Thread: question about soak away septic and horses.

As they other guys have said, it is just a tank overflow drain. Maybe drive a car over and see if there are any dramas. My brother in law has then on his property, sheep, cows and donkeys graze around this area and walk over it as well as cars and dirt bikes. After all it is in the ground and an overflow only. Pretty much good fertiliser.

Originally Posted by dullbird

This house was built in 87 Chucaro so I have no idea what sort of standards this house was subjected to at the time.

Ok, the trench should not be wider than 1 meter and the length is in proportion with the amount of bedrooms in the place.
The orientation of the trench will be at 90o angle with the slope of the land.
Look for the type and coloration of the grasses and try to drive a 6" auger or use a post digger to find the trench.
Once you find it run a string from a post (in the reference hole) in a line along the green grass and at 90o angle to the slope.
You should be able to find were the trench and once that you know both end plant a row of Maleleucas along the line.
They will give shade to your horses and act as a win brake.
I hope that you can understand my bad English and if not for sure some will try to translate it.

Originally Posted by sschmez

GDay DB

I'm with Ian regarding the septic tank itself and you wouldn't want to risk your horses falling into it. How many complicated horse rescues have you seen over the years when one falls into a well/pit/septic. Fence it to be sure.

I wouldn't hesitate allowing horses or other animals to graze the beautifully fertilised area. In a wet winter the drain away area may pug up a bit, but a dry summer drought will be the only place with some green pick.

Stevo

Ians not actually worried about the tank itself because the tank has a massive concrete lid on it (its also not that big the lid in circumference) , its hugely thick and even if she did climb on it which she wouldnt because I would fence that bit off (wouldn't take the risk) it would I'm sure easily carry her weight...he was worried purely about the soak away section of the septic system and the half pipe things which he seems to think we possibly have

why not do a ground compression test like they used to teach on the 109 and m113 drivers course.

go where your horse can just barely walk easily (in terms of sinking), drop a sharpened steel pole about an inch in diameter and 5 feet long point first from shoulder height into that ground. Mark the penetration and if it goes in further than that dont go there.

Dont trust those concrete lids... Thats how I fell into the second one. (it had been cracked, badly repaired, covered in about an inch of beach sand. we werent told it was there. Pads down, crane on, lift down the big pads and then reposition the outriggers when whats that cracking noise and I'm waist deep in it....

ours is about 300/400mm above ground so easy to inspect and it is not damaged thats how I know how thick the lid is...
But as you say I wouldnt trust it anyway in the sense of taking the chance

Old septic soak aways (in the 70s and earlier) used to be a trench in the ground lined with open brickwork (no mortar) and then covered with concrete pavers (cross section about 450mm)The top was around 150 - 300mm below the surface.

I've had the unfortunate experience of digging a few out the get them working when I was a kid.



Martyn

So in that case Martyn whats your opinion on a horse walking over the top to graze or be ridden? my horse would possibly weigh in the region of 600kg obviously at a little bit more when I'm riding her

ours is another 10years on so likely not to be the same system and apart from that when we put posts in we did hit the corner of some plastic and peashingle which we think was part of the septic soak away. but still knowing what you know about the systems you dealt with whats your thoughts

Originally Posted by dullbird

So in that case Martyn whats your opinion on a horse walking over the top to graze or be ridden? my horse would possibly weigh in the region of 600kg obviously at a little bit more when I'm riding her

ours is another 10years on so likely not to be the same system and apart from that when we put posts in we did hit the corner of some plastic and peashingle which we think was part of the septic soak away. but still knowing what you know about the systems you dealt with whats your thoughts

I built my house in 1983 with a septic absobtion trench, in NSW at that time the trench had to be a min. of 1m wide and min. 600mm deep, with the 500mm black plastic 1/2 pipe, with gravel each side to the height of the pipe with a membrane, hessian cloth or paper over the top and then filled with top soil min 100mm.
I would not let a horse walk on top of the trench, yours may be deeper (as mine is 300mm to top of pipe) than min. specs. but I would check with a tomato stake, I can run my Stockman ride on mower over mine with no trouble, I would imagine a horses hoof would apply a lot more pressure than that though, Regards Frank.