My design on this was a little out of the ordinary. There was a decent slope on the property, and the homeowner wanted the tank to be installed up-slope from his home. The home has a full 9′ walkout basement. I normally don’t like to do this, but, hey, there is always a solution. This meant that the hole had to be around 16′ deep. BIG hole. I chose a 2000 gal AWS tank for this design. The rinktop tank with rounded corners is a excellent design for deep burial like this.
I was onsite to supervise most of the install. The hole was dug and prepared in the morning, and my good friend Dion from Alberta Wilbert showed up on-time in the afternoon with the tank and dropped it into the hole. Everything went very smoothly.
Special care was taken to support the sewer main coming in from the home. After installing the manhole extensions and all connections, it was backfilled.
This system is what I consider to be a “hybrid” system. I designed for a pump in the 2nd
chamber of the septic tank to pump the effluent up to distribution boxes, which then distribute the effluent equally to 12 weeping lateral lines, each 65′ long, via gravity. 4″ drain line in washed gravel was in each weeping lateral line/trench.
Monitoring ports, as per regulations, are installed in each lateral line in order to be able to monitor the activity in each trench. These will be cut off and finished to grade.
I enjoy the opportunity to accompany my installers on projects whenever possible. I work with several different installers, and each one has his own tricks of the trade. It’s great to learn from them, and I respect and listen to their feedback. This is invaluable for me, as a designer, to continue to grow and progress with my design work by finding areas of strength as well as new ideas to be incorporated into future projects. After all, if my installers don’t find my designs to be accurate, easy to understand, yet unique whenever possible, I don’t believe that I am doing my job properly.
