Okanogan county septic tank

[off grid]

Just found you guys and love this forum. Wife and I live in Ca. We've owned 14 off grid acres in Okanogan county since the early 90's. We are finally ready to start spending summer months on the property. We will be using our RV but eventually hope to build a small cabin. First thing I want to do is install a septic tank. 2 years ago the county told me a $500 permit was all I needed, no inspections needed?? Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated. My though is to rent a backhoe and maybe buy a plastic septic tank. Property is located north east of Chesaw.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

Welcome to the forum!  There are a couple threads in the Owner-Builder sub-forum of builds in that area.

https://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=13919.0

https://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=7672.0

[BassLakeBucki]

When we planned our septic system for our lake property in Michigan, I too was going to install my own. After I priced out the materials, equipment rental and transportation. I found that I was not going to save a great deal of money taking into account the time and labor I and a friend were going to invest. The health department also indicated that they would need to inspect our work before we closed everything up to make sure all was to code. The bid by the local septic installer was very reasonable and the work was completed in about a day by people who knew what they were doing. I believe the permit was signed off on without any inspection due to the reputation of the installer. I am all about doing things myself but this was a rare case where it did not make sense to do it myself. You may want to see what the septic might cost installed to make sure it is worth it.

On a side note, I also attempted to drill my own water well with a hydradrill. I gave that a good shot but was not successful. Even the professional equipment costing a couple hundred thousand dollars encountered the same issues  that stopped me. You must pick your battles wisely. Good luck.

[NathanS]

Different side of the country, but NYS has a handbook that explains how to make a system.

https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/wastewater_treatment_systems/docs/design_handbook.pdf

It explains perc testing. If you have 4' of draining soil - kinda bet you do out there - you can dig down 2' (the depth the lines will be at) and test the hole as described in the handbook. That will inform how big the field needs to be.

If you will need a tractor (clearing snow, hauling logs, brush hogging, etc) now might be the time to invest in a tractor with backhoe attachment. If I had done that in the beginning it would have paid for itself by now. And with 24 acres, still plans to build and do a lot of work with the land, I am either upgrading the current tractor or buying a mini excavator.

That said, I contracted out site work and septic.. and it did save me some time, that's for sure.