cesspool

[Jay Bondesen]

So I'm walking behind the carport today and feel a soft spot. I do a bit of digging and pull up a saturated piece of plywood that had been covering a hole that is about 16" square formed with 2"x12"s. The plywood had been under about 4" of red cinder that had been brought in and spread around after the house was mostly done. The house and cesspool were were built 3-4 years ago by a local contractor and with all the inspections by the regular engineer in Puna that does most of them.
At the bottom of the hole is what when tapped sounds like a possibly thin layer of concrete, and it kind of has the contour of corrigated roof.
Is this really an access hole for pumping? Is it just chipped out and then replaced if anyone ever needs to get in there? Are cesspools ever actually pumped like a septic tank would be or do I just cover it back up and forget about it?
I was off island for all of this part of the work and even though I have good pictures of everything else I don't have any of this.

Jay

[Daniel]

I think you should ask your builder.

Daniel R Diamond

[lquade]

jay you didnt say where you are but when we built our home back some 30 years, they used explosives until they found a lava tube and that was that! now in our area in mt. view they require septic but we have never had a problem and i wouldnt even remember how to find it, just the general area. i would think as recent as 3-4 years ago, a cleanout of some sort would be required though. and i would always wonder about a "soft spot" anywhere close to a structure...

[Jay Bondesen]

Unfortunately my builder didn't survive the downturn here and moved back to the mainland. It looks to me like an excavator digs out a hole and maybe finds a tube or cracks. Then the top is spanned by timbers, or maybe even trees that were on site, and a concrete cover is poured over that. It just seems to me that if future access is required that there would be some type of resealable permanent cover. But then if it connects to a tube that goes downhill to who knows where then why would I ever need a small access hole?
We had a choice or septic tank or cesspool at the time and perhaps unwisely went for the less expensive cesspool.
We are in Leilani Estates.

Jay