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How to Spot Unexpected or Odd Septic Drainfield Locations InspectAPedia®  -

• How to find the septic drainfield or leach field
• How to spot unusual or unexpected septic drainfield locations

This article and our accompanying septic system location videos explains how to find the leach field or drainfield portion of a septic system. We include sketches and photos that help you learn what to look for, and we describe several methods useful for finding buried drainfield components. (Septic drain fields are also called soil absorption systems or seepage beds.) Also see How to Find the Septic Tank. More videos on septic system location & maintenance are at SEPTIC VIDEOS.

In the page top photo you can see septic effluent running across a rocky surface during our septic loading test. Actually effluent was running across this rock before we began our septic test, but our dye succeed in proving that the wet area was indeed coming from a failed septic system. A conventional tank and drainfield could not work in this location.

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This 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 System Drainfield - Part 9

Surprising Leachfield Locations

Drainfields may be located very distant from the building and or septic tank

Remember that septic system components can be at an "illogical" or "unlikely" location since people often make expedient or otherwise bad design choices, or may have had no alternative. We've found drainfields that were quite remote from the building and from the septic tank, more than 200' away (downhill).

The reason this is abnormal is that it is expensive and trouble to dig great distances and there must either be proper slope (elevation change) between the tank and drainfield, or a pumping system is needed.

So normally the septic contractor will not put a septic system component farther away from the building or the tank than is necessary. But rocky sites, steeps slopes, ponds, or other site features may mean that the tank or drainfield are located surprisingly far from the building they serve.

Drainfields may be located off of the property they serve and even across a road or highway

We've found leaching beds that were located across a public highway from the house and septic tank. We've found leaching beds that were not on the owner's property at all.

The "drainfield" may turn out to be a nearby stream or lake

Especially at older, unsupervised, or remote rural properties, the temptation to simply route effluent leaving the septic tank to a stream, lake, pond is sometimes overwhelming (though unsanitary and illegal). This is particularly true at sites where the soils into which one would have to put the drainfield are rocky, wet, or where the drainfield has previously failed.

In the photo at left you can see that this septic tank is less than ten feet from a lake.

For example, at properties along Wappingers Creek in Dutchess County, NY, many of the homes located their drainfields downhill from the house and too close to the creek. In times of spring rains the creek floods and floods the drainfield area. These are not working drainfields and are unsanitary.

At a home inspection at one of these properties we found that the previous owner had installed a straight pipe from the end of his failed drainfield right into the creek. Our septic loading and dye test was turning Wappingers Creek a reddish pink!

There may be no drainfield at all

We've also found that there was in fact no leaching bed at all - simply a short perforated pipe into the ground next to a septic tank, or worse, an illegal pipe to a storm drain, creek, or to the surface of a hillside.

This farm property, which we were inspecting outside Frankfort, Germany in 1968, had toilets but no working drainfield at all.

Watch out.

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SEPTIC DRAINFIELD LOCATION
  Why Look For the Drainfield?
  Using Septic System Records
  Where to Look
  Areas Not Likely
  Locate Piping Precisely
  Excavating to find Drainfield
  Surprising Leachfield Locations
  SEPTIC VIDEOS show how to find the drainfield and tank

Detailed Guide for Finding Other Septic System Components

More Information on Building Diagnostic Inspections and Repairs

• The Septic System Information Website home page for septic system design, installation, maintenance, repair
• Buyer's Guide Home Buyer's Guide to Septic Systems Inspection & Testing - What to Do, Step by Step.
• Septic Drainfields, Leach beds, Drwells, Absorption Systems
  • Absorption Field Design size and specifications for leach fields, absorption beds, gravelless systems, seepage pits
  • How Big Should the Leach Field Be? - table of soil percolation rate vs. field size
  • Planting Over Septic Systems: trees, shrubs, groundcover over the septic system: what can you plant over or near septic system components without causing a problem?
  • Septic System Drainfield Absorption System Biomat Formation - what leads to drain field clogging and expensive drainfield repairs
  • Table of Required Septic Tank, Drainfield, & Well Clearances: Distances Between Septic System & Wells, Streams, Trees, etc
  • SEPTIC SYSTEM DESIGN BASICS
  • Septic System DESIGN ALTERNATIVES
• Septic Tank Location - How to Find the Septic Tank, how deep will the cover be, how to document its location
• Septic Tank Pumping Guide: When, Why, How to pump the septic tank
• How to Measure the Distance From the House to the Septic Tank gives details of making a septic location sketch.
• Distribution Box design, inspection, testing, and maintenance of the septic system D-box

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