How do you find your septic tank?

[CyaNide]

I am going to build a garage next to the house, but I do not know where the septic tank is. I know where the in line clean out is, but I can't tell where it goes from there. Anybody have an idea how to find it on my own?

CN

 

[Submarine_Sailor]

Get a metal rod and shove it down in the ground in different places until you hit metal. They're normally only a couple feet down if I remember right. I remember when I was a kid my dad needed to find ours and he called the septic guy out, and that's how he found it. A metal rod with a tee handle.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Look for a slight depression in your yard.

Ask the previous owner if they know.

Use a tile probe.. . . .what sub sailor is talking about, we typed at the same time.

 

[D.J.]

Try "wichin" it with a couple pieces of coat hanger wire about 16'" in length and bent in a 9O degree angle held out in front of you walk around and see if they point to each other over the tank. Some of the old timers in your area can help you out with this project. Or contact your local health department and see if they inspected it and have a copy of the map on file. Or use the above probing method. No one had responded when I started typing, but as slow as I type two responses had already appeared by the time I posted.

 

[59 wagon man]

ask a neighbor , not sure where you live but here they are usually within a few feet of the house and around 4' x 6'. can be concrete or fiberglass tanks. you can buy a probe rod simply a piece of 1/4" rod with a t handle . not always easy though you can hit rocks or hard compacted soil and the probe rod can be a beast then . you can try to run a plumber's snake and see if you can hear the direction the snake is traveling .last resort would be a camera and locater

 

[clkimmel]

Mine shows up most when it gets dry outside. There is only a very thin layer of soil on top and it drys out very quickly and the grass dies. Looks like a bare rectangle on the ground.
If you don't see the shape, try poking around with a metal rod like the other have said, you will find it.

 

[bullfrog123]

Don't water your yard in the "general area" you think the tank may be. It will burn like a crisp in a couple weeks. That is how I found mine last yr, even tho my dad (whom built this house), wasn't for sure where it was. In 3 weeks..... bingo .... there she be.

 

[GarageEnvy]

In my county and the surrounding counties that I've worked in you can call and they will tell you the location. Sometimes it's the plans and permits department and in other counties it is environmental health. Now that the market is so slow in many cases they will fax you a diagram in less than 5 minutes. I check on about 2 a week and usually there is a hand-drawn diagram from the installer showing the dimensions from the house. I believe many plumbers have a toner they can send down the pipe and locate it exactly on the exterior. That would be pricier though for sure.

 

[green.bubbly]

Is there no pump or aerator on your systems? Mine has three pvc pipes sticking out of it and an air pump.

 

[CyaNide]

Is there no pump or aerator on your systems? Mine has three pvc pipes sticking out of it and an air pump.

No, mine is an older system. Probably from the mid eighties.

CN

 

[Zeke]

Or you can hire the plumber with the TV thingy. They know just how many feet the camera has traveled. As a side benefit, you'll know what kind of shape your soil pipe is in. Tree roots and that sort of thing.

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Use a reckoning quiver:

Take 2 lengths of #14 copper wire, strip them bend each of them at 6", hold the 6" parts in each hand. Hold them down a tad so that they point out straight. Hold them very lightly as if they were hummingbirds in your hands, walk very slowly along your property. When you hit an obstruction under ground the to ends will polarize and come together and touch, as you walk past they will move back to straight. Poke a feeler rod into the soil where the quiver tells you to.

Got any doubts? I can find lines in the ground better than most utilities. Native Magic.
Caused by the magnetic disturbance in the soils.

 

[LEVE]

The grass always grows greener over the septic tank....

 

[Nighttrain]

Call to have it pumped out. Tell them its somewhere in the yard. Let them find it. LOL. When was the last time you had it serviced?

 

[clkimmel]

The grass always grows greener over the septic tank....

The grass grows greener over the leach field, it barely grows over the tank!

 

[flatheadguy]

Mine was located by my 165 lb. St. Bernard. I had just bought the house. Let the dog out into the fenced back yard. WHen he came back in I could not help but notice that he was covered in "mud" and there was an overwhelming smell.
It wasn't mud.
The previous owner had used 1/2" plywood to cover the tank. The wood had rotted and when Charlie, the St. Bernard, walked across it, he literally fell in. Oddly enugh, he didn't seemed grossed out. Certainly not as much as I was.

 

[GarageEnvy]

Mine was located by my 165 lb. St. Bernard. I had just bought the house. Let the dog out into the fenced back yard. WHen he came back in I could not help but notice that he was covered in "mud" (?) and there was an overwhelming smell.
It wasn't mud.
The previous owner had used 1/2" plywood to cover the tank. The wood had rotted and when Charlie, the St. Bernard, walked across it, he literally fell in. Oddly enugh, he didn't saeemed grossed out. Certainly not as much as I was.

The one at our cabin was located by a Brown Bear. Definitely a brown bear. Fortunately the smelly and really pissed off bear eventually managed to free itself. For a while we thought we were going to have to figure that one out.

