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Fosse siting


Gyn_Paul
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I know there is a minimum distance for a fosse from the house, but is there a maximum? ditto distance between fosse and sand filter ?

The ground is quite boggy near the house, but some 40 m away it is much dryer, also about a metre or so lower, that's where I'd prefer to site the filter (if not the whole thing). Is this possible?

p
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Usually they recommend that the tank should be no more than 10 metres away from the house, but this can be increased if you are on sloping ground. Do bear in mind that wherever the tank goes it needs to be reasonably accessible for the tanker that pumps it out every couple of years.

If the ground is boggy I'm sure that based on their tests the SPANC expert  or your installer will advise as to the best place for the drainage field..

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We're in the process of sorting out the siting of our fosse too - my understanding is that you can have it more than 10 m away but if you do, you have to include a "bac a graisse" (sorry no French accents on this keyboard!) - a fat trap, to filter the kitchen water before it goes into the fosse.  The other thing we were told was that the longer your pipework from the house to the fosse, the more there is to block, go wrong etc etc!

Our experience so far with the Syndicat d'assainissement has been very good......

Lou

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our fosse is in front of our house and the regulatory distance from the building and the boundary.  but, because, our neighbour's fosse is already in our front garden, we do not have enough room to put the soakaway beds near the chamber itself.  consequently, we had to site our filter beds at the back of the property.  this involved installing a pump to pump the water (after it has been through the toutes eaux chamber) to the back of the property some 45 metres away.

this has involved additional cost but we knew when we bought that it would be the likely outcome and we had also checked that it was going to be ok before we proceeded with the purchase

the effluent that goes to the soakaway has, of course, already been treated in the fosse itself so there (hopefully) should be no issues with smell or hygiene. the assainissement person who came out to us was a pleasant young man and he was happy to listen to our alternative suggestions

not sure if that sheds light on your circumstances but i do hope you get your problem resolved 

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hi

ok you ask 2 questions , no there is no min distance from the house to the fosse but too close and you can under mine the " footings " for the house !!! too far and you have to fit the grease trap  , more expense ,,

    the best situation for the fosse and filter is on a slope  , water runs downhill on its own so no pumps ,

  just think this :- everything that goes into the tank is solids and water so keep this in a straight line i.e. no bends ect and at the correct drop, everything that comes out should be only liquid so you have a lot of lea way here , as long as its downhill of course, if you have a look here you can see what I mean  http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j311/daveolive/?start=40 page 3, the house waste goes in to the tank but  straight but comes out at 90 degrees to the sand filter some 40 yards away

               dave

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[quote user="Lou"]We're in the process of sorting out the siting of our fosse too - my understanding is that you can have it more than 10 m away but if you do, you have to include a "bac a graisse" (sorry no French accents on this keyboard!) - a fat trap, to filter the kitchen water before it goes into the fosse.  The other thing we were told was that the longer your pipework from the house to the fosse, the more there is to block, go wrong etc etc!

Our experience so far with the Syndicat d'assainissement has been very good......

Lou

[/quote]

Lou,

As far as I know, you need a bac de graisse anyway; regardless of the distance between the house and the fosse.

In the process of excavating our back garden and discovering that, where I though we had a proper fosse (though probably not a toutes eaux), we have in fact a concrete chamber (full, of course) which is - in effect - a cess pit, with the delightfully French solution to the outflow problem of a polythene sack and a brick, where in a parallel universe one might have found another pipe en route to a filter of one sort of another.

The rest of the household water - the grey waste - goes into a bac de graisse then into a pipe which sets off down the garden at a vertiginous angle to a point where I couldn't be bothered to dig any deeper.

What amazed me was the amount of fat it contained: it filled TWO wheelbarrows. And while it probably hadn't been looked at since the early 60s, it still was a sobering quantity; and quite enough to block and ruin any fosse or filter bed pipes not to mention a sand filter.

So, in short, I now see the reason for a bac de graisse !

paul

 

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hi

         ok on short runs there is usually enough heat from say baths showers, kitchen sink water ect to keep the grease soft enough to flow into the fosse once there it can be broken down by the microbs , longer, you should fit the trap to guess what,,, trap the grease ,but then you will have to have to empty the trap of solid grease because there are no or very few bugs there.

          you can by all means fit a grease trap but why would you want to add more expense and have the bother of having this emptied ?

                     dave

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Still and all I'd rather barrow a load of congealed fat down the garden once every 5 years than have to have the entire fosse and/or sand filter cleaned out/replaced because the bacteria have been ovewealmed (sp?) by fat. In a perfect world, I'd like a layout which routes the soil waste directly to the fosse, and the grey via a fat trap because I read somewhere that the fat trap also acts as a settling tank for grit and other insoluable particles coming down the drains. This seems to me likely to be a major consitituent of a fosse which needs emptying.

Option 1 (empty the fat trap) is yucky but DIY

Option 2 (empty the fosse or replace the sand filter) is both megga-yucky and expensive.

p.

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[quote user="BJSLIV"]

Those are the norms that are usually implemented . However in fact the only legal text is the requirement to be more than 35 metres from a source of drinking water, well etc.

