Quick question about septic design. I’m planning on building a seperate home office structure about 150′ from a new residence (it’s on 10 acres.) I’m assuming that I cannot locate a septic tank close enough to either structure so that they can share the tank, so they will probably each need their own tank. The house will have 4 bedrooms and the office will have just one powder room with a utility sink.
The main question is whether the two septic tanks can share a single drainage field. Anyone know about this?
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To steal a quote (about politics) from Tip O'Neil: All septic regs are local.
Your county health department or a state department will have regs on the volume of septic tank required for a given number of bedrooms. A separate building might always require its own tank or might able to added to a sufficiently large tank serving another building - again, a local reg.
As would the two tanks to one leach field question. Certainly the leach field would have to be sized larger to serve two tanks if allowed at all.
Also, who is overseeing the installation? Some states allowed "certified installers" or some such to sign off on simple installations following some conservative rules of thumb after they've seen a video and taken a test. In some areas, only registered engineers could sign off on septic and leach fields. Again, find out locally.
If both engineers and non-engineers are allowed to approve installations, the engineers are given more latittude. For an unusual case (like a shared leach field), I'd expect you would have to use an engineer to design and oversee the work.
But why don't you think the buildings could share a tank? 150 feet multiplied by 1/4" drop per foot is about 3 feet. So if it leaves the office at a 2-foot depth and arrives at the septic at a 5-foot depth, you're set. If allowed by local regs, that will probably be your cheapest option. By a lot. Potentially you save the cost of a second tank and/or a second leach field. And may be able to not use an engineer.
But why don't you think the buildings could share a tank? 150 feet multiplied by 1/4" drop per foot is about 3 feet. So if it leaves the office at a 2-foot depth and arrives at the septic at a 5-foot depth, you're set. If allowed by local regs, that will probably be your cheapest option. By a lot. Potentially you save the cost of a second tank and/or a second leach field. And may be able to not use an engineer.
Did that here for 2 houses. Cost was only 1/4 more than 1 system. I'm about 200' from the tank. Health Dept. was very agreeable.PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
No
Say what?PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
I'm hard of hearing, but I think he said no. Maybe that means that he can't share in Florida
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Thanks. I got the no. Had/have no idea what he was referring to.
Health dept. here allows, but suggests it's often not in your best interest. Considerably complicates potential dividing of the property. I understood that going in. We have stringent slope requirements that might well have created a large problem later if I hadn't combined. Gotta look at the whole picture. PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
I'm cuurently having a system designed in NH that uses one leach field for two tanks. My property has no suitable area for a field so it is going on another property across the street and we are replacing the old field with one that is sized for the two houses. Easement will have to be granted but the owner of the property is agreeable to this. You will have to check with you local septic engineering/design firm to see if this is a possibilty in your area.Tom
Douglasville, GA
It depends on your state or local regs, but Maine has sdome of the strictest I know of, and we can share fields here.
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
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I would believe that it all depends on the percolation rate of your soil. That generally is the key design requirement.
If your soil can percolate alot, then having two tanks should not be a problem.