Anyone know depths for septic tank feed line in Hudson County? My freind called because he "found" ABS pipe less then 12 inches below grade today, it was about 16" away from corrugated pipe all coming off the high corner of the house. He had rented a small machine to run a line out for a Hot Tub. He is afraid it is his septic line, I am thinking it is probably a poor curtain drain install and the corrugated pipes are from the gutters, he can see that connection above grade. They all run out to a common point about 15ft off the house and are set in clean stone. The corrugated pipe was clogged with leaves but solid was clean. He says it is a 3" ABS pipe. I told him to smell the broken piece and he said it did not smell bad. I also told him that you would never have guter and curtain drains running out to the same point as a septic. I thought septics had to be deeper, but he needs some reasurance. I just remebered that I should have just told him to go flush a toilet and see if water came out. Dark now though to late for that.
I doubt its for septic, especially if it has leaves in it and doesnt smell. Probably the gutter drains like you said. He could always shoot a garden hose on the roof to make sure. Around here, most septic feeds are 4'' diameter if that helps.
It is not uncommon for a septic line to be shallow as the engineers design the system for the lot it is on and since it must meet the code for pitch per foot depending on the pipe size it exits the dwelling at the elevation it has to to meet the requirements. He should not be digging without knowing where everything is and it is not rocket science to figure it all out before hand.The corrugated pipe is very likely the downspout drain running into a drywell. If it is the sewer pipe it will be 4" and either white or green in color,I have seen what appeared to be blue but I am sure it was just faded green that had seen too much sunlight.If it is 3" then I don't know what it is,at least I have never seen a 3" sewer line.If it were a forced main it could be 2" beyond the pump chamber. There may be a plot plan or "as built" for the house that will show most stuff but don't expect to see lawn sprinkler lines etc. because usually nobody maps those and they are not difficult to repair anyway. I have installed many systems with 12" of cover or less,sometimes it is difficult to find cover for them when you final grade around the house for topsoil.Ron G
Here septic lines are required to be either 4" cast or 4" schedule 35 PVC, not ADS. ADS is not approved for sub grade use. What you have found is most likely a homeowner installed dry well. I've seen septic feed lines that are actually exposed due to the pitch requirements Ron mentions, these requirements supersede any depth requirement.
That is what I figured. Keep in mind this is just a homeowner doing a weekend project. If it had been me doing the work, I would have gone to town haul first. He "thought" he knew where stuff was.
Out here we try to run sewer/septic deep, just helps out in the long run, but I was trenching on a landscape job last year with our skid steer trencher running irrigation lines for a lawn and hit a septic line about 14" down. Pissed me off, the homeowner said it was at least 30" down. Right. The guy was an engineer so even if someone *thinks* they know where something is, they probably don't. If it's black ABS pipe I doubt it's septic, like Steve said that stuff isn't rated for that.
Realy don't mater what it was fix it. Contractor put a water line in my house before I got it. He cut a 3" plastic line and knew it wasn't the sewer so he just buryed it. Turned out to be the floor drain from my garage. I always woundered why it drained slow. turned out to be draining off into the ground. Ha dto dig up the front lawn to fix it. Dwan
Well I drove out there yesterday. We continued digging out till we found a drywell of sorts. Definately a previous homeowenr job. We reran the pipe with PVC and sank a plastic drywell in. The corrugated pipe were clogged and collasped so that got replaced as well.
Did you use schedule 35 4"? If so, what are the prices on that stuff these days? I hear it's been astronomical with all the refineries out of commission. Glad we haven't had to buy any pipe in a long while due to a slow in the season. Otherwise we'd be bending over I'm sure... :bouncegri
I had enough (about 12ft used) on hand to make the repairs. I did just buy some 8" to replace on my leaf vac line. A 20ft length was $48 from my supplier.
:eek2 :eek2 :eek2