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LARGER IMAGE: having a general idea of what septic components are helps you find where they may be locatedA Guide to Possible Septic Tank Locations

Septic tank location guide based on site characteristics:

This document provides procedures for finding a septic tank by considering what septic tank locations are even possible at a particular site.

This article tells us how to locate a septic tank when it's placement is not already known or when the location of the septic tank is not visually obvious.

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How to Find the Septic Tank by Looking Outside the Building

LARGER IMAGE: melted snow may mark septic tank location

The photo at page top shows a terrible way to find the septic tank - by driving over it and getting stuck.

A survey of a building site for locations that could reasonably be expected to house a septic tank or drainfield is a useful step in understanding where septic components could be buried.

POSSIBLE TANK LOCATIONS - Site Conditions Determine Possible Septic Tank Locations

If you have no idea what a septic system is,

see the "More Reading" articles below. If you have a general picture of what the typical septic system components are, how big they are, and how they are connected together, you can have a reasonable idea about where these items might even fit at a property.

[Click to enlarge any image]

In the example shown at left, our client is pointing to an area of obvious fill across the yard in front of his new home.

Everywhere else at this home site was thick with trees and also was swampy. The septic system tank and fields were almost certainly going to be in this (improperly prepared) mounded area.

Look in the distant photo at the original grade and you'll see that the contractor put the mound in a natural swale which turned out to be a natural creek - the system lacked sufficient fill soil - effluent moved from the leach field to the stream the contractor had buried, and simply appeared at the end of the mound. But that's another story.

Look around the building site with these septic tank location tips in mind

Septic tank access riser at a Norwegian property (C) Daniel Friedman inspected in 2008

Septic Tank Location Guides & Standards


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Continue reading  at SEPTIC TANK DEPTH or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

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POSSIBLE SEPTIC TANK LOCATIONS at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.


Or see this

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to SEPTIC SYSTEMS

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