Was getting some kickback through our lowest drain a few weeks back. Had the tank pumped and it's happening again. Flow is good from the house to the tank, but I think the 38-year-old drain field is dead. When we had it pumped there was standing water right up to the top of the tank. Noticed too last summer the green spot out back seemed a little smaller than normal, but all was working well then. Likely going to do a whole new system and praying we can cut back and make it to the spring thaw without any serious regurgitations. No desire to move to the travel trailer in this weather.

Code says I need 220 ft of drain field, and metal tank is probably on its last legs as well. I could buy several fine rifles wtih $10K. If it weren't for bad luck........

Dig up your d-box. Could be full of solids or tp. Or tree roots in the solid line from the tank to d-box.

Before you totally write it off

I would, but did not install the system and have no idea where it might be.

ABSOLUTELY!

My system here in Virginia is WAY UNDERSIZED... and 75+ years old...

Works perfectly with basic maintenance and a pump out every 5 or so years.

$10K was pre Covid prices.

I would get a good septic guy out there to properly diagnose the issue. Again, make sure it is a “good” septic guy. I had a guy come out to pump my tanks this year and he didn’t know a lot of basics on septic systems.

Do you have risers on your tanks? Does your system have a pump? If yes to a pump, is it hard wired or not?

If a plumber has a tracker he can flush down the toilet and if it gets stuck in the d-box you can locate it that way. If it ends up in the septic then the d-box is probably not the issue. Might be worth a try.

God help you if you used flush-able wipes and it got past the septic tank…

I put in 1/2 the linear distance with chamber sections vs 4” perforated pipe. Did an auxillary system on my home to serve an additional new bathroom and as a reserve of my current system needs a resting period.

I rented a backhoe for a for week for about $1200

Had a concrete company that builds tanks bring me a new tank out 1000 gallon, for $700. He set it in the hole and I think all of chamber sections were less than $500

Me and my bud knocked it out in 3 afternoons. This was about 6 years ago.

That metal tank dates the system, but you might check with the local building/environmental dept for an "as-built" drawing of the system, typically filed with septic permit/inspection docs. It will help locate the d-box and lines.

Before you spend a bunch, try some of this Roebic Drain Field cleaner. I was having problems a few years ago with water standing on top of the lines. I tried this just to see what would happen and it actually worked. Within a month or so, the field dried out. Since then, I've used quart every 6 months or so. At the time, my MIL was living with us and between her and my wife, the TP usage was enormous. This stuff seemed to dissolve it better. Supposedly it opens the pours in the soil.

Good luck with it 1minute.

Hope you can make due until the spring thaw, not this one we're having now.

Man, I feel your pain. Some good advice above..

At least my aerobic system failure did result in a bunch of digging.

Get the tanks pumped out and go from there. Hopefully it won't be as expensive as first thought.

Sounds like your divider effluent baffle is collapsed or non existent in that tank

The ‘chunky stew’ is getting over to the ‘broth’ side and yummy jiblets are making it out to the perforated pipes and sliming over the holes.

The Roebic could help.
During COVID, folks have flushing their used sanitized wipes. There is enough residual that in quantity will kill the bacteria in tank leading to build-up of "sludge". If tank was filled and sludge leached into the drainfield, it can shut down the field (which may be what you observed last summer), so you will need an a hot-load of enzyme to reboot the system,

Another thing

Do you have Orangeburg pipe (titeline) before acutally getting the goods into the tank. That crap is simply tar paper pipe and can get rooted up

Yep, Slumlord is right. BTDT, very do-able, rent a hoe, drop in a tank, box and chambers, add a case of beer for your bud, and you've got plenty of green left over for another rifle.

Good luck !

Texas A&M did a study, and they indicated that polyester fibers (from polyester clothes in the washing machine), were responsible for clogging up the leach field of many systems. Basically clogs up the “biomat” of goo/bacteria, and makes it “waterproof” to the point that liquids can’t penetrate through to the soil.

What he said!

Tp used in the house should be septic tank friendly, most are not!

If you have to replace the field piping install the leach panels for sure instead of the perforated pipe. Maybe the same as what Slum’s talking about.

1minute, my system was all jacked up when we moved in the t111 shack. This tree was planted right on top of the lines.



When I dug the tree out I discovered the roots running right down through the drainrock along the pipes, but not inside the pipe, which I thought was curious.



