly buried under a layer of dirt.

    harder way to go about would be to dig up the area that is wet and find the pipe... then start back digging all the pipe until you find the main infeed into that section, then keep back tracking along the pipe until you come onto a tank... a lot of work, but if you need to find it, that ought to work

    maybe i've at least given you some ideas
    fledgling weekend warrior

  5. #5
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    You could look and see where the line goes out of the house and then if you know where the field is located you should be able to get an estimate. At that point, you will need a shovel.
    I am a little surprised that they do not know where it is as it sounds like they have never had the tank pumped out. If you do not pump it out often enough, the solids from the tank can overflow into the field and cause problems. In my case, since I have clay soil which does not drain very well, I can not afford to damage the drainage field.
    The people who pump my tank charge extra if they have to search for the tank and the access point on the tank.

  6. #6
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    the other option, if you can get to the end of the pipes where they go into the house, if you are good friends with an electrician or call one, or know any of the people that youa re supposed to cal before you dig, they have a decive for finding pipes and things, they have a line that they put through the pipe or run beside it. and it has a radio tranmitter. but if you are gonna do that you might as well call a plumber.

    the other thing you could do, take a stake and a hammer, lay out a grid on the area you want to dig, if you are sure there are no pipes in the area, and you just want to make sure that the tank isnt in that spot, just hammer the stake into the ground, you will know when you hit it. i think the older tanks are concrete. of course then again, that old and it might just be a stone lined pit with a concrete cap
    14x48 custom 2hp 9gear lathe
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  7. #7
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    In the winter time it's pretty easy. It's the first place the snow melts in the middle of the yard. Not much help right now though.
    "The first thing you need to know, will likely be the last thing you learn." (Unknown)

  8. #8
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    Metal detector?

    If it's a concrete tank with re-bar a metal detector might locate the re-bar -- no idea if this would work -- just another tactic.

  9. #9
    Thanks for all the ideas so far. Their house has a full basement, and the drain to the septic tank goes through the basement floor, and while there is a slight grade outside the house, no matter where the tank may be located, there is at least 6' of dirt on top of it. This somewhat rules out all my metal detector ideas, or the shovel idea, or the stick-a-pipe-into-the-dirt-many-times idea.

    The wet part of the field is also over ~300' away from the house, so tracing that line back to the tank would be a tremendous undertaking.

    There are, of course, no obvious access hatches (and we've looked EXTENSIVELY).

    If nothing else, I'm very curious what the tank is made of. When building an addition, we uncovered 3 old cisterns made of brick.

    Bill - thanks for the transmitter idea. I hadn't heard of that, so I'll advise them to call around until they find someone with such equipment. That may be the only viable option other than going crazy with a backhoe.

  10. #10
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    if you are having such a hard time finding it, you should be fine to build. if you know it is atleast 6 ft down, dig with machines till you get to that point, if you need to go that far, after that, go like 2 feet with shovels, just incase of a pipe. a good machine opperator wont go through a septic tank
    14x48 custom 2hp 9gear lathe
    9 inch pre 1940 craftsman lathe
    36 inch 1914 Sydney bandsaw (BEAST)
    Wood in every shelf and nook and cranny,,, seriously too much wood!

  11. #11
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    Mine have always been located so that when the first oil delivery occurs the truck tire breaks through the cover. My leach fields were always at the lowest spot on the property so they stopped working in heavy rains

    A little septic humor!


    The old systems were built many different ways and often used leach tanks vs fields -- so the tops can get covered. Even the oldest system that I had used a settlement tank - that is the part that is pumped. It is normally not too far from the house. I had one tank that was hard to find because the pipes were cast iron and the radio beacon that you flush into the system did not have enough range. Sometimes leach fields were added to improve the system performance and can go off at right angles to the original system.

    If they just tried to find it with a metal rod you may have to get them back.
    Even the oldest system that I had kept to the 100' from the water source rule - so that will limit the area to look in.

    If you have a spot that is actually wet from the system, this should be looked into as it is not a healthy situation.

  12. #12
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    the guy that came out and located mine used a metal rod ground to a point and just stuck it into the ground until he hit concrete...but I live by the ocean and its all sand
    Dave

    IN GOD WE TRUST
    USN Retired

  13. #13
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    Just read your new post 300' ..........wow


    The brick cisterns certainly could have been the old leach tanks -- some of mine were brick. They would be abandoned and be rebuilt in another location

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Godley View Post
    Just read your new post 300' ..........wow


    The brick cisterns certainly could have been the old leach tanks -- some of mine were brick. They would be abandoned and be rebuilt in another location
    I think they were actually used to hold rainwater at one point. They were very close to the house. When digging, we found one had been filled-in, and contained some soveneirs (old glass medicine bottles).

    Good point about the cast iron obstructing the radio transmitter - that may also be a problem. I believe the pipe is CI, but we had also found clay pipes associated with the old cisterns.

  15. #15
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    Dan, I've lived in three different houses with septic tanks. Two of them had no obvious access covers. I hired a company that came out and flushed a radio transmitter "peanut" down the toilet and then searched for it outside. The first took about 30 minutes to locate as we had a general idea of where it was at. That tank was over six feet deep. The second took nearly an hour as we had no idea where the tank was as the line exiting the house was under the slab. Each time, once they had a general location of the peanut, they used a steel rod to find the tank. Once it hit concrete, they brought in the backhoe and dug until they found the tank (not even a scratch on the concrete from the backhoe). They then switched to shovels to finish the excavation and find the access cover.

    After having each of them pumped we put in risers with above ground access covers. No more searching.

    The last house (my current one in Massachusetts) had an access cover above ground. When my city ran the sewer line down our street we decided to convert over from septic to city sewer (bad choice). So we had our old "tank" destroyed and filled. Turned out it wasn't a tank at all, bit a pit lined with hollow core cinder blocks on edge. It was probably 15 feet deep and about 20 feet square. I was amazed but the guys doing the work said it was a pretty common configuration for where I live and the age of the house (50 years old).

    Good luck - let us know how it turns out.

    Be well,

    Doc

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