My dad told me I have a systern under my driveway. How can I get rid of it?

Question

Dad died 2 yrs ago and before he died, he told me not to let a heavy tractor, combine or other stuff into the driveway because its over a septic system. He says there is a concrete slab over the top of it.
I have no idea how big it is or where it is. How can I figure this all out and get it filled in? How much $$ do you think it cost?

for all you city folks, A systern holds water. It is not for sewage. It is a concrete underground water storage area they used before city water was pumped into modern homes. I have 2 of these on my property. They are deep and full of fresh clear water, I have in the past submerged a subpump and watered my yard and garden. The one in my driveway is a problem because I want to concrete my drive. If I put something with too much weight on the top, it may go crashing thru and kill someone. I need to know how to locate it and fill it in legally.

I also need you to know in rural farm land there are no plumbing codes. These were put in before anyone reading this was alive. The drive was put there about 70 yrs after the installation of the septic system and nobody notices. This is part of my heritage its older than you can imagine, and I just need to know how to fill it in.
Its the way people got water before we invented city water towers.

Answer 1

If you are using it, don't fill it in. If it is abandoned, then you can just back fill it with rubble. There will be an access hole somewhere in the vicinity, maybe buried a foot or so down. Check you county recorder, if it was done with a permit they will have a drawing of it, relative to the other property features. the cost will depend on access, how big it is, and the availability of fill in your area. I would NOT fill it, just don't drive heavy equipment over the driveway. If you absolutely need to drive a tractor up your driveway, you might well crack the driveway even if you fill the thing in.

Answer 2

No driveway is supposed to be on top of any part of a septic system. Doing so violates the plumbing code and possibly, local bylaws. I assume that your dad is referring to the actual septic tank itself and not the septic tile field The first thing you need to find out is whether there is a sanitary sewer line running along the street and if so, whether your dad paid to have someone connect his home to it. Contact the water and sewer department in whatever city/town/municipality that the house is located in.

They will be able to tell those things. They should also be able to direct you to the department that looks after septic system permits. Go to them and find out if they have a plan of the septic system for this house and obtain a copy of it. Using a tape measure, you should be able to pinpoint exactly where the tank is located and it should state on the plan the size of the tank. Tanks can be as small as 300 gallon but 500 gallon and 1000 gallon tanks are far more common. There are larger tanks too but those are for larger homes with a lot of water using appliances.

In the past, septic tanks made of steel have been used but the most common tanks are made of concrete. Some are pre-cast at a factory and trucked to the site to be placed in a waiting hole. Others are built right on site by building wood forms and then pouring concrete. Either way, you will need to hire a septic pumping service to suck all the effluent out of this tank first.

The proper way to take care of this problem is to hire a backhoe and have the operator dig around the edges of the tank and then smash the tank with his bucket. He can then pull the broken pieces out of the ground for disposal at a site that accepts broken concrete. The hole can be filled in with clean earth trucked in from another location. Over the next few years, you can expect some settling of the earth in this hole due to rain or snow/frost if you live in a climate that has winter months.

The wrong way to do is to pour clean fill into the tank without pumping it but the stench won't make you popular with the neighbours and could get you into trouble with the town. Even pumping it out and then filling the tank is not the proper way. You will still have to get rid of the lid unless you smash that up a drop the chunks into the tank chambers. Some municipalities have rules about how this must be done. I suggest you ask before finding yourself in violation of a local bylaw.

As for cost, that would depend upon a whole bunch of local factors that I cannot begin to assess. The pump-out would likely cost $100.00. Backhoes cost $50.00 to $80.00 per hour to hire but they usually have a three hour minimum charge. If the backhoe operator moves his machine on a trailer pulled by a dump truck, then he could bring you a load of clean fill when he brings the machine to the site and then he can load the broken tank into his truck immediately. I think that you should budget a $1000.00 for this job but I would also get three quotes from excavation contractors that own their own dump truck and rubber-tired loader/backhoe. The same holds true for the pumping service. Phone around and get some quotes once you know the size of the tank.

Just don't get it pumped weeks before you have the guy come to remove the tank. Do it the day before so that groundwater has no opportunity to seep into the tank.

Answer 3

Okay, first, a cistern has nothing to do with septic system. you could have a septic system under your driveway, but I doubt you have a cistern. A cistern is a receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Often cisterns are built to catch and store rainwater. They range in capacity from a few litres to thousands of cubic metres (effectively covered reservoirs).(According to wiki)
anyway, if you do have a septic tank under your driveway, I am assuming that you are using it for all of your wastewater, i.e. flushing toilets, washing clothes, etc. If you are using it, you don't want to fill it in. If you have recently switched to town sewer, don't worry about it, just ignor to old septic, there is now reason to fill it in....

Answer 4

Unless you are planning on having some heavy equipment there I would not worry about it. If it has a concrete slab over it , it should hold a car fairly well.
If it really worries you call some septic tank places and ask them about it and who they can recommend doing the job.
Regardless; get several estimates, do not go with the first one you call.

Answer 5

if that's where your septic system is, then you for sure don't want to fill it in...that's where your waste goes. Just don't let anything heavy drive on it

Answer 6

UM..... Unless you're hooked up to a Sewer system.. you need the Sepic system. it sounds like the Tank is under the driveway. they're typicaly make of cast concrete.............