as far as the guest house goes, around here you would be REQUIRED to install a separate septic for it. each plumbed structure must have it's own system! my neighbor behind me foudn this out the hard way. he spent 12k on dirt work to build a "guest" house next to his house. his grandson was going to live in it full time, though the county did not know this. anyway, the county ended up nixing the guest house because they only have 1.75 acres and each system required a minimum 1 acre at teh time. they would not allow it to be tied in to the old system either, even if they doubled the tank size. so for the last 4 years there has been a 50'x50'x4' dirt pile in the side yard that was smoothed and compacted for building on. now in my area you have to have a minimum of 2 acres per septic system for new build. older systems are grandfathered in, but if you decide to add on to your home you cannot if you have to increase the size of the septic and don't have teh 2 acres to do it. and as stated above, the health dept here sets the size and type system you get. you give the house plans to them, they come do a perc test if they don't already know that area, and then they tell you what type system you require. sometimes they will give you no choice at all, but usually they give you the option of a minimum and a suggested system size/type. my house has 2 septics, one for the laundry and kitchen and one for the bath rooms. both are 1000 gallon with at least 350 ft of leach field line each.

Castoff, Sounds like you have systems that are similar to Vermont's. We also have open and closed systems, distribution boxes, etc. The 2 systems with pumps that I described both had leaching areas remote from and higher than the tank and so had to be pumped. In this area if it is all clay soil, I can almost gurantee that a raised leaching area would be required..here they are called "mound systems." In my dealings (until new State laws were passed 3 or 4 yrs ago) each town or city had its own regulations. The smaller towns did nothing. They left it up to home owners and local contractors to design and build their own systems. In most of these cases they were rural communities and the landowners had many acres...the practice was to just build something big enough and to heck with any fancy design. The State of VT now has to issue permits for all designs. The trade off for this regulation is that they will now accept "modern" systems that allow systems in soils that would never work before. When a system is being designed a "perk test:" has to be done on the soil. A hole is dug with a back hoe and the engineer/designer establishes soil conditions at different levels. Then water is poured into the hole and a timing is done to determine how long it takes for the water to leach out. I can tell you that in the civilized areas here, the clay soild conditions that you describe, especially with seasonal high water, would never pass and would require a built up mound system I must confess that I haven't fooled with systems for about 8 years and don't know the specs on the new systems that are allowed or if the new tanks are 2 chambered. I know that many of the designers are requiring filters on the outgoing side of the tank. Possibly this serves the same purpose as the 2 chamber tank. Once a year, you pull the filter out of the inspection hole on the outgoing side and hose it off. I hope that the PO finds some solution. It would be too bad to find out that money had been spent on a design that doesn't work. If it only floods on a seasonal basis, then it does sound like a design problem. If that was the case and it wasn't too terrible, I would investigate anything that might lessen the water flow to the system.....low flow fixtures....toilets, shower heads, etc. I guess I'm trying to think of ways to save someone money, but this system could be beyond that. I don't know what part of Canada the PO is in. I owned property in rural Quebec in a small towwn. I can tell you that there was no regulation (20 yrs ago) over septic systems...at least no regulation that was enforced unless it was a newly constructed building. This town was small enough that the town clerk's office was in the living room of his house and was only open 2 nights per week:-)

The first step is to find out if you will be required to pay a connection fee to connect to the municipal sewer. Generally they only permit the installation of a septic tank in areas that are not served by a municipal sewer. In many cases when the municipal sewer is later expanded into the neighborhood the homeowner is permitted to continue using their septic tank providing it is functioning in the correct manner but you may not perform any maintenance on a septic system where a municipal sewer is available. In many cases when the sewer system is expanded into a neighborhood each respective property owner is assessed a "Connection Fee" to help offset the cost of the sewer expansion. In this instance the homeowner may continue to use their septic tank but when it becomes necessary to connect to the sewer system the final connection fee is pre-paid. The other option is to charge the homeowner the "Connection Fee" at the time of the actual connection. In this instance the homeowner is required to install the house sewer line from the structure to within 3 of the municipal main. The municipal sewer company then taps the main, attaches a Saddle tap and makes the final connection to the homeownerÂs line. Typically the final connection fee will range between $3,000 and $5,000 but as stated before, you may have a credit for prepayment of this fee. (Check your local zoning commission or the municipal supplier). Some municipalities no longer permit abandoning a septic tank. Instead it must be dug up and hauled away. When abandoning a septic tank is permitted the proper procedure is to: 1. Pump the tank 2. Pressure-wash the tank, then pump & clean out all residue. 3. Punch a hole through the bottom of the tank. 4. Collapse the lid into the tank. 5. Fill the remaining portion of the tank with sand and backfill. Before you begin any excavation first determine the size and pitch of the existing house sewer line. Many homes have a 3" line which requires a ¼" per foot pitch however you could increase that line to a 4" line which only requires a 1/8" per foot pitch. This effectively doubles the overall length of the line and often this will permit running the line from the present exit to the nearest corner then out to the street while still maintaining the required pitch. Re-routing the lines within the structure present a number of problems. When designing a DWV (Drain, Waste & Vent) layout we typically begin by determining the location of the septic tank or municipal sewer connection then we compute a straight line to the furthest fixture away from that point. As a rule of thumb we use the furthest watercloset because the main drain is required a cleanout on the upstream end. Understanding that a watercloset can be lifted allowing direct access to the line we may then use a watercloset as the required cleanout. Once we have determined a tentative location for the "Main Drain" we must then compute the required horizontal branches and required location of the vents, all within some very strict code limits. While it is possible to reroute the lines in the basement as was mentioned above, this could require major changes in venting throughout the structure. The only method of determining the feasibility of rerouting the lines would be to have the structure reviewed by a Certified Plumber.

Sounds high to me - esp. some of the upgrades. An automatic pool cover should be about half of what you're paying. The upgrade costs from standard plaster are also super-high. Unless prices have doubled from what I paid 2 years ago, the costs for similar upgrades and options for my 45 x 14 foot pool were about 40 percent of what you are being charged (and I'm in So. Cal., where construction costs are high). Also, if you're putting in a volleyball thing, it would seem that a sport pool (with the deep part in the middle and shallow on both ends) would be more conducive to playing volleyball.