It’s Better and Worse - July 29, 2019 @goldenoakfarm
I got up early to move stuff in the cellar in preparation for a hole to be drilled through the New Side cellar wall, for the new water line. They could not use the path of the old line for many reasons. Before we finished moving stuff the septic guy showed up, right at 6AM as promised.
The Town Water Dept. had not shown up. They showed up at 6:30, just 15 minutes before the construction crew would be here. The crew had to park at the road and walk in. They finished the culvert, leaving an awful mess at the end of the driveway, about 7:15.
My husband and I got outside as soon as we finished the cellar to move the plants in the New North garden. We hadn’t quite finished that when my helper friend showed up. He and I finished the plants.
The contractor told us what had happened with the mud in the line and recommended running the water from the outside tap over the bank to clean the line. So my husband got this done.
Then they rigged this temporary sump to try to keep water out of the cellar hole.
In the meantime, the septic guy was still pumping the tank and finally finished about 8:30. The plumber showed up shortly afterwards. He said he was going to run the plumbing differently and so now we have to move more stuff in the cellar. But it would not happen until next Monday.
We will be replacing the old 1½” ABS line with 1½” blue plastic line, the current best pick. (The old ABS was best pick in 1983…)
Right about then the septic tanks showed up. This caused a serious traffic jam in the driveway.
The crew had set about digging the septic tank hole.
They were using 2 excavators, one at each end. One unloaded into a dump truck in the driveway, the other into piles on the drainfield.
Drainfield with the soil from the septic tank hole being piled
By 10:30 both tanks were in position in the hole. The old tank had been removed via dump truck, in pieces and dumped temporarily in the drain field.
Tanks being hooked up
They then set about finishing the wall so the drainfield could be done. Here they are backfilling with gravel.
Once the wall was done they loaded up the old tank and took it away. It was in pieces.
While that was going on, they reconnected the house to the tank, so we had septic again by 12:30. The water had run for about an hour and seemed cleaner. The water in the house is still muddy. It will be a while before it gets clear again.
Once the drainfield was cleaned out, they started building it.
The cellarhole was finished. There was a big push to get it done, as the foundation guy will be here to set up forms on Wednesday.
They got the drainfield ready to start hauling in the gravel, etc to fill and build it in the morning. This was at 2PM.
Tomorrow they will also lay the water line across our poor beat up front pasture. It won’t be hooked up until Monday though. Hopefully Wednesday won’t be as crazy as Tuesday was.
Being under construction is alway fun. Lots of challenges already
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I've never seen a septic before - interesting to see what it looks like. So much going on! The stone wall is really nice!
The stone wall was expensive! But we are really pleased with it, so much better than a mountain slope.... Plus the garden will benefit from it for decades to come, with warmth and wind breaking.