Member
Likely will require pumping more often which is an expense based on volume. The whole purpose of a drain field is to get rid of the liquid so you are only pumping the solids. There are way more liquids than solids. Around here it costs around $500 to $700 to pump the tank. It would not take too many extra pumpings to end up costing more than the installation of a drain field.
Bracken's Pond Woodworks[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Moderator
David, in many areas of the country, "traditional drain fields" are no longer permitted as the perk got a lot stricter. So that means sand mounds or in-ground versions of the same...which run in the neighborhood of $25-45K at this point for an average home. For a "cabin in the woods", the tank may very well be more practical!
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Contributor
That's exactly what happened at some of the Delaware Bay towns. No more drain fields, holding tanks only. Also no more repairs to drain fields, systems with problems must be replaced with holding tanks. In order to sell a house old systems must be replaced by holding tanks. No choice to it. No sand mounds.Originally Posted by Jim Becker
Mostly summer homes there.
Member
I expect most municipal and state regulations for residential on-site waste systems are for continuous or extended occupancy dwellings. It seems to me that a small leach field or short drain field and small septic tank would be fine for what I understand your needs are as long as the septic tank had enough capacity to hold a few times the discharge from an expected stay. During the 2 weeks or longer between stays, a slow perk leach field would probably drain the tank and you would save the expense of pumping and hauling liquid that liquid.
I used a couple 5 gallon plastic buckets taped together open end to open end for a septic tank and 12 feet of drain trench for my cabin and it has worked for 25 years with just one rehab to clean the bucket. The only thing it drains is the kitchen sink. I doubt it has been occupied for more than a week at a time. It is remote with no road access but is used winter and summer, mostly weekends but longer stays during hunting season.
You or a contractor can probably figure out a practical and cost effective way to deal with what you want. If you are talking about a cabin that is located in a subdivision of recreational use cabins then maybe you want something a little more in line with what permitting authorities can come up with. If it is a remote cabin then maybe you or a contractor can come up with what would be appropriate.
Moderator
Bob, about the most heavily regulated thing in zoning/planning these days is septic/sewer, even for an occasional use situation like a cabin. The fines and cost of remediation for anyone getting "Creative" these days are astronomical! What would easily fly under the radar years ago no longer is workable.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Member
Yup. Although the city keeps saying city sewers are coming, and we see them getting rolled out throughout the city, we haven't gotten them yet. We get our septic pumped every 3 years and it works just fine. Gotta get it done this summer. Hopefully we'll get city sewer sooner rather than later, but septic works just fine.That could be pretty limiting on where you could live if you had to move! There's no public sewer (or water) around here so on-site is the only option. Which reminds me...I need to schedule a maintenance pump-out.
Member
I just had a new system installed last year. They do not allow gravity fed drain fields but require a pump system with alarm. Including design I spent ~$15K. Wouldn't take a very long time to get to that point with pumpouts at $700 a shot. Liquids fill up quite fast. Incidentally my location is regulated by shoreline management laws which are quite strict.
Bracken's Pond Woodworks[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Moderator
That's a heck of a good price for that system, David. Around here, you're looking at double that for a similar system. In fact, my system is that type; 1500 gallon tank + 500 gallon pump tank + pump + alarm + pressurized field that we fortunately were able to install below grade on the hill behind our home on our particular property. When first installed (after we closed on the house and funded by the previous owner) it was $25K in 2001. The house was 3 br and 1.5 baths at that point. When we added our addition in 2008, the pressurized field had to be re-done and increased in size...for another $25K. Fortunately, the tanks and pump were already sized properly for 5 bedrooms/3.5 baths or it would have cost even more!
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Contributor
Makes you love to live in rural America where you can still install a gravity conventional system (provided you can perk) for about $4500. I relocated from an area that had mandatory septic inspections on the sale of any property. The average remediation for a failed inspection was about $30k just to excavate the leach field, load it into a sealed/lined container dump, haul it to an approved disposal site, and install a new leach. It made us very happy that my exwife and I were the odd birds of the world and she made all of our soap, shampoo, laundry detergent... we were a heavily conserving household. When the company came out for the Title 5 inspection to save cost they let us dig out the septic lid and two locations at the end of each leach line in the field. When the guy came to inspect he looked at us like we were cheaters and proceeded to dig out another couple feet of the leach himself because he said a system that age the gravel is usually slick and black like grease has been poured over the gravel but ours was clean and looked like we had shoveled clean gravel in to hoo-doo the test. After asking a bunch of questions he went on about the lack of commercial soaps and detergents and their associated waxes and synthetics is why the system was so clean and healthy
We were a rare home in the neighborhood to not have to remediate.
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