Hi everyone,
I'm building a new shop and house for my wife and me on rural raw land. I've already placed the approved and inpected septic field and concrete septic tank for the house and shop. It's gravity feed to the tank from the shop and the house which (here in Canada) is still waiting for spring thaw for me to begin my excavation. Before I build the shop, I'm bringing in 400A electrical service. Power will be no issue. I'm an experienced journeyman carpenter/mason with a long-since lapsed Denver Colorado Class B General Contractor's licence. I have experience plumbing both the pressure and the gravity sides of several houses using copper, cast iron and plastics. However, I have never installed an effluent pump in a septic tank. Goulds pumps are highly thought of by plumbers around here. As we are new to the area, I'd like to buy what the plumbers are familiar with. If it weren't my own house, I would just subcontract out to a plumber; since it is my own build (and my own money), I want to do the work myself - especially since I have about a month before I can begin digging footings. The plumbers seem to charge a high markup for their pumps.

The main points:
I have about 12' of head from the bottom of the tank to where the (already buried) 2" line meets the field. I think I would like to install a single phase 1/3hp 230V Cast Iron pump. It's just going to be for my wife and I for the most part. Sometimes our kids and grandkids will visit, the septic system has been sized for a 3-4 bedroom home.

Questions:

1) If you are familiar with effluent pumps (especially Goulds), which pump would you install? The ST 31 Series is considerably cheaper (about $150 US) [www.pollardwater.com], but will I end up digging into that septic tank in 5 years because the plastic impellor gives it up? The WE series costs about 4 times as much (about $600 US), is it worth it? [www.pollardwater.com]

2) I could use some help with understanding if I will need to buy a float mechanism separately and which to get.

3) I note that the WE Series can come with an optional 50' 14/3 lead which is very good because then I can run the lead directly to a well-place switch in the shop. The spec sheet says that these leads will be bare. Does that mean that I can bury it in a conduit separted in the same ditch but separated by at least 12" of fill, straight to a box in my shop. Does bare leads mean that the wire will not be waterproof through the septic tank? Finally, where/how do I run the leads out of the concrete septic tank without damaging them?

Thanks for reading and considering my long-winded message/questions. And thanks to any who wish to congratulate me having a beautiful wife who agrees to my building the shop before the house. I'd like to get this bought and in so I can drain the septic tank upon which I placed an outhouse 5 summers ago. I've also been judiciously discharging my travel trailer on site into that tank so I gotta get it pumped to the drain field to allow my excavator and concrete workers to have a clean outhouse experience.

1.) I have and would only use the WE models and I would not use the 1/3 HP, but the 1/2 HP model. It is a lot more money than the plastic throw-away model that you list, but this is something you want to last as long as possible (you probably have never been down inside a well-used effluent tank to change out a pump but the longer you can avoid it, the better)

2.) You will need an operational float and a tank alarm float (don't skip the tank alarm even if it is not required by your local inspector). SJ Electric makes good float switches. The standard cord length is 15' but if the 50' gets you to your target, that's the one to use. "Bare leads" I'm guessing refers to the wire end. Instead of having a male cord end, it is just a bare twisted copper wire end, ready for a wire nut. I always drill thru the tank wall, install PVC conduit, and then bring the leads out thru that (normally to a 4 X 4 treated post with junction box that I set right outside the tank).

3.) You do not mention the size of the access hole into the effluent tank, but my experience is that most are undersized. Minimum size should be 36", real world size is usually 18-22". I would install the effluent discharge 2" pipe off-center of the access hole to allow easier entry into the tank. Install a ball valve after the check valve. This allows you to isolate the field from the tank when you do have to change out the pump in the future and avoid 25- 50 gallons of backwash effluent back into the tank. Schedule 40 PVC only and belled end pipe is the only way to go for the discharge from the tank to the field.

4.) As a side note, I have made calls to maybe half a dozen or so "garages" that serve as houses. In the course of the call, the homeowner has divulged that the garage was built first in anticipation of a house to follow but the house never materialized and the garage was 'converted' to living quarters. Hope that is not your experience. Good luck with your project.

Thanks for your prompt, thoughtful and knowledgeable post m & m (MD).

OK, I'll do all as you say, except the discharge pipe was already installed by the septic field contractor as a part of getting the field passed.... It is where it is. The access holes are about the size you described - the smaller size, of course. Thank goodness I don't eat too much. It does make sense that you would put a post beside a septic tank for a plug in. I may rethink my process after reading your words. I have had septic tanks before but it was gravity flow to the field. I learned to put a large sheet of polyethylene plastic over the access holes and over the hatch to keep dirt and roots from sealing hatch to the hole. And, I had to learn to place a patio stone over each access hole to help with finding them the next time. 10 bucks well spent.

Two more questions, if I may:
1) I see there is a place on the top of the pump where one might attach a ...rope? What do you normally attach to the pump in case I (may God forbid) have to retrieve it?

2) How and where do you attach that...rope onto the tank so that it stays for when I would have to pull a failed pump up through the hatch? or do you just pull them up by the plumbing?

Thanks again,
BTW, we own a condo in a quaint little Atlantic fishing village just 30 minutes down the road from this "shop property" on a lake. My wife says she could be happy with just the condo, but I am not yet worn out enough to live a life of couches, coffee shops and crosswords. I'm going to build the house on the property because that's what I like to do; and my bride and I know we will love that house when it when it is done. P.S. the shop will have a second floor with an office, a pool table, a murphy bed and a decent kitchen that i'm pulling from a reno I am doing elsewhere. It's to have a toilet/shower dowstairs. I don't want to call it a man cave because my wife is always welcome, but others would call this shop their man cave if they owned it.



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There is a rope eye or ring on the pump to attach the rope. I usually install a rope eye on the inside of the riser and tie it off there. The Goulds WE is a beast and you will need the rope to pull it out- the plumbing alone won't stand the weight.

Thanks again, m & m. Your adivice reads as is generally normal with being human: make proper preparations at the start of a journey, and worries and surprises will be fewer down the road.



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