Breaking up an unused cess pit

rustybucket

I'm looking for some advice.

In our garden is an unused cess pit (not used for about 40 years when main drainage was made available).

The pit is of concrete design which is ground level so has been ugly to look at.

The other half sorted a local handy man to break the top part of the pit open last week. He removed the top layer and took it away. Now we have a cess pit which is full of old rubble and old rubbish (put there I guess by the person who owned the property before us).

Also in the pit is water, about 6 inches below the rubble. The pit is now about 10 inches below the level of the grass around it.

My question is this.......

Do you think we need to clear the pit of the rubble and break the base of the pit to allow drainage? The pit is about 4 foot deep x 10 foot long and 6 foot wide.

Do you think if we place sand into the pit and then add top soil we will not have drainage problems? I think the OH is worried that the area above the pit which will be grassed will become waterlogged. I think the ground around the pit will help soak up the water.

If you think we need to break the base, are there long attachments (4 foot plus) that can be fitted to breakers?

I'm really stuck at the best way of dealing with this.

If you can give any advice I'd appreciate it.

ukjoel

Pit is 4 ft deep and from what your saying it has water from the bottom all the way up to 16 inches below the top.

That seems like quite a lot of water so would probably suggest some drainage holes at the bottom.

Mini digger hire for half a day is probably easiest option. Not the cheapest but it will make plenty of holes and otherwise you will have lots of rubble to shift in wet and quite nasty surroundings.

Kiran

A definite yes to making holes for drainage, then your best bet it to fill the hole with clean stone 40mm would do the trick. Fill it to 150mm below finished level if your turfing the area, 300mm if you are planting it. At the top of stone, lay some teram (geo textile fabric) and on top of that put top soil in and finish accordingly. You'll probably find you'll have the best grass/plants in this area because of the drainage.

rustybucket

Thanks for the suggestions, will look into hiring a mini digger

ormus

if money is tight then just use a long steel spike and a sledgehammer to smash some holes thro the bottom.
one in each corner will probably be enough. the more the better though.