Now that we have a closing date on our house, we have some decisions to make. One of the frontrunners is a home that was built in 1996 and added onto in 2005.
Our realtor acquired a drawing from the county illustrating where the septic tank and field lines run in the back yard. A retired contractor friend went with my wife on a visit to the house and he is mildly concerned about the proximity of the slab for the addition to the main line (I assume from the tank to the distribution box). He can't say for certain one way or the other, but they are close.
If we decide to make an offer on the house, we could make it contingent on an independent septic system inspection including location and marking of the field lines and the field integrity not being in question. How does such an inspection take place?
Also, one of my biggest concerns is the location of the septic tank. The driveway comes up beside the house on the right end and it ends at a fence. The fence has a drive-through gate, but the septic tank is just past the gate (beside the addition), so I don't believe it's possible to drive anything larger than a lawn tractor through there without getting on top of the tank. If I wanted to build a storage building in the back yard, I would have to use a cement company with a concrete pump to get the slab poured, but I did want to find out just how much is "too much" weight driving over a septic tank? Can a small backhoe/loader like a John Deere 310 safely cross the tank for coming in to grade for the building and perhaps to dig for a small septic tank if I decided to plumb the shop?
Thanks,
Steve
Our realtor acquired a drawing from the county illustrating where the septic tank and field lines run in the back yard. A retired contractor friend went with my wife on a visit to the house and he is mildly concerned about the proximity of the slab for the addition to the main line (I assume from the tank to the distribution box). He can't say for certain one way or the other, but they are close.
If we decide to make an offer on the house, we could make it contingent on an independent septic system inspection including location and marking of the field lines and the field integrity not being in question. How does such an inspection take place?
Also, one of my biggest concerns is the location of the septic tank. The driveway comes up beside the house on the right end and it ends at a fence. The fence has a drive-through gate, but the septic tank is just past the gate (beside the addition), so I don't believe it's possible to drive anything larger than a lawn tractor through there without getting on top of the tank. If I wanted to build a storage building in the back yard, I would have to use a cement company with a concrete pump to get the slab poured, but I did want to find out just how much is "too much" weight driving over a septic tank? Can a small backhoe/loader like a John Deere 310 safely cross the tank for coming in to grade for the building and perhaps to dig for a small septic tank if I decided to plumb the shop?
Thanks,
Steve