sepic tank

bobmacuk

I honestly feel that a 2000 litre tank is a little on the small size for two properties with 10 people between them. A tank that size would do a small house with 2 maybe 3 people. I would of thought I system would have been the best option for two properties. Just think of how much water is used in the two households and compere it with the actual size of your tank daily. I use nearly 300 litres a day and thats 2 adults and a teenage girl so double that and maybe a bit more and your tank will find it hard to cope with that volume I would say.

david29dpo

thanks all. the field where the soak-away is was bought by the farmhouse next-door about 4 years ago from the developer. i think the farmhouse did not use a solicitor when they bought it because they did not know most of the field has a soak-away under it!. however, they now have horses on the field. reading some articles on soakaways on the internet, on found that cars, livestock etc should not be allowed on a field with a soak-away under it. i can only think this is because it may compact the soil and make the soak-away less efficient. could this be our problem?

paul_h

Horses are bad for compacting soil, I can testify to that. :undecided

However, I would have to agree with bobmacuk that a 2000 litre tank is small for your application, the general rule of thumb for standard tanks is 2000 litres plus 180 litres per person. Even allowing for desludging twice a year, your tank seems very small.

If the tank becomes sludged up, there's simply nowhere for the waste to go and the soakaway will eventually be compromised by solids in the run off water. If desludging has been neglected in the past the soakaway may be part blocked.

If you are sure that capacity is not the problem, I still reckon that your best course of action would be get a specialist to dig a test pit or core sample to see exactly what is going on around your leaching field. Percolation tests will show if there any land drainage issues.

david29dpo

we dont know how big the tank is. there are 4, 3 bed houses that use the tank so i would have thought the builder would have done his sums. the builder used to live in one of the houses so i guess he would have not have put in to small a tank. he also did the soakaway. going back to the horses on the field, we are all getting a pit concerned about this because its only since the horses appeared we have had problems with the soakaway. we dont want to upset the farmhouse, but could this be the cause the soakaway not to work as it should? if so i will need some sort of proof.

bridiej

bobmacuk wrote:

I honestly feel that a 2000 litre tank is a little on the small size for two properties with 10 people between them. A tank that size would do a small house with 2 maybe 3 people. I would of thought I system would have been the best option for two properties. Just think of how much water is used in the two households and compere it with the actual size of your tank daily. I use nearly 300 litres a day and thats 2 adults and a teenage girl so double that and maybe a bit more and your tank will find it hard to cope with that volume I would say.

I agree, I think ours was this size for a two bed house, there was just the two of us and we had it emptied twice a year.....

paul_h

david29dpo wrote:

going back to the horses on the field, we are all getting a pit concerned about this because its only since the horses appeared we have had problems with the soakaway. we dont want to upset the farmhouse, but could this be the cause the soakaway not to work as it should? if so i will need some sort of proof.

I would be surprised if the soakaway problems would appear so quickly from compaction of the soil, this should take a few years to even begin to cause problems. Animals can cause surface compaction, but the underlying leaching field and subsoil should be fine, providing the pipework has been laid correctly. The only thing you can really do is dig a trench down below the level of the pipework and perform percolation tests.

Even then, it may or may not show up a problem, and it will still be difficult to prove blame. I have to say that it would be more likely to show that the drainage pipes have been laid incorrectly, too shallow, or in unsuitable bedding. Pea shingle is often used, and it is too small.

Incidentally, the horse owners don't flood the area when filling a water trough, do they? I've often seen troughs overflowing whilst people get on with other chores...

david29dpo

thanks all. i mistakenly said its a 2000 liter tank, we dont know what size it is. i think paul- h has hit the nail on the head hear, it is very likely it was laid incorrectly, the so called builder who did it also restored the barn he lived in. he has now moved and the new people have uncovered so many problems its amazing! luckily he did not restore the other three! anyway, we have access to a little digger so we will dig a hole and try and get to the bottom of this, so to speak. i think the pipes are about 3 feet deep in the field after looking down the last manhole. i have just found out this builder restored another barn not to far away and he definitely bodged the soak-away there-!!

david29dpo

ps, the farm house have no water on the field.

paul_h

It really is the only way you'll find out what's going on.

Best of luck, and watch out for the pipes with the minidigger! :whistle:

bobmacuk

ask the sludge gulper how big it is when he empties it

he can tell he might not want to

bob