Honey Pots & Leach Fields

[Bucket Lister]

How do you guys deal with honey pots (cesspools) and/or septic system leach fields when you come across them?
Dig?.... No dig?.... Mark off and avoid?.... Other?

My permission started out with a privy/privies in 1850; IDK how many over those early years. Today, the house is on village sewers.

The question is, what came between the outhouse(s)/privies and village sanitary sewer system, where is it, and how to deal with it.

Any thoughts or experiences to share?

Yesterday I'm pretty sure I dug into a leach field.

 

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[pepperj]

Not quite understanding the question.

If the house is on the village sewer system then the leech field is inert-meaning there's no waste liquid.
(providing it was converted over to the village system years before)

Septic systems have been around for a long period of time.
If you look at a rural home. (Not on a service) There's usually a defined area on one side of the home.

The septic mound/field.
These are constructed with a tank and septic bed. (Meaning the drainage pipes (weepers) will be placed in the sand bed.
Top soil on top.

So older homes might have had a grey & black water system.
Meaning kitchen/sinks/tub/shower went to the grey.
Toilet went to the black.
Most grey systems were banned and converted into the black also over time.
Outhouses-no worries as it just dirt now. Mixed with hidden treasures that fell or thrown down the hole.

Now if the house had first outhouses, then indoor toilets then the one side of the home's landscaping was disturbed. So the original articles lost are now buried under the septic bed.
From detecting around buildings I have many times had one side of the structure produced only newer recoveries or a limited number of recoveries. (The septic system side)

Detecting on the side of the septic systems the sewer isn't an issue.
If one smells, or starts sinking in....
Then the bed has failed and the owner is looking at a costly repair bill.

Outhouse/privy holes from the early days (1850-1900) get a probe, shovel, and find some old bottles and other treasures.

 

[Bucket Lister]

Not quite understanding the question.

Hmmm... I thought it was straightforward enough.

How do you guys deal with honey pots (cesspools) and/or septic system leach fields when you come across them?
Dig?.... No dig?.... Mark off and avoid?.... Other?

You're detecting a property, you get a signal and start digging, and then realize you've dug into a DEFUNCT leach field (defunct honey pots are a whole 'nother ball-o-worms 🤢🤮).

Do you ignore it and keep digging?
Fill it in and call it a day?
Mark the area and work around it?

 

[sibbley]

Hmmm... I thought it was straightforward enough.

You're detecting a property, you get a signal and start digging, and then realize you've dug into a defunct leach field (defunct honey pots are a whole 'nother ball-o-worms 🤢🤮).

Do you ignore it and keep digging?
Fill it in and call it a day?
Mark the area and work around it?

If it's no longer used, keep digging. No harm in continuing since it won't harm anything. If it's still used, STOP. More often than not if a drain field is still in use, you can tell where it is by the height of the grass. Unless the yard has just been mowed, the grass over the drain field will grow faster than the rest of the yard.

I can say from digging up my yard for repairs, that the tanks, d-boxes, and drain fields are usually deeper than we would normally be able to get a signal. The drain field in my yard is at least below the frost line. I didn't measure but I'd say it was at least 36" deep. However, I can hit the d-box with a detector since it's large and poured around rebar.

 

[Ism]

Wear rubber gloves, especially if the system is still in use.
You can get some pretty nasty skin parasites from the soil around a leach field.

I'm not sure what you're worried about. you're not going to hurt the pipes with a hand trowel or even a relic shovel unless you're reckless.

 

[sibbley]

I'm not sure what you're worried about. you're not going to hurt the pipes with a hand trowel or even a relic shovel unless you're reckless

Not to be argumentative, depending on how old the system is, the pipes can be very fragile and could be punctured with a hand trowel. Part of the reason I needed to dig up my yard 13 years ago. The pipes, made from asbestos, had discinigrated and needed to be replaced. D-box was also disconigrating, made of concrete. My system was installed in 1966, so it really didn't take long in the scheme of things to fall apart.

 

[Bucket Lister]

If it's no longer used, keep digging.

Wear rubber gloves, especially if the system is still in use.

ARGHHH!!! 🤦🏼‍♂️ (Sorry, it's me--not you)
I guess I have to clarify my clarifications.
de·funct : having finished the course of life or existence : dead, extinct.

Now if the house had first outhouses, then indoor toilets then the one side of the home's landscaping was disturbed. So the original articles lost are now buried under the septic bed.

Thanks, THAT's what I was trying to get at.
And (thinking aloud here) if the leach field is at/below frostline, IDT there's going to be anything under it. Nothing I can detect/reach, anyway.

This part of the property (back yard) has been particularly frustrating; it's a whole different proposition than the front. While most of the yard is a nice fluffy easy-to-dig topsoil, there's a vast area with an ash layer just below the surface that's like trying to dig bank-run gravel. 😝

There are also quite a few LARGE structures--possibly leftovers from the previous sanitary systems(?) I uncovered the bell end of a piece of 4" cast iron sewer pipe buried almost vertically. There are several "lines"--like underground pipelines, but at odd angles and curves. It'd take some major excavation on my part to unearth these... "whatevers." It'd be great to get them out of the ground and not blocking/masking other signals, but that would go well beyond the scope of what was discussed with the owners. Perhaps more importantly, I also don't think I'm up to it.

