Anybody NOT have a septic system?

When my f-i-l built this place in the 50's in was just a weekend getaway, so they only put in an outhouse. When we moved in back in '92 we just left it in its primitive state. For 14 years we lived with just an outhouse (and lived to tell about it, LOL). A few years ago we put in a septic b/c we thought we'd be building a new house and a septic was required zoning laws for a new structure. Our county requires having it checked every 3 years to see if it needs to be pumped. When ours was checked recently it showed up fine. That's the only maintenance.

As for our outhouse. We still use it to some degree. It's just a hole in the seat going to ground level and we dig it out maybe 3 times a year and bury the contents in various locations. When my kids were all little and I didn't want to drag them to the outhouse in the middle of winter here in WI I had a 5 gallon pail in the house. It sat inside a wooden box that had a toilet seat attached to it. I dumped it a few times a day in the ditch at the end of the driveway (we live in the middle of nowhere). I also have a chamber pot we tinkle in. My great grandmother would LOL if she knew I was using her old pot.

The only tragedy that happened with the pail in the house was when our son said he'd dump it outside. The outside door was hard to get open. He pushed it while holding the pail. The door opened quickly, the boy fell out the door, the pail fell on the ground. We sent him to the shower pronto and hosed down the driveway.

Im looking at putting in an outhouse at our new place. Great info and links in this thread.

WARNING: CHECK YOUR LOCAL REGULATIONS AND CODES

We have an outhouse and indoor plumbing which goes to distant underground pit. I probably have to include something about a modern septic tank and drain field in our chapter, but that's no fun.

If you want to you can read Chapter 8 of our unpublished, and likely never to be published, book -- no that's no true -- at;

http://abceltd.com/pics/Web/Book/Chapter8.pdf

Go to page 8. We call it, Build a Log Cabin and Homestead, and Chapter 8 is, No Power Lines and, No Indoor Plumbing.

btw Dial up, it's 4.8 MB. On fast connection it takes 10 seconds to download.

We are way out there, if in a jurisdiction you will need at least a septic tank and type of drain field, and apparently even a septic tank with drain field may not be allowed in some areas. Those areas might have Municipal Sewer and have a By law which requires connection. Or you may even need a more specialized pressurized mound system, etc. Your local contractor is your best bet. They will know all the rules in your area.

Or, move way out there.

Good luck,
Alex

__________________
Thou art That

Oh wow Alex! Very nice - thank you for the link to your book. Really good - thanks

Meanwhile,
Thank you, glad you liked it.
Alex

__________________
Thou art That

My grand parents put the ceptic system & drain field(that handles grey water also) in the late 50's when we put in an inside toilet .. I can't remember of ever having any troubles with the system. I own the place now & am very happy with indoor the setup.

The key is to make sure it is installed right. We recently added on to our house adding 2 more bathrooms. When we went to hook into the tank where the old drain is, we found out quite a few things we not done right that we now have to fix. We had ours installed less than 5 years ago & had nothing but problems since we had it in. Now we know why as the guy did not do things right.

__________________
I can't believe I deleted it!

We have a cabin on a PA state forest lease. In 1974 they made my dad install a sealed septic tank under the privy and tear down the old one.

Made us move the privy out front and run the sink drain into it.

We are real careful what goes down the sink drain [no running water in the camp] and we keep the privy locked to control who is filling it. only have had to pump it twice now. I'm sure they would like us to do it more frequently but the can't check it when they inspect the place since it is locked...

I lived out here without a septic tank for the first year. We p**ped in a homemade commode with a 5 gal bucket under it and I burned everything on a weekly basis staying upwind at all times. I learned alot while in the Marines. LOL.

__________________
We have now officially entered the twilight zone.

We do things a little different out in the country.

My father had a new well drilled uphill from the house(200ft away upstream), and converted the old hand dug well into a septic tank with an overflow going toward downhill. No drain field.

It's nice to live on a side of a hill, IMO.

This is a great example of knowing what the local requirements are. In Wisconsin, and Iowa county in particular, if you have water plumbed into the building, you have to have septic. You can not live on a piece of property without at least an outhouse. If you want an outhouse, they inspect to see if it can be a open pit, or needs a storage tank. Almost 100% need storage tanks in this county. Minimum of 300 gallons in size.

Many of the problems with septic systems can be chalked up to abuse or bad installations. As long as you don't pour grease, excessive solids, and non-digestible items down the drain, they work well. Its when people install kitchen sink disposal units, and throw everything down them that things go bad quickly. The less non-degradable materials you try to flush, the longer between the pumpings, and the happier your system will be.

Michael

ONE BIT OF ADVICE:

We put the bathrooms on a septic system but the kitchen sink and washing machine are run out in a 3" pipe that empties in a pasture fencerow. This way we do not have to watch out for what detergent we use to wash clothes neither do we have to worry if we put grease or other food debris in the kitchen. It all ends up in a field and doesn't hurt the grass whatsoever. Both are big no-nos with septic systems but we can put down whatever we want in the kitchen and also don't have to worry about detergents or bleach in the washing machine. Also the volume of water that goes out from a washer and from kitchen use is not good for a septic system. Most septic failures aren't due to too much solids but rather too much water flowing through the tank and forcing those solids out into the lines before they've broken down enough. This then clogs the pores in the piping and you have to put in a new drainfield. Running the kitchen and washer on it's own alleviates this problem of too much water volume.

Our builder did this with our home too, and probably with his new home next door though it's not to code. Apparently (neighborhood rumor mill) he reported us to the county after someone reported HIM to the county but I never heard anythign about it. I was unable to find the discharge for our grey water last time I looked- plan to hunt again sometime this winter when the brambles over it die back but I know it isn't dumping in our crawlspace or lawn. (Other folks if you do this consider not fencing the discharge area outside of your lawn- though I am glad the dogs can't dig at it it'd be nice if the area weren't in the wilderness of brambles over the fence).

__________________
US Army veteran, military retiree spouse, and military; civilian; British NHS; and VA doctor.

I'm ready for the rest of the book ... I held onto every single word.

__________________
I LOVE DONUT BALLS

i dont like to think tooo much before i speak ... heehee ... i like to be just as surprised as you are.

No, not really. Solids moving into the drainfield will rarely clog the 3/8" to 1/2" holes in the distribution pipe. The solids will clog the pores in the soil (which are measured in microns).

__________________
This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....