How close should I dig near the stand pipe to find access? More than Likely between the pipe and the house?

The septic tank for my Mothers house is almost 50 feet away from the house.

If your neighbors have been there a lot longer than you, have you asked them if they remember seeing where it was? If the house is older odds are its been accessed before.

Oh boy. Smoothy has a good point. If the neighbors don't know, is there any way you can contact previous owners? If you want to start looking for the lid, I would start by using a prod rod. Lot easier to prod for the lid rather than digging for it. Start at the standpipe and work straight out away from the house.

Septic tanks are mostly placed just under the grade. When we attempt to locate a septic tank we first locate the house cleanout. This will be found not over 18" out from the foundation and close, if not on, the surface.
We then take a pointer rod called a probe and follow the sewer lone out to the tank which, as a rule, will be found close to the surface. Good luck, Tom

Good call Tom, I guess I just always called the probe a prod rod:rolleyes:. I guess you only can know as much as you are taught, or willing to learn.:)
We call them probes, probe rods or sounding rods. Take your pick. It all boils down to a metal rod with a pointy end. Enjoy your week end. Tom

As hokey as this sounds... I've actually seen people find a septic tank and pipes from one to the leech bed... (they found the pipes before they found the septic tank).

This after a day worth of diging holes severywhere trying to find it.

(end result being TWO septic tanks were actually found).

I typically don't believe in or use that sort of thing even if I've seen it work before.

But its called Dowsing or Divining http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Dowsing-or-Divining-Rods Dowsing or Divining. And can be done with little more than a Y shapped small branch.

But heck... if nothing else works.. what do you have to lose.

Don't ask me how it works... or how to do it... I never tried it and only saw fairly old (to me) people do it with startling accuracy a few times.

Thanks Smoothy for your input. However, I don't put much faith in dowsing. If the pipes are cast iron you could use a metal detector to track down the sewer line to the septic tank but if they're plastic get out a shovel and a pointy rod. Good luck, Tom

Thanks Smoothy for your input. However, I don't put much faith in dowsing. If the pipes are cast iron you could use a metal detector to track down the sewer line to the septic tank but if they're plastic get out a shovel and a pointy rod. Good luck, Tom

I don't put ANY faith in them either to be honest. And I would have completely assumed it to be some old Appalacian folk story... had I not been there and saw it work after being one of the people digging small holes all over the yard looking for pipes. And literally the second hole after being pointed at where to dig found a terra cotta pipe to the leach bed. And evenutally the two tanks... test holes were literally a foot away on a couple cases

Just that if all other options fail to produce results... there is little to lose.

Literally I didn't believe it before... and I still didn't after... though I can't explain it away as luck... but it might have been. This is the first time in over 30 years I even saw cause to even mention it.

Hey Smoothy,
I've seem some weird things in my life so I can't know dowsing. But it seems to me that a good dowser would be advertising in the yellow pages to pinpoint under slab leaks and buried pipes. And I don't see any in my phone book. Perhaps they are simply too far apart or there aren't that many. But wouldn't be just dandy if a plumber were a dowser? Cheers, Tom

MGD, actually the best prod or rod is not pointy. We weld a ball bearing on a steel shaft and have the bear just slightly larger than the shaft, way less friction pushing that rod down into the soil. My tank is almost 2' below grade and we found it by runding an elecric rodder down the pipe from the house. We knew the field was 40' out so we attached 30' of rod. You could hear and feel the vibration in the soil and we just followed the sound. Once we located the lid and installed an 18" collar to raise the opening closer to the grade I took a picture of it and then labeled all of the distances to parts of my house, fixed never to move points.

We weld a ball bearing on a steel shaft and have the bear just slightly larger than the shaft, way less friction pushing that rod down into the soil.
Never saw one of those.
It seems to me that the more surface area you have on the end of your rod the harder it will be to shove it into the ground.
Now, you will agree that a pointy end has less surface then a ball bearing that's larger then the rod wouldn't you? So what makes yours better. Please explain as I'm curious about new ideas I can learn from. Thanks, Tom

Thesurface area of half of a bearing is less than that of a cone. Plus once the ball bearing makes a hole larger than the rod the rod will have very little friction with the soil.

But if the bearing is larger then the rod then it's just got to present more surface then a point doesn't it? Just doesn't seem right to me. Have you got a picture of one? Cheers, Tom

You might think so but the math and the physics of it prove this to be wrong. For a bearing surface use this Sphere Calculator Online (http://www.calculatorfreeonline.com/calculators/geometry-solids/sphere.php) A cone can be any height you determine , the taller the more surface. The big drawback is with a bearing you only have friction on the surface of half the bearing. With a cone you still have the friction along the shaft of the rod. Sorry no easy picture, its all math and physics. Area and Volume (http://thinkzone.wlonk.com/Area/AreaVol.htm)
Thanks Bob, Can't dispute that logic, But my probe still has a pointy end.

We are still talking about locating tools, right?:)

Yea, Tom and I got a bit off track talking about a probe rod, sorry. Read this http://www.thebottledepot.com/probe.htm
I reads your link. Looks like The Cadillac of probes. Thanks, Tom