What’s better, and what’s cheaper? In my area traditionally concrete tanks have been used, but recently someone suggested to me that a fibreglass or plastic one would be cheaper - and more resistant to tree roots. It seems you dig a hole and just place it in there, then add the same stone filled drainage part as you would do with the concrete. Since the prefab type are imported here they aren’t that cheap - I’ve been quoted about USD$1,400.00 for a 75 gallon one so it seems the concrete way might be cheaper for me. It will service at the most 4 people.
Anyone have any experience with these? The cost of around USD$2,000 would double for me once I’ve paid shipping and import duty. It wouldn’t be a problem to me, but do your friends feel iffy about using them?
Concrete tanks is what we sell where I work…poly tanks (plastic) are more expensive. Watch your burial depths…pay attention to the drawings that the seller will give you as to maximu depths. It’s important. Dirt is heavy. The local inspector will size your tank…typically, for the average home, a 1000 gallon should do it. You also need to size your septic bed as well.
DISCLAIMER: The following may be entirely useless as I’ve never worked in construction anywhere in the US, so treat this as a warning…
A reed bed system is preferable here over a septic tank that would generally require maintenance and yearly clearance. Although this option takes up more room, so would be dependant on available site area. But that’s not what you asked, I guess. Are Klargester a presence in the US, as they have some very good domestic units? I’d always much prefer to specify plastic tanks, but if costs are the key issue…
I’ve not heard of Boilet toilets, but in the UK we have Saniflo toilets which seem a somewhat similar product. They work well (albeit only really used for the advantage of a 50mm pipe connection, rather than the standard 100mm - so mainly for in conversion or extension projects where servicing is an issue) The only real negative I’m heard of is the running noise of the compactor units can be annoying at night, so check if you can find out the running dB before purchase.
I don’t know where you live, but where I am from, tanks are no where near as small as 75 gallons, and single family home tanks (I’m guessing around 1000 gallons in size) cost about $800. But it seems that you don’t live in the US, so pardon any and all ignorance on my part
I helped my father install the septic tank at my house around 8-9 years ago, it was probably the first big family project we ever did together. But before I go on a tangent, we had the option of different kinds of tanks. While my father wanted to get a concrete one, he decided on the fiberglass one because me being 14ish and my brother 16ish at the time, could push it up a very steep hill that we would have had to rent/borrow heavy machinery if we went with the concrete one. The one we got was very similar in shape to the first of the four tanks pictured here http://www.loomistank.com/images/stories/new_septic.jpg
But as I was trying to find a link to a picture, I found a that there seems to be a lot of advantages to having a plastic tank over a concrete one. Besides being lighter, longevity and durability against the problems of soil comes up a lot as one advantage.
Common sense to me also says that plastic ones might be cheaper because it would be a lot more convenient to ship them long distances over concrete ones because they weigh considerably less.
The stone filled drainage part is called a leach field. There are a couple of options here too, I have no idea what kind of system is better, but we installed one similar to this http://www.thenaturalhome.com/infiltratorandpipe.jpg it was cheap and very easy to install.
[EDIT] I didn’t read the posting date of the other posts before I posted, if I revived a zombie, I’m sorry. It was one the first page still so I didn’t even think to look.
