2007_08_13 Base layer of Logs and Septic Inspected

Two basic things happened today. The crew that wanted to be working on the deck had to stop work on it to wait for the septic system work to be finished, inspected, and the machinery they were using out of the back of the house so they could pour more concrete footers for the support posts for the deck in the back of the house.

Below you can see what they decided to work on while they waited. They decided to put down the base layer of the logs in a few places. They put down a 6" wide type of foam insulation strip first and the first logs go on that. The very first one they put down is a smaller one in height (i.e. not the 6" x 12" type). I don't really know how to explain it well, but you can't put down the 1st row and have all the logs be 12" tall because if you did then they could not go one over the other in the dovetail fashion. So, you'll see in some of the corners that they did today that the adjoining corner logs (although they are very short due to 2 sets of 6' French doors going in there) are the full 12" in height.

They attach the first ones to the 2 x 10s that are already around the perimeter of the sub-floor with long screws. The rest of the logs will be connnected to these with long thru-bolts that will go through all the logs and also keep pressure on them with a large spring to make sure that as the logs shrink due to aging that they all stay pressed together tightly.

Then they put the next log end to end (with a type of insert that goes into a groove on the end of each log from top to bottom), toe-nailed it into the end of the other log to keep it from moving away from it, and then screwed it down like the first one.

Below you see one of the workers holding one of the small logs that mates with the shorter one on the side. It is short since one of the French doors will start where it stops.

Now that short log is attached at the corner. You can see that it is taller and from here on up the logs will alternate one on top of the other and the dovetail ends will fit together.

Below you can see 2 of the 3 rows of the Infiltrator system that is the drain field for the septic tank. From the septic tank there is a long 6" (I think) pipe that runs down the hill for about 30 or 40 feet to the 1st of 3 rows of the Infiltrator system. They run perpendicular to the pipe going down the hill. The 1st row of the Infiltrator system is 68 feet from one end to the other, the 2nd is also 68 feet, and the 3rd row is 64 feet long. So, there is lineal 200 feet of it.

Here is a view along one of the lines. They are all kept level from one end to the other (within a 2" tolerance from one end to the other).

Below you can see the filter that goes into the septic tank between the stuff in the tank and what goes into the pipe and down to the Infiltrator system. You can't tell it from this photo, but the long red thing has very small slits in it so that it will not permit anything but liquified effluent to go into the drain field. Solids are not to go into the drain field.

If there should ever be a problem with the tank not draining properly (now get ready for this) you can remove the green tank cover, remove the round concrete top which has a nice metal handle on it to make it easier, pull out this filter, and use a hose to rinse it off, then put it back in the same way you took it out. It has an arrow on the top of it that points toward the exit pipe to show you which way to insert it. I guess we need to make sure that we always have some rubber gloves handy, huh? :-)

Jerry said that there probably won't be a problem, but we need to know! He said that with only 2 people living there the tank probably won't need to be pumped out for maybe 10 years. He confirmed that there should be no need to use anything like Rid-X to add bacteria since there should be plenty naturally. The written material also says that.

Below you can see where the pipe from the septic tank has a 90 degree angle joint that directs the liquid from the septic tank into the Infiltrator.

Here one of the guys from Bailey Environmental Services, Inc is showing me why the pipe that connects the 2nd row to the 3rd row goes UP from the one in front of him before going DOWN to the next row. The bottom of the pipe at the top of the little "hump" needs to be just slightly higher than the top of the one down the hill. That is so that the entire length of the row above needs to fill up before sending any overflow to the row below it. I would have thought that it would have been just the opposite (i.e. that they would all run downhill so that the liquid would tend to go all the way to the one at the bottom of the hill, but that's wrong). I guess it's a good thing I don't install these things!

I stuck the camera down into the opening of the septic tank to show you what it looks like inside. It surprised me that they have these dividers in them from one half of it to the other and I have no idea why the little squares on each side at the bottom. It is a 1,000 gallon tank.

Below you see Jerry Bailey (the company owner) at the left. The woman is the inspector from the St. Clair County Health Department. She drew out a diagram of the entire system and checked everything to make sure that it was installed properly. She had them show her (with their laser surveyor-type equipment that there was no more than the 2" difference between the height of the lines from one end to another, etc. She checked the tank and the Infiltrator system. She signed off on it and gave the paperwork to Jerry. She'll file a copy with the Health Department and Jerry will eventually send the pink copy of it to our builder or to us (I'm not sure which now).