I decided to put a bunch of new line in the drainfield and when I did I discovered that the old drainfield was 18" too high to drain. The only drainfield that had actually functioned was less than 20' right by the tank. The rest of the system was too high and bone dry.



The tree roots took the path of least resistance and followed along the pipe in the gravel. If there had been water inside the pipe they would have grown right inside and clogged the drainfield. Never underestimate trees and the damage they can do to your drainfield.

It took 4 days to install a new system all by my lonesome, including running a new line to the garage from the tank for the bathroom that I am just now installing. Rent a machine if you don't own one and tear it up. Just remember, water goes downhill.

After 38 years it is time for a new drainfield and tank.... bite the bullet and get it done or you'll be doing it again very soon...

You have probably been lucky to make it this long...

Just another reason to not wear plastic clothes.

Has me worried now, as my wife doesn't seem to care much. Me, it's cotton or wool mostly. The plastic stuff makes me sweat.

The other issue is all the blankets and such. Most are high polyester content, dog blankets too.

Hope you're not sweating up there today. We will be up near 50* today, hi 61* yesterday. Lovely weather but we need more moisture of some sort.

SACharlie died? GREAT!

Plus 1..
20 to 30 years is about all a good drainfield is worth.
Grease is the more typical demon.

Replaced one recently in a days time with a rented Bobcat.
Scoop off the old, truck in the new.

Rural for most of my life. People for some reason think its unsanitary etc.. but rural folks I know, the most, have a trash can. NO paper friendly or not, goes in the toilet. NOTHING but water and what you leave. Makes for much easier life generally. VS all the stuff we had to deal with at the city where folks flush ANYTHING. Wipes are the greatest and worst invention. Great to use. But if you are stupid one of the worst things to flush. IMHO

Drain field issues here we just rent a trencher and dig a couple lines. Bit of online engineering will tell you what you should have to put in. Of course no one will ever know it happened or need to inspect vs town where everyone rats everyone else out

BTDT - and 10 grand later, all's well.

Low 30s, Geno. Cloudy with chance of snow, so no work on the tan. lol

That could be a cshitty situation

This is the most eloquent, concise statement I've heard in a long time. I'd rank it right up there with Churchill's 4-volume biography of the Duke of Marlboro as a monument to the power of the English Language. Well done, Slummy!


Me? I've got 100 feet of plastic corrugated pipe running out into the pasture. I move the end of the pipe every six months to keep the big pieces from piling up.

For such a s-h-i-t-t-y subject, this is getting pretty humorous. Thanks for lightening the day.

When they pumped the tank, they should have inspected the baffle to the drain field. If that was gone, your drain field is plugged. If the baffle is Ok, you may just have a blockage getting to the distribution box. I had a similar problem a few years back and dug down to see what was going on. The old cast iron pipe between the septic tank and the distribution box was completely blocked. Cast seems to do that over time. Cutting it out and putting in a piece of plastic wasn't hard and it is still working today.


Jerry

Glad I ain’t doing no nasty plumbing type cshit anymore

Bummer,

the AK Bikini crew will not likely be out today then.

Maybe you're available for a side job trip to E Orygun?

Another month or so and the ground squirrels will be up.

Thank you kindly, but no thank you. I’m available for welding type things, done with plumbing unless it’s my kids or my AC buddy

You have raw sewage running out on top of the ground?

Right. That’s real big here. 😆

I add a cup of Riddex or some such bacterial enhancer around the first of every month, because I can. I get our tanks pumped every 3-5 years. They always need it, according to the pumpers. Of course.

I had to have a drainfield rebuilt 10 or 12 years ago at our rental units. Figured the tank would have to be replaced also, since it was 25 year old steel. Septic guy was amazed at it's condition, and said if nothing changed, it should be good for another 20. I'm looking forward to that. Right!

At the time, it seemed a long way off.....

RV toilet paper dissolves really well - often right on one's wet ass. Wife hates it, so it's RV use only.....

It's ol' Kentuck I think.

Maybe Ohio?

whichever, they ain't sivelized yet.

A little bit of the same here. Used to work on and rebuild sewer pumps in lift stations.

No big deal, its 30 yards from the house...

If you know where the tank is you may be able to have someone take a look with a fibre optic. They can pass it down to any D box or the beginning of the field to check for roots, blockages etc.

I've slid more than a few septic systems in for people around here. Now you need a permit to get your power turned on, so business has gone to [bleep].

Call this guy and have him come frack it.

