Fosse Septique - Fin

Yesterday our fosse septique was finally completed after a long week toil by our Contractor. It has been passed by the inspectors and for us its the first construction milestone reached.

However, that's not where it quite ends. It is France you see. When asking for the operating and maintenance manuals and guarantee for the pump I could see all of a sudden I needed to learn a third language as I was clearly not being understood. However, being a stubborn sole and really insisting on these things I have been promised that these will be forthcoming but would first need to be collected from the four corners of the earth, before being sent onto us.

I don't think it was so much my powers of persuasion that brought about this sudden change in helpfulness but more of a sudden realisation on the Contractors part that he was still owed quite alot of money. I am now thinking until I get these bits of paper I will with hold just a tiny amount of money from the job.

So from now on there should be no more hedgehogs having to be rescued from open excavations and the build work can now begin .That reminds me, I must check on the planning permission with the Maries office  - it has gone really quite!!

Fosse Septique Pt 5

Many moons may have past and our fosse is still not finished. But the good news is that we have finally had an inspection from the authories and everything is now sorted out technically speaking. All we have to do is wait for the man to come back with his machine to finish off, He's promised to be back in the next two or three weeks.

This is France so we are not holding my breath. The good thing is that we still owe the Contractor half his money so there's quite some incentive for him to complete as soon as he can. Just maybe the exchange rate will change to our favour by the time we need to pay him  - fat chance of that I think.

Fosse Septique Pt 4 - I love France

Last week the Monsieur Maire himself dropped in a form to our Friends house to pass onto us. This was a fairly simple form asking us to give details regarding our new fosse septique which once submitted they would stamp in and send onto the district office.They would then inspect the work and we would get our certificate of compliance.

Therefore as soon as the scanned copy dropped into my inbox I eagerly printed it out  and set off filling it in with my my best friend google translate. Job done, scan and sent via email back to the Marie's office all in the space of an evening. That was nearly a week ago. As is the theme of things at the moment I am now told by the district office that the form I was given is out of date and that I would need to fill the correct one if they are to process the application.

I am getting to love France more and more.

Fosse Septique Pt2

I have been talking to a Artisan that is looking at installing the fosse septique in our French Property. Things have become a little clearer in that I now know that the filter bed for a 4000litre tans needs to be 6m x 5m  ie 30msqm in plan (3m x 10m or 7.5m x 4m will just not do!). The filter bed needs to drain to water course or alternatively a 25m length of land drainage pipework. The filter bed must be covered in topsoil and cannot be trafficked over. Apparently the quality of inspection and interpretation of the rules governing installation of a fosse varies from region to region. Fortunately in the Charente the inspectors are strict. These installations are cheap so it has to be right and perform correctly so that's fine by me.

I hope to get some photographs of the actual  installation work so will post again soon

Klar Wwtp

Researching Fosse Septiques and came across this tank made by Klar-Environmental based in france. I believe that this company are known as Klargester in the UK. Details can be found on:

http://www.klar-environment.com/Septic_Tanks_wastewater_treatment_plants_France.aspx


If you are wondering what Wwtp means its waste water treatment plant.

 

Fosse septique

Most houses in rural France are not connected to mains sewerage so they are drained to rather crude fosse septiques (or as we call them septiic tanks) that have been causing a bit of a stink lately due to the fact that they just didn't process the waste effectively !

New EC laws have forced France to take a much tougher attitude towards disposing of waste water safely. The French have decided that the responsibility for regulating, enforcement and periodic inspection has been passed down to the Marie. Fosse Septiques now have to process all of  the waste from homes with flows from the tank being passed through a filtration system before being released into the land or watercourse.

I have found out that there are few of rules and regulations regarding positioning of these Fosse Septiques in relation to building and boundaries. There is a lot of information on the internet most of which is contradictory so hopefully when I have figured everything out I may do another post.