Puraflo Septic

[IrnGynt]

Greetings all. This is my first post so a brief summary of my situation:

I'm about 3 weeks away from purchasing a piece of raw land near Front Royal VA on High Knob Mountain. My plan over the next year or so is to build a log home on the lot. Right now it's raw land but water is provided.

My question has to do with the septic plat. The drain field on the plat is defined as 48' wide by 79' on one side and 74' on the other (for a 3 bedroom house puraflo system). It's situated towards the front of the property so it greatly limits the size and position of the house. In order to get the house that I'd like on the land, I have to go with a 2 bedroom puraflo system as not to interfere with the drainfield.

My limited understanding of puraflo systems is that they require less size in the drainfield. I'm wondering if the plat I currently have could be excessive in size. The land is moderately sloped.

Anyone out there have experience with puraflo systems? I have no problem with the puraflo system but I have a hard time swallowing the fact that it would require such a large drain field. I'm fine with going down to a 2 bedroom system but only if I have too.

Thanks in advance!

[Susan]

We're in the middle of septic approval ourselves and from what I can gather, the size of your drainfield has to do with the soil, what's under the soil and the conture of the land - in addition to the size of the home being built. Another plot of land may use the same septic design and have the same house size, but could require an entirely different size drainfield. (Plus 100% reserve here in VA, if I'm not mistaken) If an engineer says that you need a certain size drainfield then you pretty much have to figure that is what you will have to install. If you haven't already done so, you may want to talk with these folks:

Water (http://www.vdh.state.va.us/onsite/)

before you finalize your purchase of the property.

Best of luck to you!!

[Tim Bullock]

IrnGynt, Run don't walk to the local authorities and find out exactly what is permitted for that lot. Some jurisdictions allow a variety of options whereas others are pretty strict and will only allow it to be done their way. We are doing a system right now and the tank is 100 gallons too small (1500 gallons) so we have to install a second smaller tank which seemed a little crazy......I asked the local guy what we could do to make the 1500 gallon tank work......His reply: Make the house smaller!!! Local authorities are usually really helpful and there is a special sand filter bed used here which significantly reduces the size of the tile bed.

[IrnGynt]

Thanks for the info!

I wasn't to keen on going with just this AOSE's plat. I also don't want to spend alot of money unecessarily so I think I'll hit the local health dept. next. I assume they'd have the soil info for my lot on file?

[Susan]

Thanks for the info!

I wasn't to keen on going with just this AOSE's plat. I also don't want to spend alot of money unecessarily so I think I'll hit the local health dept. next. I assume they'd have the soil info for my lot on file?

AOSE's report should have all of the info you need. Actually, the current owners should be able to give you a copy, I would imagine.

FWIW, we're building here in VA too, I checked the size of our drainfield:
3 Bdrm house
9% slope
soil in all three test pits was sandy loam
no impervious strata
no gray mottled color (seasonal water table) down to more than 50 inches
estimated perc rate was 20 min/ inch
Square foot of area required for drip irrigation system is 1,962 sq ft plus 1962 sq ft for 100% reserve.
The area designated is 100 ft on the north and south side, 41 ft on the east side and 69 feet on the west side.

We're currently waiting on the surveyor to finish drawing our plat - we had to have it redrawn since we changed the location of the (already) approved drainfield, well site and driveway.

Hope this info helps.

[Stephanie]

You need a soil guy for a perk. Sometimes you can get a better perk from someone else. Basically, they only test random areas in the soil. Three maybe, so if you get someone good, he might be able to find you a better spot. The county may come out and do it, but I doubt they'll spend much time on you.

My husband is in land and perking is part of his job for dividing up tracts. Sometimes he has to go get someone else (and pay more) for the guy to spend a bit more time in an area to get a better perk.

It can take some experience. My father was told his land did not perk, my husband took a look at it and said he did not believe that, so got his "better guy" out there and he did find a good perk site.

When I say "good" I mean a perk site that will hold a regular septic system. If you don't have a good one, then you have to have a more expensive system. I know the one a lot around here HAVE to have is $10,000 more. Nothing you can do about it, we have a lot of bad soil in some of these southern VA counties.

Second opinions!!!

[Susan]

Alan and Stephanie,
The AOSE is a private individual that you hire (that's the acronym here in VA) to do your soil evaluation. And Stephanie, you are right, ours spent all day at our site walking the site, looking at the 'lay of the land' discussing our plans and our concerns about cutting down a lot of trees. We had had a site approved for a conventional system prior to purchasing our land, but it was done by the health dept. and those folks basically just come out and say 'here's where it goes' they don't have a lot of time to spend on you. Of course, our soil evaluation cost a few bucks, but for our situation it was worth it.
IrnGynt's question was regarding the size of leach field that his site required. Based only on my own - I'd say his is not unreasonably large.

[Dave Meers]

I would suggest that in locating the house and the drain field on your property, try to lay it out so a gravity drain system will work instead of using a pump to get the effluent out to the drain field. A pump will get the job done but will always require maintenance and is guaranteed to fail at the worst possible moment, from my personal experience. Replacing a pump is expensive and not a very pleasant job for a DIY'er. :o

[Stephanie]

Can I just say "duh!" the perk site is for all that. Thanks for your words of wisdom, Alan. The point is do you HAVE a good site and can you get a guy who's going to hunt around and FIND it. Geesh!! I DO have some experience here, AND in this state.

[Susan]

Excellent. When your father's Metamucil kicks in, hopefully your massive experience will be to his benifit.<LOL!>

Regards,
Alan


Jeez Alan,
How's about a new 'handcrafted vs. milled' thread? Sounds like you're in the mood for a 'word war' :D

[Stephanie]

You are a strange person, Alan.