Yeah, I feel your pain. When we bought our place, the plans said the tank was about 15 feet from the back porch. Easy enough, right? Nope. After digging around for hours, we finally found it almost 30 feet away, practically under a flower bed. No idea how that happened—maybe someone moved it years ago and never updated the plans? Anyway, lesson learned: don't trust old paperwork too much, and always expect surprises with older homes...
Had a similar issue when we moved in—plans said the septic lid was right by the driveway, but nope, it was hidden under a patch of grass about 10 feet away. Ended up using a metal detector to track it down. Saved hours of digging. Makes me wonder how often these things get moved or misrecorded over the years... Did you end up marking yours clearly afterward to avoid future headaches?
When we bought our place, the septic location was marked clearly on the plans too—but surprise, surprise, it wasn't exactly accurate. Not as far off as yours, but enough to make me question the reliability of these records. I ended up using some leftover bricks to outline ours after finally finding it (no fancy metal detector here, just good ol' trial and error). It's not pretty, but at least now I won't have to play hide-and-seek with it again.
Honestly though, I wonder how often these things are really moved versus just inaccurately recorded in the first place. I mean, who actually double-checks these plans after installation? Seems like one of those things that gets scribbled down once and forgotten about until the next unlucky homeowner comes along.
I've seen this happen a lot actually—usually it's just sloppy record-keeping rather than the system being moved. Makes me wonder how many other "official" records we trust without double-checking... Better safe than sorry, I guess.
Yeah, totally agree—seen this plenty myself. Usually it's just outdated paperwork or a lazy inspector. I always tell folks: double-check county records, cross-reference with local permits, and if possible, chat with previous owners... saved me headaches more than once.