Surveying land ???

[mattybculp]

Hello all, I thought I would ask the opinion of the members here because I value your insight. I have recently purchased a new to me home back in January 2014. So long story short is that I would like to build a deck off the back of our house, I'm not concerned with the deck infringing on our neighbours property as our property is quite large and the deck would be no where near the property line. However off of the back of our house lies our septic tank and then ( i'm assuming) in to a weeping bed. I have a rough idea of where the tank is as it was the first spot to have the snow melted in a nice rectangular shape, however we haven't had it pumped and we did spend a few hours trying to find the access to the tank with out success. So I obviously want to avoid the tank with pouring the footings and all, and my question is this do I need to pay a survey company to come and tell me where it is ? I imagine that would be quite expensive, how much ? Is there a place that rents an x-ray machine? or would my local septic guy be sufficient at finding out where it is.? Thanks guys/gals I appreciate any of your feed back. hopefully this isn't too stupid of a question.

[Big Cliff]

Well, it is really going to depend on how old your house/septic system is for starters. When we wanted to build our deck we had to get a building permit and we had to get a letter from the Health Dept. stating that in their opinion our deck wouldn't interfear with our field bed. According to the health inspector the field bed shouldn't be closer than 17' of the main structure (if it was built to code and a lot of the older ones weren't) and since our deck posts/footings were goung to be 10' from the main structure we were good to go! I doubt that a survey would show your field bed, X-ray (if it would work) would be very expensive. I would talk to your local Health Dept. and your Building Dept. before you go spending a lot of money.

 

Oh and if I were you, as a priority I would find that tank and have it pumped! If it is that hard to find you can bet it hasn't been done in a long time, do it BEFORE you have a problem!

Edited May 13, 2014 by Big Cliff

[mattybculp]

I believe our house was built in 85. Thanks cliff.

[Freshtrax]

Call the local septic pumping company, they will know where the acces is.

[Freshtrax]

Sorry what i meant was, call around to find out who serviced you address for the previous owner, have them come pump it and they should have an idea where it is.

[yellowboat]

The local heath department will have a copy of the drawings for the septic tank and field location.

[wallyboss]

Take two long metal rods, coat hanger wires, welding rods, (I have seen it done with paper clips) and bend them so that you have a "L" shaped rod, one long side, one short side about 3:1, or 4:1 long to short. Hold the short leg in your hands right out in front of you, such that the two rods' long side are pointing forward. Slowly walk across the area that you thing the cables to be buried in. When you cross the cables, the rods will change direction so as to line up with the buried cables. The alignment will indicate the direction of the cables. That is to say if you are not crossing the cables at right angles, the rods will show the angle at which you are crossing the cables.

The theory (as I remember what I saw later) is that there is a magnetic field associated with the electrical cables which is an anomoly in the magnetic field of the earth around them, and the fields of the rods will tend to align with this anomoly. This is simplistically put, but that is the basics.

 

This also works with pipes filled wit water. I work for a Cable company and I use them to doublecheck my cable locating machine the is worth over 4,000.00.

 

Start at the house where your sewer pipe exits. keep going back and forth until the wire do not cross any more along the line that you were following and you will have probably found one edge of the septic tank. and the line show the middle of the tank the two covers are usually in line with the pipe coming in. then do it on the other side to find your outlet of the tank and you should know exactly where your tank is then measure the lenght of the tank. there is a cover in the middle of both sides of the tank?? not sure if I explained it properly?? Then for the septic bed just start at the house and walk towards the septic bed ( you probably have an idea by this time where the bed is.) The wires will cross whenever you cross one of the septic beds run. just mark it and keep on going. The most important part is not to hold the wires too tight.

 

 

Not sure why my text is all highlighted. I did copy and paste the first 2 paragraphs.

[Terry]

boy I couldn't read it with the highlighting

 

 

 

 

Take two long metal rods, coat hanger wires, welding rods, (I have seen it done with paper clips) and bend them so that you have a "L" shaped rod, one long side, one short side about 3:1, or 4:1 long to short. Hold the short leg in your hands right out in front of you, such that the two rods' long side are pointing forward. Slowly walk across the area that you thing the cables to be buried in. When you cross the cables, the rods will change direction so as to line up with the buried cables. The alignment will indicate the direction of the cables. That is to say if you are not crossing the cables at right angles, the rods will show the angle at which you are crossing the cables.

 

The theory (as I remember what I saw later) is that there is a magnetic field associated with the electrical cables which is an anomoly in the magnetic field of the earth around them, and the fields of the rods will tend to align with this anomoly. This is simplistically put, but that is the basics.

 

This also works with pipes filled wit water. I work for a Cable company and I use them to doublecheck my cable locating machine the is worth over 4,000.00.

 

Start at the house where your sewer pipe exits. keep going back and forth until the wire do not cross any more along the line that you were following and you will have probably found one edge of the septic tank. and the line show the middle of the tank the two covers are usually in line with the pipe coming in. then do it on the other side to find your outlet of the tank and you should know exactly where your tank is then measure the lenght of the tank. there is a cover in the middle of both sides of the tank?? not sure if I explained it properly?? Then for the septic bed just start at the house and walk towards the septic bed ( you probably have an idea by this time where the bed is.) The wires will cross whenever you cross one of the septic beds run. just mark it and keep on going. The most important part is not to hold the wires too tight.

[Fisherman]

Somewhere on the top of the "nice rectangle" where the snow melts early are 2 lids. They're usually in line with where the input pipe comes into the tank and where the outflow to the weeping bed is. If you can easily find the rectangle, then probe down with a barbeque spit rod or similar, 1/3 and 2/3 from the front to back. 99.9% of the time you will be right dead on. Usually there's not a lot of dirt covering them. Pretty much what Terry said. Those coat hanger things don't work for me, I must be grounded...

Edited May 13, 2014 by Fisherman

[Garnet]

With you not knowing when the tank was last pumped call the honey dew truck. It's good to know how well your system is working. I'm surprised the house inspectors didn't ask for a clean out.

 

They will ask you were your closes toilet is. From this point outside they will take metal rods and locate your tank. And tell were to dig.

 

Close observation will likely reveal a brick or stone that home owners use to relocate tank. Mine is boxed in with patio stones and a lid so there is only 4-5 inches of top soil.