 

[Bucket Lister]

I'm not sure what you're worried about. you're not going to hurt the pipes with a hand trowel or even a relic shovel unless you're reckless.

I'm not worried about anything. I'm relatively new to this, and have questions when I run into something I haven't encountered before (which is most things at this point).

Some of the substrate I'm hitting is nigh impossible to dig. If folks have run into this kind of thing before and still found some interesting stuff, great! OTOH, if the consensus is that these kinds of areas are more trouble than they're worth, it might be better for me to move on, and conserve my limited energy.

 

[Ism]

I'm not worried about anything. I'm relatively new to this, and have questions when I run into something I haven't encountered before (which is most things at this point).

Some of the substrate I'm hitting is nigh impossible to dig. If folks have run into this kind of thing before and still found some interesting stuff, great! OTOH, if the consensus is that these kinds of areas are more trouble than they're worth, it might be better for me to move on, and conserve my limited energy.

Ugh, I reread your post. Somehow, I got it in my mind you were concerned about damaging the drain field...
Nevermind.

 

[webphut]

How do you guys deal with honey pots (cesspools) and/or septic system leach fields when you come across them?
Dig?.... No dig?.... Mark off and avoid?.... Other?

My permission started out with a privy/privies in 1850; IDK how many over those early years. Today, the house is on village sewers.

The question is, what came between the outhouse(s)/privies and village sanitary sewer system, where is it, and how to deal with it.

Any thoughts or experiences to share?

Yesterday I'm pretty sure I dug into a leach field.

I understand where you are coming from, the whole digging through other peoples feces topic. yeah, well...gloves, waders, raincoat,
Now if you mean an old ceptic systems from when outhouses were still being transitioned away from, those are the holy grail of detecting from what I was taught. In those days lots of very special items usually were buried under the outhouse as to deter green eyed folk from stealing it. There were no safes in peoples homes back then, so people usually resorted to other means of stashing their stash. Under the outhouse, in the family grave under uncle so and so.

 

[Bucket Lister]

I understand where you are coming from, the whole digging through other peoples feces topic. yeah, well...gloves, waders, raincoat,
Now if you mean an old ceptic systems from when outhouses were still being transitioned away from, those are the holy grail of detecting from what I was taught. In those days lots of very special items usually were buried under the outhouse as to deter green eyed folk from stealing it. There were no safes in peoples homes back then, so people usually resorted to other means of stashing their stash. Under the outhouse, in the family grave under uncle so and so.

Interesting thought. The only large objects I've detected (at depths at which I can detect anything with a 13" x 11" coil) have been 4" cast iron sewer pipe, and something large & snaky that I've informed the owners of but am reluctant to start a rabbit warren in pursuit of...

IIRC, it was discussed later in this thread that the frost line here is 48"; far deeper than I can detect, and minimum for anything carrying sewage.

No graves on the property, but if there were, I'd consider them taboo.

 

[releventchair]

Could always check the neighbors to ask permission over there instead.

I've located clean out caps while detecting. And deliberately trying to locate others. .Two on one property.
Leach field? As in drywell after septic tank?
I've never noticed one in danger of my detecting.

Cleanout caps are above frostline around me. Well above. A foot of soil is a lot. Some have been less.
Tanks generate their own heat , plus water going into them.
Drainfields are below septic outlets. (Which are not at bottom of septic tanks ).
The couple we put in by hand long ago seems like they had a couple feet of dirt atop.

Leaching upward from a failed or failing system shows at the clean out cap area.
Some of which show signs of vapor and dead foliage for example due to being shallow or gravel covered.

Eye the nearest house /structures and they might be drained away from. Not only the roof. But the very terrain.

Too , cisterns existed also. As could a "spring" house.

 

[Bucket Lister]

Could always check the neighbors to ask permission over there instead.

That would be difficult--mostly absentee landlords.

Cleanout caps are above frostline around me.

Now that you mention it, yes. The owners told me about it; it's marked by a wrought iron pole sticking out on top of it, so I've been working around it. I've been finding a few things within 20'-30' of it--nothing valuable.

I believe the leech field is covered by an enormous (producing) raspberry patch. Between the prickly berry bushes and heavy weeds, I can't detect in there.

 

[releventchair]

That would be difficult--mostly absentee landlords.


Now that you mention it, yes. The owners told me about it; it's marked by a wrought iron pole sticking out on top of it, so I've been working around it. I've been finding a few things within 20'-30' of it--nothing valuable.

I believe the leech field is covered by an enormous (producing) raspberry patch. Between the prickly berry bushes and heavy weeds, I can't detect in there.

Find the well ! Find the lost silver at it.