On August 22, 2023, the AJM Septic team completed one of their most challenging septic tank installations ever: installing a septic tank down a 20-foot incline.
It seemed like an impossible task: our team had to take all of our heavy equipment, including 20-ton excavators, down a wall that was more than 20 feet below the public road line. The steep drop was made even more challenging by a 6-foot high wall that dropped the public road down to the lawn. Even though it was certain to bring nail-biting challenges, we took on the unique task!
The challenges we faced:
The only way to get machinery down to that area was to build a ramp to drive the equipment down and take out a valuable and sentimental tree for our client. We couldn’t pick up equipment and lower it over the wall, because there were power lines in the way. Worse still, because of an existing dry well on the property, our access path was narrow at best– only about 25’ to work with! It was like asking a giant to go down a child’s slide! Needless to say, we had our work cut out for us. We certainly had challenges to overcome.
So how did we achieve this job and leave our client happy with our work?
How we achieved it:
We decided to make that ramp, but the worst wasn’t behind us yet! The final ramp that we created ended up being so steep, that we had to chain the smaller excavator we planned to drive down the ramp to a much larger excavator that we had to park on the public road.
To add to this challenge, the public road that our larger excavator was parked on was a busy, narrow road where residents constantly drove up and down in golf carts. So we also had to be sure no one slammed into us— or us into them. Finally, the larger excavator had to avoid all the power lines above its raised “arm” as it lowered the smaller excavator over the side of the wall and onto that steep ramp.
With those obstacles “leveled” we were able to focus on installing the septic tank and making sure the property was well maintained.
On the way out to extract the equipment, we had to do the reverse, chaining the smaller excavator to the larger one, avoiding all the same challenges, and getting the smaller equipment with me in it, safely over the top of that wall.
We had an audience most of the time in the local neighbors. They would stroll by in awe that we were taking on such a major project. Our client even told us that several local competitors passed on the job, because of how dangerous it was. However, this sort of challenge is our area of expertise: with over 35 years of experience, installations of any kind in challenging locations do not intimidate us!
Although this septic tank installation certainly was one for the books, the job was completed (safely!) in just 6 days. We even replanted that beautiful tree that had sentimental value to our client.
If the time has arrived for your home to get a septic tank installed or repaired, give us a call today!