They should have print on hand at your local township/county office

Had a bit of a false spring about 3 weeks back with enough of a thaw that even the night crawlers were surfacing. Local guy called and said let's get on it. Did not get pics but started digging at the steel tank which resembled metallic Swiss Cheese when lifted out. Four-inch lines to the old drain field were pretty much plugged, so most of the leaching was via the corroded holes in the old tank.

Put in a new 1000-gal plastic tank, ran out past the original drain field, and installed about 225 ft of new via 3 reaches. New stuff is perforated plastic pipe encased in netting with the netting filled with plastic peanuts. Looks like big sausages that are maybe a foot in diameter and 12 ft long each. Took 3 days but we started about 9AM and quit at 3PM with about an hour off for lunch each day.

With 3 bedrooms, code said it should handle 450 gallons per day. That's nine 50-gallon barrels! Maybe we could do that if we had 3 hots tubs or a pool going. Anyway, Cookie can do laundry now and there's no backup into our lowermost bathtub.

So, it was just a small problem that $10K easily solved. Issue now is I think we brought 50% of the county's subterranean rock to the surface. Have to reseed a portion of the yard, remove the surface rock in the newly excavated drain field area and get that seeded into crested wheatgrass. Signed up two neighbor kids this morning to help with the rock harvest.

Glad we had that false spring, as it's been cold and windy with sporadic snow and rain ever since. The new system should outlast my existence.

Life is good and we're relaxing now as we await the next disaster.

Have a good one,

Don't crap until you solve the problem.

Capt. Motivation

I dug about 40 ft of mine up and replaced it in 2014. I dug it by hand about 20" wide, and crotch deep. Took a couple days, but been good since

How many on septic use bidets? I have banished "flushable" wipes from our place for fear of more issues.

Glad you got the situation all squared away, 1mnute. I don't envy the cleanup needed though!

Holy crap, I put a bunch of tanks and drain lines in before Telfair and Wheeler counties started cracking down on permits. I still sneak one in here and there for hunters and poor folks. I use to charge around $2k and usually cleared $1k on every job. A 1000 gal concrete tank was $375 when I started delivered, and plastic diffusers we're $23.

Schitty problem solved.👍👍👍

Hmm. Interesting , I wouldn’t expect a septic pump truck driver to a
be an installer or troubleshooter for entire septic systems.

No kidding. I was going to say the same thing. I don't have a septic tank. I have a pump station in my back yard consisting (now) of a 36"x48" tank, a 230v 2hp grinder pump, and a control box to push sewage out 250 feet to the sewer line on the street behind me. I just had this system installed monday to replace the 31 year old 120v system I had. Cost me nearly $17,000. And I don't even have a drainfield. My neighbor got an estimate to replace his septic system and it was over $20,000.

Only read through a few of the replies and quite honestly they're probably not correct. If you actually had a metal tank they are correct it will date the system and know where I know of is a metal tank to code anymore. Most likely what has happened the metal tank and the internal baffles have deteriorated on how the metal tanks were made and you have sludge down your lines. So you will need a new system hate to tell people this but that's just the simple fact.

I recently spent $325 for pump out added a new tank riser at $195 added a dump access line for an RV at $200 ish for materials and rented a small excavator at $340 for a day also replaced baffles in the tank . Drain field is still good. About 2 1/2 days labor for two of us.

I think I could do the drain field for another 3k depending on the price of rock and rental maybe a bit less

The info in this thread is all over the place, but some of it seems good. Unless you are certain that the septic tank baffle has broken down or that the tank itself is coming apart, I would first uncover your distribution box and make certain that the fluid from the tank can flow unimpeded to the drain field.

If the tank is good and the distribution box is relatively clear, the stoppage issue should be down line - roots in the field, some movement resulting in uphill line, etc.

Once again, if you know the tank is not the problem, leave the D box uncovered and with the lid off the tank, send a bunch of water down from the house - flush some toilets all at once, etc. Look for clear, strong action coming into the tank. Is it? Look for resultant flow from tank into D box and out of the box to the field. Is it?

If yes on both, keep running the water to see if the drain field backs water up in the D box. That would be an answer.

Am not buying the statements on here here that a system has a 30 year life and must be redone/replaced after 30 or 35 years. I have experienced well-built systems that were not mistreated (only dissolving stuff down the drain, no chemicals/detergents that will kill bacterial action, etc.) and they have gone 50 years and still are going nicely. Avoiding abuse is big. Good fortune to you.

