How far to dig from House foundation?

[hfdff]

A little background of what I'm doing. I want to put this plastic barrel in the ground for my water softner regeneration drainage. The barrel dimensions are 20" wide and 32" tall. My question is how far from the foundation should I dig the hole? thx for the advice.

 

[Kevin54]

Just out of curiosity, why is your water softener not draining where all of your other drain run to?

To be honest, that is the first I have ever seen a water softener drained like that. Why would you have a sump pump exposed outside and not inside?

 

[Highbeam]

I agree that you should absolutely not send the water softener discharge to the septic but if I was on city sewer then I would dump it there.

What volume of water do you expect from the backwash cycle? It may be too much for a barrel system unless your soils are fantastic and you surround the perforated barrel with lots of gravel.

You do intend to perforate that barrel and use it for infiltration don't you?

As to your question, farther the better. Put that barrel 100 feet away if you can. No foundation system was ever improved by pumping salt water into it.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Most dry wells (that is what you are making) recommend 10' from the foundation.

Dig your hole at least 4' larger than the barrel. Line the hole with heavy duty landscape cloth. Drill multiple holes in the barrel. Place barrel in hole. The top should be at least 12" below grade. Back fill around the barrel with 3/4" crushed stone (make sure the stone is larger than the holes in the barrel) to within 12" of grade. Before completing the back fill, consider adding a vertical pipe up to grade with a pop up or grate.

 

[Kevin54]

I agree that you should absolutely not send the water softener discharge to the septic but if I was on city sewer then I would dump it there.

What volume of water do you expect from the backwash cycle? It may be too much for a barrel system unless your soils are fantastic and you surround the perforated barrel with lots of gravel.

You do intend to perforate that barrel and use it for infiltration don't you?

As to your question, farther the better. Put that barrel 100 feet away if you can. No foundation system was ever improved by pumping salt water into it.

Every house around here has softeners and it's pumped right into the septic. Been doing it for years now. We've had a softener ever since we lived here and the people that had the house built had a softener and the house was built in '88. We've lived here since '93 and have always had a softener. If not, the iron is so bad it turns everything orange. As far as the lawn, it hasn't hurt the lawn any and as a matter of fact, where our leech lines run have had trees on or along side of them since '88 and are doing great. I took out some huge Blue Spruce because they were getting too big and overrun by English Sparrows which we didn't want around.

 

[kbs2244]

Another softener into the septic for years user.
Mine regenerates every night.
After it does it's thing the iron remover cycles on.
Both into the septic with no problems.

IMO, you are solving a problem that dosn't exist.

 

[hfdff]

Thanks for the quick replies. When the house was built this how it was installed with it draining to that part of the house I'm not sure why they did it that way and at the time I had never had a water softner before. If I remember right we were not allowed to put the water softner drainage to the septic.
I put the tub and sump their and have it pumped out to a ditch about 150' from the tub it works good when it works but every so often it dosn't work because the float won't activate the pump. I was planning to keep the same concept of pumping out to the ditch so could I dig the hole closer to where I have the tub now?
I had thought about having it drain further from the house into the yard but the water that comes out just kills everything. I'm open to any other ideas also.

 

[Blk88GT]

Mine dumps into the weeping tile sump pit in my basement and then is pumped out about 40ft from the house into the woods with the rest of my runoff. I'm on a holding tank that has to be emptied once a month as it is, otherwise I'd pump it into there.

 

[quick60]

The salt in the discharge water cause the soild to bond together form a clay like soil that will not drain. It is not reccomended to drain water softener into the septic tank.

 

[hfdff]

Since I'm not going to let the water seep around the house will be able to bury the barrel closer to the house?

 

[NUTTSGT]

Where is that sump pump in the basin pumping it to now ?

Why not just connect that drain line coming out of the house and the one that goes into the ground from the sump pump ? Basically, remove the sump pump from the equation.

 

[shannonw]

never seen that before and in florida everyone has a softener. most seem to use around 45-55 gal of water during regen. All i did for mine was put a rock bed it drains into, but we have sandy soil too, can storm 3 inches in 30 minutes and everything is dry 30 minutes later.

 

[Kevin54]

The salt in the discharge water cause the soild to bond together form a clay like soil that will not drain. It is not reccomended to drain water softener into the septic tank.

I have my septic tank pumped every few years, and my septic guy has never once mentioned any problems like that. I would think that if there were a problem, he would have mentioned it.

I would think that conservation people would complain about pumping it out killing off vegetation, instead of containing it.

Here is an article that states water softeners are perfectly fine for septic systems http://www.livestrong.com/article/2...er-softener-systems-harm-home-septic-systems/ In a few different areas of the article it mentions that the amount going into the septic system is not high enough to cause any damage.

Water softeners typically use salt as part of the process to make hard water work better. Water quality and sewage treatment experts have conducted studies on the effects of sodium in wastewater treatment. These experts have come to conflicting conclusions since most studies were carried out in ideal or non-traditional septic system situations. A study from the National Sanitation Foundation that focused on salt-based water softeners emptying into an aerobic septic system found that the sodium introduced into the septic system was not harmful.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/2...stems-harm-home-septic-systems/#ixzz2RaJ7J4yC

 

[Kevin54]

Here is another interesting article from Kinetco http://www.maricopacountyhomeshows.com/septic-tank-vs-water-softener-by-kinetico-water-systems/

Here is a partial quote from them.

Septic Tanks
Are there harmful effects of water softener discharges on household septic tanks?
Here are the answers to that question and the effects of using a water softener with a septic system.
It is not true that water softener regeneration discharges pose a problem to septic systems or to the leach field. Studies have shown that water softener regeneration wastes do not interfere with the septic tank system drain field soil percolation, but because of the polyvalent water hardness cations in the regeneration discharges improve soil percolation particularly in fine-textured soils.
WQA has research reports by the University of Wisconsin and the National Sanitation Foundation on septic tanks and water softeners. This research was completed in the late 1970s. It was about that time that numerous regulatory agencies were contemplating restriction on the discharge of water softener wastes to private sewage disposal systems.
More recently the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reviewed this research report, and an expert in on-site waste treatment wrote October 1993 that he “does not believe that the conclusions of the earlier study would change since the chemistry and physics of soils have not. ”He also goes on to say that he knows this work to remain scientifically excellent“.
These studies conclusively show that water softener waste effluents cause no problems for septic tanks.

Quick60.....can you show where you got your info from or is it based on what YOU think?