Alright, so here goes nothing. The shop I work at is in a cluster of at least ten other buildings, all owned and rented out by one man and, presumably, his wife. Our shop fronts the highway, with one to each side and one directly behind. We had a rather large(or at least I thought it was) problem yesterday in which the septic backed up and chaos ensued. We found out later that our shop and the one directly behind it use the same tank. I'm unsure of said tank capacity, but I do know it's right at the edge of the concrete pad the shop is built upon. Turns out the gentleman who just rented the other shop turned on the water and left, not realizing that this left a toilet running wide open all day. The water flowed through the toilet and into the septic....all day. Technically, shouldn't each shop have its own large capacity septic tank? Said shops are in a county jurisdiction, and sometimes certain things get a blind eye turned to them.
Two Shops, One Septic Tank
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Probably the right thing to do is have a tank for each building/address.
But this is Alabama.
The building I work in was built in 2010. Sometimes the water from the tap comes out brown. Birmingham supposedly has great water...right...maybe until it gets to the ancient infrastructure. Building is newer, but is in a dumpy, industrial part of town.
Good luck is all I can say.
But this is Alabama.
The building I work in was built in 2010. Sometimes the water from the tap comes out brown. Birmingham supposedly has great water...right...maybe until it gets to the ancient infrastructure. Building is newer, but is in a dumpy, industrial part of town.
Good luck is all I can say.
You have a point. It is amazing how near you are to 1957 in this state. One street is all ipads and twitter, the next healing wounds with Kerosene and things that shouldn't be used as lube.
Gives a whole new meaning to "Roll Tide."
I am not sure of building code in Alabama (do they have code) but its possible that it was allowed. I have a cottage at a church summer camp and many cottages are paired up with another cottage in sharing a septic tank.
Its possible there might not have been enough room for all the leach fields needed.
In your scenario, since just water was left on and it caused an issue it sounds like the leach field could not handle the flow of water. I would guess the leach field will recover in a day or two of none use. Clearly the septic tank can be pumped and that will give the leach field time to recover.
The tank capacity is not really an issue. Within a few days of pumping it will be full and always stay full.
I hope no one was dumping bad things down the drain?
Its possible there might not have been enough room for all the leach fields needed.
In your scenario, since just water was left on and it caused an issue it sounds like the leach field could not handle the flow of water. I would guess the leach field will recover in a day or two of none use. Clearly the septic tank can be pumped and that will give the leach field time to recover.
The tank capacity is not really an issue. Within a few days of pumping it will be full and always stay full.
I hope no one was dumping bad things down the drain?
Trailer parks do this, sometimes. You can find out all sorts of stuff for free at your county courthouse in the land assessor/ code enforcement offices.
I had to pay an engineer $400 for a residential septic plan that was, basically, bring in $4k worth of fill and make a flat "E" leach field.
But those engineer plans are on file for anyone to paw through.
I had to pay an engineer $400 for a residential septic plan that was, basically, bring in $4k worth of fill and make a flat "E" leach field.
You'll have to check local building codes. The county office is a good place to start.
try some check valves.
I lived in Northwest Alabama for 12 wonderful years, (Colbert County). When I first moved there, if you lived outside the city limits, (in the county), there were no codes on anything. If you wanted to build it, you simply did. Right before I left, they cracked down on septic tanks/sewer systems because too many people were simply dumping it in creeks and ditches, (a fellow three houses down from my place did that very thing - it was wicked on a hot summer day).
Depending on the age of your building, it could have been done before code and thus is "grandfathered" in.
Another possibility is that it was done on a weekend. I saw a lot of that happening after the sewer/septic codes were put in place.
Depending on the age of your building, it could have been done before code and thus is "grandfathered" in.
Another possibility is that it was done on a weekend. I saw a lot of that happening after the sewer/septic codes were put in place.
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