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A Guide to Possible Septic Tank Locations
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• A Guide to Possible Septic Tank Locations helps us determine how to find the septic tank and drainfield
• Where to look for the septic tanks, septic tank covers, or septic tank cleanout lids

Septic tank location guide: this document provides procedures for finding a septic tank by considering what locations are possible. 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. Videos showing how to find the septic system, septic tank, & septic drainfield are at SEPTIC VIDEOS. Also see Drainfield Location - how to find the leach fields.

Citation of this article by reference to this website and brief quotation for the sole purpose of review are permitted. Use of this information at other websites, in books or pamphlets for sale is reserved to the author. Reviewers and content suggestions are welcome and are credited at "References." This document is a chapter of Inspecting, Testing, & Maintaining Residential Septic Systems an online book on septic systems.

© Copyright 2009 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

How to Find the Septic Tank by Looking Outside the Building

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.

In this example, my client is pointing to an area of obvious fill across the yard in front of his new home. Everywhere else 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:

• The septic tank is probably on the property - though in unusual cases such as the subdivision of a family property it might be on the neighbor's land.
• Septic tanks need space to be buried-in, normally eight feet or more of soil, though special "low boy" tanks can be placed in as little as four feet of soil and advanced wastewater treatment systems can be above ground entirely. (You won't have trouble seeing advanced aboveground systems.
• Often septic tanks are located close to buildings (perhaps 10 feet away) in areas where there appears to be space for the tank and adequate soil depth, but at a problem site such as a house built on a rock cliff or on a steep slope, the tank may have been located at some distance. Look for other property areas which are not thickly populated with mature trees. (It would be foolish to plant trees over the septic components but people may do so. But at a fairly modern site, the excavator digging to place the septic tank won't have jammed her backhoe among huge old close-together trees.
• Look for the septic tank (and drain fields) downhill from the building: unless a pumping system is installed (you should find switches, alarms, wires), the septic system is working by gravity. The tank will not normally be far uphill from the building.
• Look for the septic tank uphill from the building: if a pumping system is installed the tank may be anywhere, but still we needed space and soil depth to locate it. If there is an obviously "constructed" area of earth fill (a mound system) serving as a probable leach field, the tank may be at the near (to building) end of that mound.

More Reading:
Drawing Library © drawings of septic system components, fields, layouts. These are educational, not engineering drawings and are © protected. Sample engineering drawings and plans wanted for the website.
Safety: Septic System, Septic Tank, & Cesspool Safety Warnings for Septic Inspectors, Septic Pumpers, and Homeowners
What is a Septic System An Engineer's View, & Septic System FAQ's

Use links just below or at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

HOW TO FIND A SEPTIC TANK
SEPTIC SEARCH SAFETY
WHO KNOWS SEPTIC LOCATION?
FIND MAIN WASTE LINE EXIT
DISTANCE TO TANK
POSSIBLE SEPTIC TANK LOCATIONS
  VISUAL CLUES LOCATE TANK
  WHERE TO LOOK
  SEPTIC TANK DEPTH
SEPTIC TANK LOCATING EQUIPMENT
SEPTIC TANK COVERS
DOCUMENT TANK LOCATION

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More Information on Building Diagnostic Inspections and Repairs

• The Septic System Information Website home page for this topic
• Septic Systems Inspection, Testing, & Maintenance- online textbook. Detailed how to inspect, maintain, repair information
• The Home Buyer's Guide to Septic Systems
• Septic Tank Pumping Guide: When, Why, How to pump the septic tank
• Table of Required Clearances: Distances Between Septic System & Wells, Streams, Trees, etc.

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