 

[NCCheesehead]

The building inspections departments here in NC have a copy of the original permit, proposed and final locations noted on the plot plan in the office. Often these will be rough hand drawn but they will get you pretty close. Check with the building department as they reference them for alot for issuing permits for additions.

 

[CyaNide]

I have a rough idea, but would like a definite so that I don't build over it. I have 2 acres so my dogs enjoy the whole property.

CN

 

[Northstar9126]

Look for where the snow melts first.

 

[RPH]

Run a snake down the line from the house and use a metal detector to track it. Most are within ten feet of the house, found mine by eye balling the pipe out and probing with a rod. Dug a few rocks but found it. It was'nt where the old guy drew the map, was off a few feet. Like ten!

 

[holdover]

if all else fails use a wire "snake" in the cleanout, it will stop when it gets to the tank. You can use the bent rod way to find it, which actually works very well, or you can use a cable locator. If you know someone who works for the power or phone company ask them to locate it for you

 

[finn]

Poke around with a heavy steel bar. I found mine in about 5 minutes just by probing with a 20 lb, 5 foot long prybar. Thump the ground with it. You can tell immediately by the change in sound when "thumping" the ground.

 

[George in Rancho Cordova]

My uncle ran hot water down the drain & took photos with infrared film.

 

[Hank McMauser]

just call local concrete cpompany, or lumberyars and order a large load of mud/lumber, guaranteed the truck driver will find your septic tank for you.

 

[Honda guy]

Try "wichin" it with a couple pieces of coat hanger wire about 16'" in length and bent in a 9O degree angle held out in front of you walk around and see if they point to each other over the tank. Some of the old timers in your area can help you out with this project. Or contact your local health department and see if they inspected it and have a copy of the map on file. Or use the above probing method. No one had responded when I started typing, but as slow as I type two responses had already appeared by the time I posted.

Use a reckoning quiver:

Take 2 lengths of #14 copper wire, strip them bend each of them at 6", hold the 6" parts in each hand. Hold them down a tad so that they point out straight. Hold them very lightly as if they were hummingbirds in your hands, walk very slowly along your property. When you hit an obstruction under ground the to ends will polarize and come together and touch, as you walk past they will move back to straight. Poke a feeler rod into the soil where the quiver tells you to.

Got any doubts? I can find lines in the ground better than most utilities. Native Magic.
Caused by the magnetic disturbance in the soils.

Another vote for "witching" or "dousing", whatever you want to call it. I've done it with metal rods, or a forked tree branch. It's weird though, how it can work for one person, and another person tries it and nothing happens.

 

[sam215]

Use a reckoning quiver:

Take 2 lengths of #14 copper wire, strip them bend each of them at 6", hold the 6" parts in each hand. Hold them down a tad so that they point out straight. Hold them very lightly as if they were hummingbirds in your hands, walk very slowly along your property. When you hit an obstruction under ground the to ends will polarize and come together and touch, as you walk past they will move back to straight. Poke a feeler rod into the soil where the quiver tells you to.

Got any doubts? I can find lines in the ground better than most utilities. Native Magic.
Caused by the magnetic disturbance in the soils.

I agree. As i work for the natural gas company here in australia, i am usually locoating mains everyday. I use 2 sticks of solder for welding copper pipe. Work 99% of the time. We call them "Divining Rods"

 

[nissan_crawler]

another one for the divining rods...I thought gramps was full of it, until I tried it.

My tank I ended up having a plumber flush the locator, though...for one simple reason. The jackass that owned this place before me buried EVERYTHING in the yard. I dug up about 20 big pieces off concrete before I gave up, and just called the damn plumber. 10 minutes later, I knew where to dig. Freaking tank is down over 3', though...good grief. Oh, and the lid is a good 2' across, and 6" or so thick...so you have to dig a hole over 2'x6' or so to get two guys to pull it out. I tried with the cherry picker, no way to rig it to work. What a pain. His phone went in the tank, his response? "Damn it, that one was only a week old!"

 

[walrus]

In the winter time you can see exactly where my Septic tank is. If its covered with snow there is big depression in the snow where the tank is, once the snow cover is thin the first place thats grass is my septic tank. Need to get mine pumped once the yard is a little dryer. Thankfully mine is only a foot deep. If you have a precast concrete tank, make sure your outlet baffle hasn't fallen off, I have had 2 houses and both tanks had the baffle fall to the bottom of the tank. On my present house I used a commercial repair kit, on my old house I just used a 90 degree ell.

 

[harvero]

L-rods

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Not just for finding your septic tank.

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[Professur]

Man ... all these suggestions, and noone thought .. sound. Open the last cleanout, and shove a speaker up against it. crank up the music and head outside and you should be able to hear it through the plumbing.

