Septic System! Off Grid Waste Water!

Today I am going to tell you about my septic system and the steps involved in having it designed, approved and installed! Also the mistakes I made, the damage caused and the repairs that were necessary!

Septic systems are one of the services you must get council approval for. Your septic system must also meet EPA and Department of Environment and Water guidelines.  When having a septic system designed there are a few things that will be taken into consideration including the type and size of land you are on, your location and zoning, your proximity to waterways and the rest of your surrounding environment.  

My property is not situated near mains sewerage connection so septic was my only choice which was something I was completely happy with…being off grid for as many services and utilities as possible is fantastic!  I have a septic soakage system which means I have a tank where the wastewater flows into, from there the sludge and fats are separated from the liquid which flows into the underground soakage trenches.

There are companies out there that specialise in installing septic systems…they do the job for you right from assessing your land, to designing your system, obtaining approvals and inspections, installing your system, guaranteeing your system and maintaining your system! Please do yourself a huge favour and go with one of these companies! 

Unfortunately I did not use one of these companies! Instead I had an Engineer do the property assessment and take care of the design and plans and I submitted everything to council myself for approvals. The engineering and approvals were fine so I was confident that then bringing in local tradies to install the system would work seamlessly. I was wrong! 

This situation is going to be so incredibly hard to write about without sounding like I am completely “bashing” the tradies, but it is the reality of it and it needs to be said as I want my readers are aware that these problems do exist and hopefully it can help someone avoid a similar situation!

I know there are some wonderful tradies out there but there are also tradies that will either take on a job they are not equipped to do or quite simply they just don’t care if they get it right or not! In my case I had a situation where both the Plumber and Earthmover were working together with an attitude that they had been doing this for so long that no Engineer and their plans could possibly know better than they did! They were supplied with approved plans but barely gave attention to them so after almost a days work when I arrived on site, I had three large holes for the septic tank and two trenches for the pipework dug with the tradesmen standing around scratching their heads wondering which one they should use! After giving them direction on where to put the tank and pipes I thought the problem was solved and I let them carry on with their job, council visited the site and approved the location was correct so I assumed all was well. But after the job was complete the tank tipped over in the ground! My septic was completely blocked up and un usable! At this point neither trade wanted to take responsibility for any issues, both tradies blamed the other and neither would even come back out to the job site to inspect or assess the problem.

I had to have an Engineer out to look at it and then dig the site up to find that there were no screenings (crushed rock) as per the Engineers plans required around the tank which is likely why the tank tipped over and the wrong type of pipe joiners (non flexible) were used so when the tank moved the pipes cracked causing the block. The problem of course was fixed and the septic system has been working fine ever since!

These issues do happen so be aware! But don’t be frightened or put off by having a Septic System installed. Again my advice would be to use a company that specialises in Septic System installation, these guys know what to do from beginning to end and they will guarantee their work so if there are any problems it will be fixed without you having the burden of more costs! If I could do it over I would most definitely use a specialist company!

I have learnt a lot from this and I hope although it sounds very doom and gloom the information is helpful for anyone looking to install their septic system!

If you have any questions you’d like to ask me please send me an email via the “Contact Me” page on this blog, I’m happy to answer and help as best I can.

Thanks for reading! 

Jen 🏡