 

[/quote]

  hi ok

             stand corrected it is 5mtrs >10%  ,but every area seem to have there own specs . I have not had any dealings with spanc here in 79 it`s svl  their rules state if closer than 35 mtr to a well you have to fit the filter in a bag ,trees must be 3mtrs away ,the vent pipe must have the 2 vane type extractor fitted to the top , the new one is the rock filter must be now in the outlet of the fosse and not the inlet to the filter ,ect, ect,,

       i think the french are just on a learning curve with the fosse sytem and are making up the rules as they go .

       ok the grease filter needs to be emptied every 6 months the fosse every 4 years ,the rock filter needs cleaning every 6 moths , how many people do it ???? once your system is on the register like every new system the man from delmonte will come around every 4 years min to inspect it(spot check) and you have to pay for it , he will tell you to get it emptied or it`s ok "dought  that " you must have it emptied by a registered aproved company and provied a devis for it otherwise pay again ,so no good the local farmer,he can also say the sand filter is now full .........get it emptied a vast expense its got to be done by again reged people no diy here,

so cut a long story short try and keep with the system you have untill you are forced into into it then plead poverty

do you remember back it the uk when every one who bought a house had to have an injected damp course fitted before they would give you a mortgage????? and now they have found out it doesnot work !!!!!I say no more .........

                      dave

 

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Ah yes Dave..... we remember it well, the bank's favourite D.P.C scam, the wall-tie scam and then the ridge vent scam, the drive by-survey scam, the Guild of Master Craftsmen, the Health and Safety Executive......

Will we look back on sellers' packs and part P regs with the same fondness? Hopefully not, we are in France.

Enjoy people.

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Thanks for all that Dave,  - [can't get the site to quote this morning]  you've just ruined a perfectly lovely day

!  Where has all this hyper-regulation come from ? It's not as if

French rural life was a world-renown source of  water-borne infection

before now, is it ? (neither more no less than anywhere else, as far as

I can tell)

Is this the dead hand of Brussels again ? If so, then I'll relax a bit as most of what you predict won't happen in my lifetime.

p

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[quote user="Gyn_Paul"]Thanks for all that Dave,  - [can't get the site to quote this morning]  you've just ruined a perfectly lovely day !  Where has all this hyper-regulation come from ? It's not as if French rural life was a world-renown source of  water-borne infection before now, is it ? (neither more no less than anywhere else, as far as I can tell)

Is this the dead hand of Brussels again ? If so, then I'll relax a bit as most of what you predict won't happen in my lifetime.



p

[/quote]

 hi

  OK its come from the french way of thinking , which we all love and that's why we live here but...

 the french way is all body waste goes in the fosse ,all grey water goes on the garden .... ouch...

 should be the other way round ,,, all our sh1t is biodegradable it`s only the same as farm animals good for the garden and harmless when broken down .

It`s the washing powders, soaps, dishwasher products etc etc that are causing the problems with the water ways ,these are the things that should be going into the fosse to treat them ,

France's main income is the tourist kill the water ways and no more income,,

                Dave

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"... should be the other way round ,,, all our sh1t is

biodegradable it`s only the same as farm animals good for the garden

and harmless when broken down .

..."

Spooky

that you should write this part as just after I'd written the above

this morning, and was thinking about where the fosse/filter will go

vis-a-vis the well , I  went across the road and fed the sheep in the

field. Their feeding trough is by the gate so, naturally, that's where

they congregate, that's where the ground is the most muddy, and that's

where there is the most sheep sh1t to be found. It's about 10 yds from

the well. Ditto the next door field in which my neighbour grazes his

cattle. However, the fosse will be on the other side of the house, so

that's all right then!!!   No possible chance of any nasty bacteria

finding their way into the water course !

Still at least I'm not in

an area where every field is covered with chemical fertilizers,

leaching nitrites into the subterranian waterways.

p
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As an aside, the prevalence of deaths from tetanus and other wound infections in WW1 was due to the heavy (organic) manuring of the soil over generations, which meant that it held a very high level of bacteria, which could be deadly if it got into a wound. Presumably none too good for you in a water source.

Our well was 'non-potable' due to faecal matter getting into it from the cows in the same field. A neighbour told us about a water-bottling plant which had to close down as the whole water table was contaminated.

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[quote user="Mister Fluffy"]As an aside, the prevalence of deaths from tetanus and other wound infections in WW1 was due to the heavy (organic) manuring of the soil over generations, which meant that it held a very high level of bacteria, which could be deadly if it got into a wound. Presumably none too good for you in a water source.
[/quote]

I thought tetanus was viral not bacterial??? Otherwise, why would you have an anti-tetanus injection? Which also begs the question of why you have boosters, once you have the viral antibodies in you they should stay there forever like any other immune response you develop (colds, flu, galloping gout etc).

I really ought to read this forum more carefully too - I looked at this subject and thought it said 'Fosse Sitting' like house sitting or babysitting and I wondered 'why would anybody want their fosse looked after .........'  DOH !!!

 

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