 

[Kevin54]

Not all leach fields will be green on top. Mine never has been. Best bet is to get with the County Engineer and they should have a layout as to where it is at unless it was illegally put in. You should have a clean-out up by the house for the sewer pipe. The tank itself more than likely have two lids to it, or most that I have seen around here do. It wile be a square concrete tank and depending on the size of the house and the size of family the house could have would determine the size of the tank. Property size and layout also determines where the fingers of the leach bed will run. As in our property, the tank sits square to the back of the house, then I have three 100' fingers off of it running parallel to the side of the house, each at 6' apart. My neighbor has a smaller property and he has three fingers coming off, but his run at a diagonal across the back of his property.

Another way to help locate is to locate your well. If your well is in front, the septic will be in the back, if the well is at one end of the house, the septic will be at the opposite end of the house. Just gives a basic idea as to where to look.

If you do find it, more than likely it will need to be pumped as the grass has probably grown over the lids years ago. What they will do it dig out the lids and add a riser to the tank then add the lid to that. A riser height will depend on the depth the tank is buried. One common problem with septic tanks is that there is a concrete baffle on the inside. Basically a square channel fastened to the side of the tank. This baffle lets the liquids flow over it to your leach bed. If this baffle goes bad, which they do quite a bit, it breaks off and can allow paper waste to enter the leach bed. When that happens, the leach bed will get plugged. When that happens, then it is time for a new system to be put in. A basic system is around $5000. This included a new tank and new fingers as the old has to be abandoned. They will pull the old tank but the leaching fingers has to be abandoned and put in a new location. So if you build a new garage, a new septic will more than likely be taken into consideration whether you need it or not. They want to plan ahead. If you live in an area that may be a little damp all the time or holds water whe it rains, then you might have to go with an aeration system or mound system. Our county is trying to mandate mound systems, This is basically a huge horseshoe of dirt built up with gravel, pipeing, aeration system and kind of an eyesore. Price for those......$20,000 So you want to be sure to take care of the system that you now have.

On the other hand, my tank has a busted baffle I have to get it pumped, dig up the yard some, and they replace the busted baffles with a PVC "T" line and hook it back up. Simple fix if you can stand your head in a tank that has been full of ****. Other than that, about a $500 fix not counting having the tank pumped and cleaned.

 

[Tscott]

just call local concrete cpompany, or lumberyars and order a large load of mud/lumber, guaranteed the truck driver will find your septic tank for you.

I was thinking the same thing

Tom

 

[saabman]

Do you have a basement? Find the wall where the drain line goes to the tank. Septic tank will be somewhere close to that wall. As Walrus said, in spring it is easy to find as the snow pack melts above it before any other place in the yard.

 

[Junkman]

My septic tank is located 15 feet below the surface of the ground. If it were not for the risers above the clean out, it couldn't be found by any of these methods. The pipe goes out the cellar floor, and the back yard slopes away from the house. When we filled the back yard to make it usable, the tank wound up being a lot deeper than anticipated. Takes the pumping company a extra half hour to pump it, since they have to pump liquid into it once it is pumped dry, to break up the clumps at the bottom of the tank. We have it pumped every 3 years.

 

[6768rogues]

Cheap and easy way: See where the grass gets brown first.
Cheap and a little harder way: See where the pipe exits the house, then guess and poke a steel rod in the ground. Septic tanks are shallow as warmth from the sun helps them work.
Cheap and very hard way: Dig from the house to the tank following the pipe.
Expensive way: Hire someone with a camera and locator. The camera goes in the pipe at the house end and a locator (like a metal detector) sweeps the ground and finds the camera below.

 

[Colonial Cobra]

Your local city or county will have a copy of the permit with drawings. You may find the tank, but you'll have a heck of a time finding all the lines in the drain field without it.

 

[csp]

Do you have a basement? Find the wall where the drain line goes to the tank. Septic tank will be somewhere close to that wall. As Walrus said, in spring it is easy to find as the snow pack melts above it before any other place in the yard.

What's your definition of "close"?

Our tank is almost 100' from the house. It's also several feet below the surface and snow doesn't accumulate more or less here or melt faster here.

So far the only method mentioned in this thread that's applicable to ours is the recorded documents from the county. Well that and the fact that the concrete lids are visible.

 

[quick60]

Look under the house. Find the main bath toilet drop follow it out the foundation of the house. That will get you a direct line towards the tank and tell if front or back yard.

Be careful punching holes with a rod. If the system is old or installed by an "ole timer" it may have a tar paper pipe and you will punch a hole in it.

You can use any of the above suggestions from there. Green grass, melting snow, depression in the yard they are all indicators. The diving rods do work!!!! Found my and my neighbors well pipe with it a few weeks ago. If no one believes try it in an area already marked by Miss Utility or equivalent company.

 

[saabman]

100 feet seems like an unusually long distance for the tank, I suspect there is a steep grade involved. Common practice around here is to have relatively short exit pipes (5-15) feet.

The easiest way is likely just calling the septic service company in the area, they will remember where the tank is.