Septic system leach field question

[Oggie]

We bought our current house in September. The drains have always been a bit slow and there are backups in the tub and shower if several loads of laundry are done and then someone flushes a toilet.

The septic tank was pumped and, three days later the backups were still happening.

Is there any way to "restore" a leach field. The other option is to go with an aerobic tank by Proline. I noticed that, on the Proline Web site (www.prolinewastewater.com) they have a $900 aerator that goes into your existing tank. Might it work?

The other option is a $6,000 system. The installer would leave our existing 1,000-gallon tank in place to feed the three-celled aerobic tank.

Is $6,000 reasonable?

[Cabin Fever]

Are you saying that everything drained rapidly during the three days after the tank was pumped?

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by Oggie

....Is $6,000 reasonable?...

For that price, you could have a new drainfield installed. What you would want to do is keep the old drainfield connected but have the line to it blocked and use just the new drainfield. After a year or two, the sludge that has sealed your old drainfield (assuming this is your problem) will be mostly decomposed and the drainfield will be "restored"....at least partially. At that time you can cycle between the drainfields.

[wy_white_wolf]

If you would quit flushing cats down the toilet in might not backup.

[pixieduster]

Does it stay backedup, or is it draining really slowly. It sounds a lot like what we just went through. Our problem was actually build up in the pipes. It just stopped backing up 2 days ago after fighting with this for over a week.

No more soggy moggies, Oggie!

.....Alan {laughing}

[GoldCountryGal]

Are you sure it is the septic? When we bought our house, we started to remodel the bathroom and found out there was a negative grade to the drainpipe under the house leading to the septic... worked fine if there wasn't too much use, but if you got a lot of water going down the drain they would drain slow or back up. Our drain pipe was replaced and set up so that it was pointed downhill and not uphill and everything has been fine since.

[Oggie]

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

Are you saying that everything drained rapidly during the three days after the tank was pumped?

It worked well for about three days. Then, it rained and we stopped up again.

There's a clean out plug between the house and the tank. If things are backed up and the plug is removed it makes a cool fountain that resembles jumping brown trout in a ticker-tape parade.

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

For that price, you could have a new drainfield installed. What you would want to do is keep the old drainfield connected but have the line to it blocked and use just the new drainfield. After a year or two, the sludge that has sealed your old drainfield (assuming this is your problem) will be mostly decomposed and the drainfield will be "restored"....at least partially. At that time you can cycle between the drainfields.

The septic tank gut said that 1000' of leach field is now the requirement. Each leg of the field must be 8' apart. I don't think that we have the space in front of the house, away from the well. We have very heavy clay and the perc. rates are pretty bad. Almost everyone around us has gone the aerobic route.

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by Oggie

It worked well for about three days. Then, it rained and we stopped up again.

Yeah, that sounds like a sealed drainfield and not a problem with plugged pipes in the home.

Originally Posted by Oggie

The septic tank gut said that 1000' of leach field is now the requirement. ....

What the gut actually meant to say was you needed 1000 square feet of drainfield. If the trenches are 3-feet wide, you'd need 333 linear feet of trenches. If you used 3 trench lines and spaced them 8 feet apart, a "lawn area" of about 2,775 square feet (111' x 25') would be necessary for the entire drainfield. For four lines, an area of about 83' x 36' would be used.

[Oggie]

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

What the gut actually meant to say was you needed 1000 square feet of drainfield. If the trenches are 3-feet wide, you'd need 333 linear feet of trenches. If you used 3 trench lines and spaced them 8 feet apart, a "lawn area" of about 2,775 square feet (111' x 25') would be necessary for the entire drainfield. For four lines, an area of about 83' x 36' would be used.

The guy has a talking gut.

Anyway, I believe that he was talking linear feet of leach lines. Our yard area is approx. 125' X 60' and it's pretty much filled with the current drain field.

The drainage is pretty bad and it's almost level. You can practically dig up the dirt, put it in a kiln and make bricks.

[Explorer]

Do you have an automatic washer? If so, make sure you have a lint trap on its drain.

[Ken Scharabok]

What would it cost you to replace your existing drainfield? I suspect it would take a backhoe emptying bucket contents into dump truck. I suspect the ditches would have to be dug deeper and backfilled with gravel to what the leach grade will be. Then ditches filled in with fill dirt.

Last year I got a call from a friend to come see what might be wrong with her septic tank as it was backing up into the residence. Tank had never had a cover - just boards across it (do-it-yourself jobbie). When they were taken off, problem was obvious. Either the tank had been installed wrong, or settled on one end, as the inflow was lower than the outflow. We lowered the outflow and resealed around it. Once connected back to the leach field it worked fine.

[Missy M]

Sometimes the distribution boxes in the leech field will rot out and collapse. This can cause cronic backups.

[RedneckPete]

As usual in these circumstances, Cabin Fever is completely correct.

That said, you have three options.

1. Replace your drain field with a new, properly functioning one.

2. Drastically reduce the water flowing into your drain field. You can do this by separating grey water from sewage waste, and disposing of the grey water in some other (likely surface) method.

3. Drain your existing drain field. This can be accomplished by tying a tile (pipe) into an existing part of the drain field and trenching it to daylight. Be aware that this method almost surely violates every possible building code in your area, but it ALWAYS works. Install the drain on a long weekend and immediately seed the disturbed area. Ensure the drain is installed well downstream of ANY dug wells.

Pete

[Oldcountryboy]

I just got through replacing my drain field extremely cheap. I have a cousin who owns a backhoe so I hired him to dig a 200 ft. ditch and hauled in two dumptruck loads of creek gravel. All for the whopping price of $200. Then I bought 200 feet of 4 inch septic line, 2 - 45degree elbows, and one can of pvc glue. All for the price of $166. Also, had my septic tank pumped out so I wouldn't be working in muck. For the price of $150. Then I borrowed another cuz's tractor with a front loader and done all the work myself. Used approximately $20 bucks in diesel fuel and about $35 worth of landscaping paper to put down on top of the gravel before filling the ditch back in.

Total price: $571 Labor: $free

Estimates of having other outfits do it: $1600 and $2200.

If you can do it yourself you can save yourself a bundle of money.

[Oggie]

I'll check about replacing the drain field. The backhoe company I've been talking to seems a bit reluctant about that option.

So, I'll give someone else a call and see what they think.

[rambler]

Originally Posted by Oldcountryboy

If you can do it yourself you can save yourself a bundle of money.

That's the rub........

Do you know if your soil perks? As this case is tight clay soil from the sound of it, 200 feet would not do nothing for them..... Here the permit for doing any septic work is more than you spent....

So, there's the rub. Can't do it cheap in some locations, govt or soil conditions make a difference.

--->Paul