Our septic system was original to the house, so circa 1950. We knew replacement would be necessary. It was quite education to learn about what goes into designing a Private Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems (POWTS). The first step is finding a licensed plumber willing to take on the entire project. Second, a soil tester. There are many regulations now related to proper drainage of effluent in soil. Unfortunately, our site did not meet specifications to install a conventional, so we have divided our installation into two phases.
Phase I, we took on the removal of the old system, installation of laterals, one existing and one new to our renovated room. We also decided upon one holding tank at 2,000 gallons and one combo tank at 1,650 gallons. (Phase II will involve the installation of a mound system, an engineered septic system which meets the proper drainage requirements, more on that later).