Designing a spray system

A spray system sprays the treated effluent over the ground through spray heads. It is an onsite system: the spray is designed to soak into the soil, not run off the site. This page takes you through drawing one with the septic tools, in the order the wastewater flows. The tools are under Tools > Septic design. For how a spray system is designed, see Spray distribution systems.

In short:

1. Draw the house with Building, and set its bedrooms or flow.
2. Draw the Sewer Main from the house to where the first tank goes.
3. Add the tanks, the treatment unit and the pump with Treatment train.
4. Add the spray heads with Spray zone, as many zones as the flow needs.
5. Add a valve with Distribution to dose the zones in turn, if you need one.
6. Draw the Force Main from the pump to the valve or the spray heads.
7. Check the sizes and the pump in Details.

Let Smart design draw it

Smart design places each of these parts for you, one step at a time, and Auto design drafts them all in one press. See Smart Design and Auto Design.

The house and the sewer main

1. Draw the house with Building, and set its bedrooms or flow. Every size in the design comes from this flow. See Building with Flow.
2. With Pipes > Sewer Main, start at the house, where the sewer leaves it, and end where the first tank goes. See Sewer main.

The tanks and the pump

The effluent is treated before it is sprayed, then pumped to the heads. Add the septic tank, the treatment unit and the dose tank with its pump with Treatment train, or one at a time with Tank. See Tank tools and Dose tank and floats.

The spray zones

Click Spray zone and click the map where the zone goes. In the form, pick the nozzle and set the arc of each head, then click Add Spray Zone. See Spray tool.

Each spray head is drawn with its Spray Pattern: the ground it wets, a circle or an arc of the nozzle's radius. Change the head's radius or arc, or the pattern's Arc, Radius or Rotation, and the pattern is drawn again. Move the head and its pattern follows. Deleting a spray head deletes its pattern.

Add as many zones as the design flow needs: the form shows the Required Square Footage.

WARNING

Don't delete the Spray Head or Spray Pattern features by hand: Details reads them to build the pressure network and add up the spray area.

Designs drawn before spray patterns have a Distribution Bed per spray head. They keep working, and each bed becomes its head's spray pattern the next time you edit or move that head, or add a spray zone.

The valve and the force main

1. To dose the zones in turn, add a valve with Distribution. Each zone is a group of heads joined by a Manifold. See Distribution method.
2. Draw a Force Main from the pump in the dose tank to the valve, or straight to the spray heads. See Force main.

Details sizes the pressure network and picks the pump. See Pressure and pump.

Check and share the design

• Open Details to check the sizes, the elevations and the pump, and to make the report PDF. See Details and the report PDF.
• Click Print for a one-page site plan. See Print a site plan.
• Share the map with the health department or the installer. See Map sharing.