Installing a 4 Bedroom Septic System with Hillside Boxes

Start to finish of a 4 bedroom septic system in Kentucky. 328' lateral lines of 3' leaching chambers. 1500gal precast tank.

[@jstevison]

Beautiful work man. Awesome to watch!

[@NealORussa]

Thank you so much for the comment & watching!

[@PRShoup]

Good job and great video, Neal!

[@NealORussa]

Thanks for the comment and watching!

[@tristenhudson378]

I’m in northern Kentucky. Our County inspectors make us fill in between the chamber lines as well. Grade above the chambers have to be settled and graded before a final is permitted.

[@NealORussa]

Wow it's wild the differences by county. Our health dept covers 5 counties so that's nice. But I have worked on one with a different health dept and they had some different things they liked to see. How long do you usually wait for settling and final grade?

[@tristenhudson378]

@@NealORussa the next day, they require you to dig it to the depth that they like it, so if it’s 12 inches deep you need 12 inches of topsoil brought in on top of the chamber lines, then the dirt you was digging you would set it between the chambers. You have to make sure your dirt is stacked high enough that when you drive on it you won’t crush the chamber lines. I just did 275 ft of chambers and had to have 240 tons of topsoil hauled in to meet grade county inspector wanted. It almost looks like a mound system when you’re done, essentially that’s what it is

[@NealORussa]

@@tristenhudson378 ahhh I see. Yes we have to do that on systems that require fill soil or cover soil imported. This job the chambers were installed 24" deep so I didn't need to import. Ky state handbook only requires 6" of cover soil over top of chambers. Most of our installs are 18-24" deep so cover soil is not required. Sometimes in a shallow install we will use low profile chambers that are only 9" tall and install at 15" depth with no cover soil. But when we do have to do cover soil, I prefer to import it all first and spread it all out in the leach field area. Say if it calls for 6" cover soil I would bring in 9-10" and place it over the whole leach field site (figuring it will settle a couple inches). Then I dig through the cover soil and install chambers and backfill mounded up. That way you don't have to try and spread all that material working around or overtop of chambers.

[@johnevans6053]

In 1975 my dad bought a camp and put in a 1000-gallon concrete tank with one pipe out the other side ($1500 total). This was allowed since he owned over 10 acres. I wanted to buy 40 acres today and put in a septic system. They are telling me it could cost anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000. CRAZY.

[@NealORussa]

Agreed that is a big jump but if you google the price of a new 1/2 ton truck in 1975 the msrp is $4,950. Today a 1/2 ton truck costs about $70k. This system cost about $10k. The tank itself is about $1900. Not sure where you're located but 40k for a single family residential system sounds crazy!

[@PRShoup]

Had to add another comment. I noticed you had a helper on this job. And man, you were flying on that track loader! I have always loved asv. What hp is your little one?

[@NealORussa]

Yes that's Austin. He's helped me on a few septic jobs and that's definitely nice. The track loader is an asv rt40. It's 40hp. Great machine and light and fast! I was going so quick on the backfill of the laterals because rain was moving in and they're not supposed to be exposed to rainfall. Thankfully it was pretty light and only lasted 15-20 minutes. Then later in the day we got a pretty good rain when we were finishing up the piping between the building and tank at the end of the video. Then it was slick and muddy!

[@JoseMartinez-jf2iy]

Would have been nice to see how you guys tied into the system with 90 or what ?

[@NealORussa]

Not sure exactly what your asking about but if you mean the fitting inside the tank it's a tee baffle. So it's like a sweep tee and one open end points up and the sweep points down and has about a 24" extension on it down into the tank to get below scum layer but stay above sludge layer

[@weicheungbasil]

why setup that ting under the land?

[@olsonkyle12]

What size bucket are u using?

[@NealORussa]

Thanks for the comment! I use a 30" bucket for digging the tank hole and distribution piping. The lateral trenches with the chambers I use a 36" wide bucket with flare teeth.

[@rngn2010]

Wouldn’t it have been easier and cheaper to install a aerator system instead of the septic system?

[@NealORussa]

Not sure what an aerator system is. I don't believe they are permitted in KY. We install what the county health dept environmentalist specifies for each site.

[@rngn2010]

So basically, a aerator is two tanks that are connected to each other it has electricity running to it, and it somehow breaks down the black water and runs out the other end. It’s pretty much used here in southern Illinois for heavy Clay ground that does not drain well. Allegedly you can drink the water coming out the other end although I don’t think I’ll be doing that.

[@NealORussa]

@@rngn2010 ahh ok I've heard of that for small lots on lakes and stuff. Thankfully we have pretty permeable soils most the time in western ky. I'm from Peoria, IL originally so small world you're in southern IL

[@rngn2010]

@@NealORussa im from Decatur

[@rngn2010]

@@NealORussa Everybody uses aerators down here because its so much cheaper