you cannot have ANYTHING on a septic tank but dirt and grass. those loadbearing posts will creat pressure points and may go right thru the tank. how would you like to be on the deck with a couple friends when that happens? cement tanks are usually only 4 inches thick or so. but you have a LARGE open area below that. teh weight of the dirt is spread evenly across the top and presents no problems, but anything heavy on it in a small area will eventually go thru. ever seen what happens when a tank collapses, it ain't pretty. i personally have put a truck thru a cement tank before, if the bumper had not caught teh truck would have stood on end.

either move the deck or move the tank and fill the hole back in. i find it hard to believe the contractor did not hit the tank when digging the holes for the posts.

Thanks! That's what we thought. Do you happen to have any places (internet sites) where I can go for information that state this is not to be done?

Sandy

yes he did. the paper i have has the permit number on it. but, the drawing is not where it actually is. it shows it in back of the house to the side. it's actually right under the deck. i think the building inspector came before the deck was put on though. we had some trouble with the guys building the deck and it took a really long time to complete. the inspector would not know where the tank was though if he was going by this paperwork of the septic layout correct?

sandy

no, the inspector would not know. i would suggest you call and arrange a a meeting between you, the inspector, and your contractor. tell the inspector the contractor and you disagree on whether this matters or not.

regardless of how this goes, it is going to cost YOU money. either you have to tear down the deck and be out what you owed the contractor for it, or you have ot pull up and move the tank and be out this cost. like i said earlier, if the contractor hit the tank when digging the posts he knew it was there, and that is your ONLY hope of laying blame off on him. if you tank is deeper than the posts go and he did not hit it, then he had a reasonable expectation of the tank not being there just like you and the inspector.

in my area the tank HAS to go where the drawing shows. the health dept tells you where on your land you can put it and then you build your house around that. i have seen people who had a choice of build the house sideways or build a different house because the health dept told them there was only 1 place they could put the tank.

The same contractor put the tank in as well as the deck. We added an inlaw suit with it's own septic tank. He had a very good idea of where it was because he installed the system and got the permit as well as hired the crew to put on the deck. This whole time my husband has been saying he thought the tank was below the deck. They say, oh no it's not, it's over here...see the layout etc. Well the layout was wrong just as my husband told them. Now they think that just because we can get to the access lids, it's fine where it is.

How do I find out who the inspector was? We are in Ga by the way.

Thanks so much,
Sandy

call the number onyour building permit.

They have taken the building permit down. They have been mostly done for a LONG time. I can find out from them the information though I'm sure.

Sandy

you may possibly have more than one problem here.

1) deck post on tank = bad
2) septic tank not located according to plan. This in itself may be a problem. A separate jurisdiction usually has the say in where and how the system is installed and any changes to their design may pose a problem with them. This is not always so, so it may not be a problem. Just know you may be opening a bigger can of worms than you think, but a can of worms that needs to be opened none the less.

More potential bad news. If the tank is not where you thought it was and you added an addition as well as the deck, then you may be encroaching on your tank setback. Around here, I think its like 10 or 15 feet from the tank and leach field to the structure.

call your local permit office and ask them.

you say the permit was remvoed, but the work is not finished? around here you cannot get the final inspection and sign off unless the permit is on display. when my grandmother enclosed her carport they took teh permit down to paint the exterior. the inspector showed up, saw no permit, wrote out a stop work, and left. he refused to schedule another inspection until the permit was legally displayed!

Yes, the work is finished and did pass final inspection. We have been working on punch list items forever. While they were doing those things we uncovered some other issues.

wianno, the same contractor put in the tank as well as built the addition on our home. It was all done in one job. My county said as long as it wasn't a basement, it could be 5ft from the the structure. If we had a basement, 10 feet. We built a garage with an inlaw suite on top.

They came out today and basically want to extend the platform, where it goes down the stairs, out a few feet. Not the stairs mind you, just the platform. This would look funny and we told them no. They want to look at other options. I told them to rip the whole thing down and start over. He didn't say anything to that. We also told them we wanted the county to come back out and look at it and tell us what would be acceptable to do. He didn't have much to say about that either.

Thanks for all your help everyone!

Sandy

Maybe you do not need to start over. Build a heavier beam that will cover the span across the tank and put footings on either side if it.