andywally

food for thought Mr Pulaski............... many thanks :-) all things are to be considered, and once a site visit has been conducted, and things can be assessed more accurately on site, but the more ideas the merrier, gives me some ideas and then maybe a 'hybrid' solution ................ mini sewage treatment plant for the everyday emissions (clean water.......apparently) then a 'sludge holding tank' nearer to the point of access for the smallest vehicle available ................ if all of this shit comes together (pun intended btw) I will post some photo's and some feedback.......now.....amongst some of the things that I aint good at (which we have already establish from previous posts are numerous) 'IT' and attaching pics etc is up there with everything else I aint qualified at it :-) alas I will try and 'every day is a school day' eh !

Keep ya posted :-)

andywally

and as an englishman................I think that generally we are probably over qualified at 'eccentricity' (as a cultural sterotype kinda thing) thats 'one thing' maybe I am good at I can put it on my CV !!!

Alan PT

If you went for the secondary tank option that wouldn't be so weird. Effectively you'd be pumping from a septic tank into a cesspit, then getting the cesspit emptied

andywally

all of the land surrounding this house is terraced 4m wide each terrace maximum, then 4m up to the next one etc etc not really suitable for a drainfield, as the pipes would simply have to be like fingers so to speak, everything would need to be pumped uphill to a tank that had access to be pumped out at some point, getting a 'mini sewage treatment works' to the side of the house is also fraught with complications due to steps down to a path at the front of the house then steps back up to the house, and lowering it in with a crane nigh on impossible..........the only solution I can come up with overnight, is grey water onto the land, black water pumped individually from a 'saniflo' on the back of each WC up to a basic sesspit, that could then be drained a couple of times a year.............basic, crude, simple but its all I can come up with...............8m head saniflo would get me up 2 terraces to the cesspit maximum of 50ft away, a good quality macerator will do this.....like I said simple but I cannot come up with anything else after the site visit, does any of that sound totally enfeasible ie; am I missing a trick somewhere ?

Alan PT

I can imagine some people might consider a composting toilet, but it wouldn't be my cup of, er, anyway...

Saniflo's are a bit notorious for going wrong (and being, er, quite unpleasant to fix when that happens) so possible, but not ideal. I wonder if it's worth getting in touch with a local company that does septic tank emptying?

Often they do a variety of commercial draining/pumping works as well, so it's possible they might be able to come up with a neater solution, based on their experience

atlasthemonk

No well maintained septic tank should ever need to be emptied. My family have lived in a farmhouse with its own septic tank for nearly 60 years and I cannot remember it ever being emptied although I have looked inside on numerous occasions. The farmhouse was built approximately 200 years ago long before the invention of pnuematic slurry tankers.
I remember my grandmother dabbing some bleach on a flannel to wipe the sink or toilet rim, now as consumers we are encouraged to squeeze the toilet duck with both hands and inject neat bleach above and below the rim in such large quantities the septic tank bacteria are also killed.
This does not solve your problem however.
Solution...By sucking as much of the sludge out of your tank (the top is always thinner than the base) as possible, emptying the tanker filling the tank with water from a hose pipe and sucking and blowing the slude from the tanker the thin sludge can be lifted from a greater hight or distance. In UK it would be illegal to hire a local pig or dairy farmer to travel over your land with tanker and tractor as he is not qualified and to handle sewage and he could not deposit it safely on his farm, so unfortunately I cannot suggest this !

andywally

ayup Alan, composting toilet ...nice idea in principle eh......but like you say not my cup of tea either............sounds good in the UK when it rarely gets above 17degrees. not sure it would be that pleasant when it gets to the mid 30's eh .

I have had my run-ins with saniflos from time to time doing bathrooms for a living back in the UK, and generally most faults (if not all) where down to the owners (or the owners kids usually) ''dropping' something alien down the pan, hot wheels cars, hair combs, hair grips, ladies monthly stuff (without being misogynistic or too explanatory) etc etc ...and I always insisted they used a top of the range 'saniflo' over-speced for the location and job in hand............and never a cheap 'screwfix captain cabby taiwanese goulash special'....it was never down to the macerator, and I have re-piped a few where the original fitter had used 90degree elbows instead of using a sweep or 2x45degrees for better flow.......so in that instance at least I know what I am up against (revert to what you know psychology)

We are going ahead with the purchase based on that scenario I have in mind, at least I know it is do-able, if a local firm can come up with a better solution nearer the time then 'happy days' I will ask the question and see if the answer of mine can be improved upon.......and I am always happy to listen, take on board opinions and improve the plan, so to speak, a problem shared is a problen halved so they say...............its still my problem......... but another pair of eyes on it sometimes makes all the difference..............on a few occasions on big projects i'd be looking at a problem with one of the other guys in my team who knew how to build houses etc, and we would both be scratching our heads, and my electrician would walk past (with no techical building construction experience) and casually say 'well why dont you do it like this'................and its blaringly obvious when he points it out, but a bit like a crossword puzzle some times you are looking for a more complicated answer...........

zoff

Really?! In the 3 years I've been living here the tank has to be emptied twice a year. The house was built 40 years ago and I don't know what "maintenance" was done to the tank.

macliam

I think you have a big problem zoff, as said before, mine has not needed to be emptied for over a decade..... either there's a problem with the installation you've got, or you are using too many of the wrong chemicals, or you have a house full of a couple of dozen people or more all the time, or all three!

Pulaski

Theoretically that is correct*, but having the tank pumped every few years is reasonable maintenance and should help to ensure that solid matter doesn't run into the drain field, because once that happens the drain field stops draining, and the likely consequence is having the drain field replaced at considerable cost and some inconvenience. So I am more than happy to pay to have my tanks pumped once ever 15 years +/- to help ensure that the drain field doesn't get clogged.

I think the last time I had a tank pumped it cost about $170, so not exactly a major expense worth postponing and hoping for the best, IMO.

* That assumes that the home's residents are fastidious about only allowing digestible organic matter to get into the septic tank whereas these days there are a variety of synthetic materials that people can and do flush, which will never decompose, at least not over the sorts of times we are talking about, and will therefore accumulate over time.

Pulaski

I agree, something is very wrong there. I know a local family that has had their tank pumped several times, but that seems to be a function of [1] poor drain field drainage (problems tend to occur during very rainy years when the ground gets saturated), and [2] that a modest size three-bed house has had as many as seven residents, including four adults, which is almost certainly more people than the house was expected to accommodate (I think at one time they had 3-4 guests there for a few months too!); therefore the drain field, and quite possibly the septic tank, are undersized for the number of people relying on it. And even they go at least 2-3 years between the tank being pumped out.

All that said, @zoff I am interested to know what the red flags are that the tank "needs" to be emptied?

RichardHenshall

Do you have a septic tank or a cesspit?

zoff

I don't know, the neighbor calls it a fossa. There are actually 2 tanks side by side. The neighbor says one is for "clean" water and the other is for "dirty" waste. They are interconnected because the truck runs the hose into one and they both empty. One other bit to consider is that I just learned that the camera pays for two cleanings per year because of "Águas residuais" on my water bill, and we don't have sewers. Apparently others in the area also need regular cleaning.
BTW there are only 3 people living here.

RichardHenshall

Sounds like cesspit(s) to me.

macliam

A fossa is a cesspit..... not designed to do the same as a septic tank - but in this case not just a hole in the ground either.