Septic Leach Field

[mopar66]

This may not really be the place for this but figuried it couldn't hurt. I am planning and additon to my garage. I had a guy that was doing a driveway down the street stop over today and haul away some rock and gravel. This was so I can move my shed to make room for the addition. Well I tell the guy yesterday when he stops buy not to drive up the right side of my house becasue that is where my leach filed is. Well of course I get home today and they drove over the leach field. Thankfully is was rainy today so they didnt drive a dump truck (didnt want to sink in the ground) on it only a Bobcat. It looks as though the ground only sunk in a few inches or so but I am worried that they could have damaged my leach field. A new septic was put in 2 years ago when I bought the house. The Bobcat drove over it 6 or 7 time, loaded several times with rocks and dirt. Anybody with experience have an opinion. Thanks.

 

[larry_g]

If they only left a few inchs of ruts the leach field should be fine. The leach lines should be 2' or so in the ground

lg
no neat sig line

 

[58Yeoman]

Call him back and tell him to fill in the ruts...

 

[brownbagg]

even if he did damage the field the field is full of holes, so he just made more. But no he did not damage it, you can drive a concrete truck over it and it will not damage it

 

[mopar66]

Oh he is coming back. Since I didnt pay him he has no choice. I actually got in touch with the guy that put the system in and he is going to take a ride by tomorrow morning and let me know what he thinks. The job of moving the stones and dirt was only a $550 job but I am not paying until I am sure he didnt damage my leach field.

 

[JoeMopar]

. But no he did not damage it, you can drive a concrete truck over it and it will not damage it

Totally wrong information. I have held an installers license in Ct. for 28 yrs. There are many different types of systems, many times the distribution pipe will have as little as 6-8" of cover.

A skid steer has a lot of wheel ground pressure and could have done lots of damage ( crushed / flattened pipe ).

 

[JoeMopar]

If they only left a few inchs of ruts the leach field should be fine. The leach lines should be 2' or so in the ground

lg
no neat sig line

Not so, many times there is as little as 6 - 8" of cover over the fields. There should really be no heavy traffic driven over them at all ( I'm not talking about riding mowers ).

 

[mopar66]

Hey JoeMopar the system was installed by the seller before I bought the house but I did see it get installed. I remeber there being these black kind of honeycomb squares being installed. it was hard to tell how deep they where because the yard was full of sand from them digging. How many different system could there be? On another note are you driving a Mopar? Gettting ready to start reduilding a 66 Belvedere.

 

[79firebird]

It will be fine. when i was installing systems a fue newer ones. just did one a fue weeks ago and it was fine. How do you think they filled in the trench and leveled it to begin with? If its the old style system it will be 100% fine. If its the new pos system if it has droped more then 3 inches then it needs to be dug up.

 

[JoeMopar]

Hey JoeMopar the system was installed by the seller before I bought the house but I did see it get installed. I remeber there being these black kind of honeycomb squares being installed. it was hard to tell how deep they where because the yard was full of sand from them digging. How many different system could there be? On another note are you driving a Mopar? Gettting ready to start reduilding a 66 Belvedere.

Black Honeycomb...........could be a Mantis system, Infiltrators, Contactors, Greenleach, all of which should not be driven on.


64 Dodge 440 2 door post. Should be road worthy in a month or 2.

 

[ishiboo]

Mound? Conventional?

Besides a direct impact on the system, like crushing a chamber, you can also kill a field by driving over it many times. It compacts the soil below which affects the percolation rate.

Good idea to NEVER drive on any septic fields with anything heavier than a lawn tractor, however it's probably fine.

 

[nate379]

TWO FEET???

I have to say all depends where the guy lives and what the system is, cause that would NEVER work here!

If they only left a few inchs of ruts the leach field should be fine. The leach lines should be 2' or so in the ground

lg
no neat sig line

Have drove d5 dozer and a couple largish tractors over mine with no problems. Had no choice, was doing the final dirt work for the yard.

 

[larry_g]

Well there are all kinds of systems. Here we have to have the drain field ~ 2' in the ground. Not subject to ground freeze, and perty good soils. If I were 1/2 mile east then I would not have a leach field but a sand system. The system that I have is better than 15 years old and routinely driven over with heavy equipment. So for me a rut left by a bobcat 3-4" deep would be of no concern. If Joemopar is running systems 6-8" deep then it would be a concern. For the OP it's anyones guess. It sounds like he has the right people on the way to check out his system, good luck. I hope you have no problems.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[mopar66]

Well the guy that installed the system came by this morning and took a look and said there was no damage. I fogot to ask him what kind of system it was but he said it looked fine. But he said again do not drive on it. Thanks to everyone that responded.

 

[nate379]

I don't know exactly how deep down my field is, but I know the top of the tank is 6ft down, so the field is at least that. Frost depth is 10-12ft here, but I guess the bugs eating the turd keep the tank warm?

 

[Kevin54]

You won't be able to tell whether it is damaged or not until you have problems. If he only drove a Bobcat over it, you should be fine. I've had to run skidsteers over mine as well as a couple of dumptrucks over the years and have not had any problems.

 

[csp]

I'm not sure how any of you can say whether it would be damaged or not based on the info given. There are many different types of leaching fields and we have no idea what type the OP has.

Just as an example, an infiltrator system probably would be damaged. A gravel system, probably not. We have what's called an "engineered" system, which is several 100' runs of perforated PVC pipe which can be anywhere from 6" to 30" below the surface in a trench loosely backfilled. Mine would potentially be damaged by a Bobcat as most are damned heavy for their size, depending on where it was driven across our field.

Granted the OP's installer said it's ok, but he knows what's in the ground.