Most people that have a TLB that I know do septic fields or any type of onsite waste disposal. I know different parts of the country or world do different things but I'm curious to what prices some are getting on a complete field. Our stand system has a 1000 gallon tank with riser , and 270' of 4' wide trench usually 16" to 24" deep. Going price seems to be 3600$ which to me is still to cheap. There is not a lot of this type work around either. To furnish this type job costs about 2000$ plus or minus a 100$ or so. When my dad was still living his method was double the cost of materials and there is your price. I may have just lost a job about an hour ago, contractor called and told me he would pay 3400$ and I held my ground. I need the work , but really what is the cut off point. I have been doing fields for 24 years. We were getting 2800$ in the early 90s , by going on the way others things have inflated , these things should be going for 6 grand.
up here a septic system is 12000.00-18000.00 depending on how much fill & media sand you need. trevor b
If you told someone down here that (12 to 18 gs) they would stroke out completely. I did a 4 bedroom last year for 4500$ and they about died. Then spent 7 on counter tops. Makes sense. We have a lot of " I'll do it 150$ cheaper than him" . I don't play that crap.
Wow that is cheap. You can't even cover overhead at those prices. I get more for a standard three bedroom than you did the four bedroom for. We do mostly three foot chambers here and price depends on the lot. I need to go read the rules about putting prices on here. I will send you pm.
I get $6500 to 8500 for a septic job like you describe, and I feel this is on the low side of what it should be. I get $275 to pump out a septic tank if the we do not have to dig it up for access and I haul the waste to my own lagoon that I built on my farm.
Ya ive seen it a 110 times .The lowballers come in do the job for free and leave never to be heard of when the system has failed . Some contractors write a price on a peice of paper and thats their quote . Not good enough . When we do a job all the materials are listed and a full description of the job . Then your customer can compaire with lowballers , and if they still get the job they wont be around long.
That system would be $6,000-$8,000 here in KS depending on the quality of workmanship. I did a alternative system that cost $16K, that was the most expensive one I've ever done.
I used to put in a lot of septic fields for a similar 3 - 4 grand price but the regulators changed the rules and I have not done one for 10 years. Now they have to be fully "engineered" and the contractor either is required to have a "septic installation ticket/course" or have an engineer oversee the job. Here the contractor or engineer is responsible for inspection of any system they install for many years thereafter. Not sure how long that would be as I have no ticket. Prices start around $13000.00 and go a heck of a lot higher and there are no cheap contractors who can legally do the job. We used to have a government inspector check out our jobs prior to covering but now the contractor is liable for the whole system and there is no gov't inspection. And that's the straight poop folks!
My dad was a housing contractor and he had a septic put in by his septic guy. The State (ohio) directed exactly what type of septic was to go in and where. After it was done, it turns out, it was built on a spring and the field was wet all the time. The buyer of the home complained and took my dad to court and lost a few times but then finally won after a few appeals. I forget how it was fixed since legally it had to be installed like Ohio (summit county I think) said. I just remember it was a bad time for my dad. This was Early 80's
kb9nvh , that's the way it is here , the local health department does a site evaluation which "dictates" what type and size system goes in. The home owner usually pays for this , then the contractor buys a permit to install the system. In my county each part is 300$ so a total of 600$ in fees and evalutation just to install the system. We had an experimental system fail and that got real nasty. I was the first here to do drip irragation , had a septic tank then to an aerobic unit to a pump tank then to the drip field. These worked ok , they were not easily maintained by the home owner and are no longer installed. The treatment worked great , the water was basically oderless and clear leading you to believe you could dicharge on the ground . The division of water won't allow this , onsite waste disposal is that onsite. We do have good inspectors here, they work well with homeowners and installers to get something agreed on common ground. Ijust wish there was more profit involved.
I am getting ready to do a perk test in May in Alleghany County NC. I have the paperwork ready to go along with a site plan showing the foot print of the house, driveway, spring, creek and repair drain field. It is a $400 fee and I have to dig 4 holes in the corners of the drain field. These are 4 feet deep and 2 feet wide. Unlike here in FL, I can not put in the system myself but have to hire a licensed installer. I have done two in FL on owner/builder homes I built and am thinking about trying to get a license in NC. My problem is, I don't trust someone else doing the job. The first one I did is still working at 30 years and the second at 10 years. I was hoping for around 3-4 grand but we will see when I get there.