For the future if you don’t live in town and have a little room I’d put the washing machine on its own line and drain it on the surface. I plumbed a line out to a couple of trees in my backyard and brought the pipe to the surface. I then attached a hose from a pool cleaner and lay I out to the trees. Whenever I think about it I move the hose to a different tree. Keeps the fibers that kill septic fields out of the system.

Don’t bring it to surface . That’s evidence. Dig a pit and back fill with large stone . Put your clothes washer and dishwasher discharges there .

OP needs an auxiliary field, incorporate a knife valve and run the new field for a year, retry the main field after the slimed-over perforations and dried, cracked and split back open inside.

Aside from any tank issues

I’ve done two properties like this. Also have redundancy when possible.

That is a cshitty situation!!

It could be much worse... https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/11/woman-found-dead-in-septic-tank-in-north-port/

Interesting thread!

I haven’t heard of the netting and foam peanuts application. Is this usable in most soils or just specific types?

schhidt happens

I usually have our tank pumped on the anniversary of princess Di's death.

I hate shet shoot problems.

The gravel-less peanut pipe works but don’t run over it with a vehicle or tractor. Not that you should with graveled lateral pipe, but the foam peanuts are, well, squishy.

Yeah I've installed some of that stuff on a promo kind of deals I would not do that in my personal house f*** that s***

You have very good soil for a septic system over there in most places. Hence the 220 foot requirement unless your living in a one bedroom shack which I doubt and would say you got a pretty good life out of it. I would replace the entire thing as said above but would do it myself.
I just got the truck loaded and leaving in the morning to head to Burns and I suspect some Rock chucks are going to have a [bleep] day or five. (Pun intended)

I would like to hear how you know this from that distance

Dang, I bitched about the 5 grand i had to pay 9 years ago for a whole new system.

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but many people have good luck with having the drain field jetted out with high pressure. Breaks out the clogs in the perforations, and can re establish drainage through the biologically inactive layer of soap scum and fats that builds up around the pipe. My neighbor's system is 40+ years old and he's had it jetted twice. Once because it failed, and again 5 years later as a prophylactic. Has saved him a new system for over 10 years. Another thing I haven't seen mentioned is to make certain that any water softening system discharge is not going into your septic tank. First off the salt is horrible for any concrete or metal components of the system. Secondly, the chemicals in softener discharge disrupt the normal settling process that's supposed to happen in your tank, resulting in more particulate getting out into your field instead of settling into your tank.

In my area of WI, conventional systems are almost non existent since a rule change in the late 90's. Very few places have the proper drainage due to either too much clay with drainage too slow, or because the last glacier has stripped away too much soil and the system would now be sitting too close to limestone bedrock and would drain down into the aquifer too fast. Thus, a "mound" system is required, and they can easily run 25-30k depending on how many lift stations they need and how much of the proper material needs to be brought in. So, I'm doing my best to prolong the life of my 29 yo conventional system as long as I can.
.

I installed a new system with a 750 gallon tank and a couple hundred feet of drain field 3 years ago and paid $3850.00.

About the same time there was a new home under construction a 1/4 mile down the road and they had a new septic installed also.

A year later I got to know the guy that built that house, he told me he'd paid just under $20 thousand for theirs. Both 750 gallon tanks, both have a couple hundred feet of drain field.

I shopped mine out for a while and went with the least exspensive, he'd chose the top contractor in the area.

It ain't no rocket science of a project to install a septic system, done plenty of them.

We have 4 full bathrooms so I decided when we added that 4th one an addition, it was too low to catch the tank. Our room addition was slab on grade. So I added a secondary complete system on the other side of the house.
Which, now the original system can catch the new if need be by a short tightline and a Wye junction


I put in 1000 gal concrete tank
110 ft of gravel-less chamber
misc pipe
And rented a backhoe for a weekend

Had less than $2200 in the whole thing.
Shît, $700 of that was the backhoe rental.

Paid a friend $200 to help me all day Saturday, he set up his Roto-Laser

Sunday I did all the backfill and tossed out some grass seed


I didnt pull any permit, in/out in a weekend. The tank and chamber came from outside the county, cash, delivered, no nosey nothings. So easy a caveman could do it.

I have also have 30 minute Armour-Nolin series soil horizons too.

For long term prevention, put a toilet top bidet on each toilet. Once everyone learns how to use them, the TP usage should drop a lot.