Today was our Perc Test…when we found out if our soils are adequate for having a septic drainfield design or not. We met Lance (our realtor) and Dave Huard (from Huard Septic Design & Monitoring) out on the property in the afternoon.

For some background information: Dave did the septic design for the previous house that was to be built on the property, and happens to work with Lance quite a bit. Dave is extremely booked right now, but because of the great working relationship that Dave and Lance have, Dave fit us in with only a week’s notice. If I was to call and try to get a perc test done (without Lance) the soonest that Dave’s office could have fit me in would have been a month from now…which would have been after our closing date. I’m so thankful that we are working with Lance!

Initially, I thought today’s meeting was just for discussing the perc test process, property history, and seeing when Dave could fit us in, but Dave showed up with his mini excavator ready to work! It was fantastic, the weather was perfect for us – blue skies and sunny, and we were all there able to get the results we were looking for on the spot. Dave dug five holes around the property in the approximate area that we’d put the drainfield to look for soil depths. I learned that although it’s called a “perc” test, back in the late 1980’s they stopped actually using water measurements to determine if a soil will perc or not. Now, the drainfield designer will dig holes and examine both the soil characteristics/classification as well as the water table elevation (if present).

After digging the five holes, Dave could tell immediately that the soils would be great for a septic system – any system type too. There’s different types of drainfield systems and the more complex the system is, or the worse your soils are, the more expensive the septic system is. We’re lucky because our soils are good enough to have any type of system. The only limit we may have is the amount of space available between our house placement and the wetland buffer area on the property. If we don’t allot the drainfield enough room, then we may have to go with a more expensive system that takes up less space. All that will need to be decided during final design of the system, after we’ve chosen a house plan and developed the site plan. For now, all we needed was the preliminary results that the soils meet perc requirements.

A big “Thank You” to both Lance and of course Dave for fitting us in despite his extremely packed schedule!