Syndy , from what I've read and seen Florida is a cake walk compared to where I'm at. We have so much clay to deal with , it is a rare thing to put in a standard system. Last spring I did a "fill n wait" hauled 110 loads of topsoil from a river bottom and put in an area 4000 sq feet , 42" deep. Then I had to put in a curtain drain above the field 42" deep filled to grade and then had to pipe all the gutters in that area to the drain to keep the future field as dry as possible. This spring I'll go back and connect to the existing tank and install 270' x 4' wide , 24" deep laterals with 12" of #467 stone . Needless to say this thing got a little pricey. I've heard FL , you have to slow the water from getting into the water table. I know I golfed in Destin last fall and the majority of their sewage is treated then sprayed on the golf course and used to water medians. I don't know about NC. I would think you could take a test or attend a class and get some type certification. I'd look into it. I'm also sure there are locals that are very qualified to do the installation.
As I look around my area and it is a small area there are more septic system installers than there are lawyers. That worries me a lot but it might also show that it is easy to get a license. Within about a 2 mile radius of my farm there must be 4 guys doing this work. A lot of them own Christmas Tree farms and have equipment and may be slow in the summer months. In FL, if you pull permits as an owner/builder you can do everything except sign off on the drawings, an architect or professional engineer has to do that. It should be that way in NC also as it is in most states. I haven't found a professional engineer to sign off on my NC home drawings yet but I will include the septic system just in case I can put it in once he signs it. I have already talked to the inspector up there, there is just one. He knows my property and the surrounding area and claims that I should not have a problem with a conventional system. However, digging in that clay is a world of difference than playing in my FL sand box. See the drain field that is in my house now. Given some time it could have been done by hand instead of using a Bobcat.
That looks like a nice neighborhood. Is that an equal flow system or does it have a tip tray? Is there a filter fabric underneath the chambers? We have to have 8' between each line. We do a lot of lagoon systems here. With the clay we have building a small pond makes sense sometimes. People up here hate them , but they are pretty much bullet proof. What kind of pretreatment do you have prior to this field?
The septic system is a very simple system. It consist of a two chamber 1200 gal concrete tank and a distribution box feeding to an "Envirochamber" drain field. The bottoms are open no liners or stone under. This is how most systems are being done around here but I doubt if it could be done in NC. I plan to pick the brain of the perk test inspector as to what he thinks the best systems are for my area, in fact he will call out a system after the test. We are considered in what is called "the high country". The frost depth is considerably different than what the state code calls out. My house design is built on a monolithic slab like most homes in FL are however I have designed the footings to a 30" depth even for the garage and porches. The septic will have to be also deeper and this is where the locals are the ones to listen to. All my drain and supply pipes have to be below 30". For those of you who build up north this might be common practice but for us Floridiots we have to learn the northern ways.
dickjr, Up here in Michigan i have installed a few Septic Systems and i use my Backhoe and Bobcat to install them, Some of the other installer use a mini-excavator and Skid Steer system for installing. We have to strip the topsoil, rip the subgrade sometime dig deep trenchs 2' w x 4'd across the field and bring in up to 30 -36" Septic Sand and them install the pipe in 2' x 1' trenches in the sand with 10A stone. Thats for new construction fields. Replacement fields are something else they require that the old field be haul to a landfill. The Biggest field i have done was 80' x 120' x 3' of septic sand and about 900' of pipe when it was all said and done with a green tag it cost 24K but they are more in the 12 - 14K range for a standard job.
That would be one whopper of a price at 12-14 g's. I have seen so many plain Jane systems all around my property in NC that I am hoping for what the inspector said comes true and I should have no problems. I have plenty of land so moving the house and system to a better spot would be no problem but I would lose my best view. It seems the concrete tanks in NC are different than what I have in FL. Up there the openings are round and all or most stick up out of the ground. Mine in FL is flat on top with square clean-outs and a plastic filter at the outlet end. Mine is covered completely with dirt/sand. See the difference in the attached photos.
Why are the chambers wrapped in plastic ? Sand ?
kevin37b, I think thats Geo-Fabric ???
Correct, it keeps the sand out.