# Firepit on leaching field



## puppytiny (Jun 22, 2019)

Hello everyone!
I have a small leaching field and the previous owner installed stone firepit on leaching field. I was told it is not good to put anything heavy or drive over the leaching field. Firepit is too heavy for leaching field, I think. What should I do in this case? Just leaving it there and do nothing or ... ???? Any ideas, recommend I appreciate. Thank you in advance.


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## johneh (Jun 23, 2019)

I would not put a fire pit on my septic weeping field .
I can see the heat getting down enough to melt the 
weeping pipe 
No weight other than ATV and Lawn Tractor on 
my very expensive Septic System and 
defiantly no on ground fire pit . The stand alone off
the ground type I think would be OK


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## zrock (Jun 23, 2019)

really depends on how deep the feed is buried, and what kind of pipe is in the field.  If its within 10 years and at least a 2ft under the surface i would not worry about it.  The field pipe is pretty durable once the ground settles around it, iv worked at a campground where the pipe is driven over on a regular basis and is less than a foot below the surface with no issues. Also depends on the stone that was used and if it has a stone base how far the heat is going to go down, same thing if its within 10 years it would take a lot of heat to deform the pipe once everything was packed in. 
But since you do not know the specifics of the field it may be safer to move the fire pit to a safer location, Or locate the pipes for your drain field and see if the pit is sitting between pipes. Would not take much to hand dig a trench the width of the fire pit and see if you could locate pipes. Should take no more than 15 min and if your careful you can put the grass back and never know you dug it up..


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## MTY (Jun 23, 2019)

If the septic system was permitted, most likely the county has an as built.  I'd check.  The as built should show depth, location and spacing of the leach lines.  If infiltrators were used, most likely they are 6 feet apart.


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## Highbeam (Jun 24, 2019)

MTY said:


> If the septic system was permitted, most likely the county has an as built.  I'd check.  The as built should show depth, location and spacing of the leach lines.  If infiltrators were used, most likely they are 6 feet apart.



County as builts are never going to be accurate enough to depend on. They are conceptual at best. It might be good enough to guess at where to start digging if you want to find it.

Our drain field is off limits for anything except the lawnmower. I don’t even want kids playing frisbee in it.


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## MTY (Jun 24, 2019)

My septic field was done the first of this month.  I was darn surprised at the amount of measuring and drawing that was put into it.  It, the quality of the print, might depend more on the person drawing the as built than anything else.  One would not know unless one bothered to look


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