Front Royal VA Perc Test: Conditions for Testing

Perc Test

When you are thinking about buying land to build a home in Front Royal VA, perc testing is one of the most important things you will do to determine whether you can build a traditional septic tank and drain field system to carry waste from your home. As you make plans to test a prospective property, below are some conditions to consider:

• Soil should be relatively permeable, which means water can pass through with relative ease. One can get a sense before testing of likely conditions. If there is much clay in the soil, there could be some issues. But if the soil seems to be a good mix of sand and gravel as well, the location could be good for testing.
• Soil should be unsaturated to several feet below the septic system. This is something than can be witnessed also with a deep hole test to assess the water table level.
• The drain field should sit well above the water table and bedrock.
• Area should not be prone to flooding or have topographical depressions that will allow water to pool. Similarly, you’ll want to make sure the area is not close to vegetation with deep root systems.
• Drain fields should not be located near well water, surface water and springs, house foundations and property lines neighboring other homes in Front Royal VA. Perc tests may be conducted well before the home is built, it’s good to have a sense how the property will be laid out.
• Ideally drain fields are down slope and they cannot be placed a steep slope.

Before buying land in Front Royal, a perc test will inform whether the land is suitable to the task of treating and disposing wastewater – hundreds of thousands of gallons over time – discharged from a septic tank. This remains the most common private sewage system for homes built in rural areas as it is also the most cost effective and lower maintenance. Other options are sometimes feasible if perc tests indicate the land you are considering is suitable for subsurface systems.