Conventional Septic issues, advice? (long read)

[wlgorman]

Got a crappy situation happening.

We moved into this home in midlothian in late 2016 and havent had an issue. Its a conventional septic system. I have been pretty lax on adding the chemical into the tank lately, which I realized when the issue started saturday morning. Its been pumped the spring after we moved in, then saturday. To my knowledge, we should only have to have it pumped every 3-5 yrs. 2 adults and 2 kids living in the house.

Saturday morning, I took a shower. Noticed it wasnt draining very well. Went to take care of business on the other side of the bathroom, flushed, and thats when all hell broke loose. Water coming up from the base of every toilet. Sewage backing up into the toilets and all baths/showers.

I run outside and look into the tanks, theyre pretty full, about 1.5 ft under surface of the ground. My wife calls for septic to be pumped.

I go to the sewer cleanout and notice that the water level in there is much higher than the septic. So I run the snake down and it drops, toilets start to flush and baths/showers drain.

Septic guy comes out, pumps 1500g out. Says it prob didnt need to be pumped, as there wasnt an overwhelming amount of solid waste. We did notice, that as soon as he stopped pumping, water would return into the 2nd septic tank from the drain field. I know its rained alot and Im hoping the yard/drain field is just saturated.

He brings to my attention that, the septic covers are about 1 foot lower than the rest of the ground, and the caps are typical sprinkler caps w holes in them. Meaning that when it rains, the tanks fill w water.



Fast forward to last night. The shower starts gurgling when flushing the toilet, as everyone is going to bed. I talk to the wife. She did 3 loads of laundry yesterday, then all 4 of us took showers consecutively.

Im on shift today and had to leave at 5am, so I instructed her how to run the snake, and to snake the drain field pipe coming out of the septic, if she can get to it. I looked in the cleanout before I left this morning and its down to normal level. She says the toilets are flushing fine and no gurgling from the shower.

Ive been reading up on possible issues/fixes. I understand the drain field may be bad. But we havent had a single issue in almost 4 years. Im hoping its a combination of: 1) Me not treating the septic routinely (although Ive read that you dont need to). 2) rainwater saturation in the drain field not letting the tank drain as usual.

Septic guy mention getting this stuff called "Septic Shock" to help break down solids in the drainfield and get the bacteria or whatever working right again. Anyone used this stuff?

[westtexducks]

Is it the big panels for a drain field or just the 4" pipe with holes in it for a drain?

[GA Bowhunter]

I can't speak to your specific situation without looking at it first hand, but from the description if looks like a case of ground saturation.

I would not recommend it(illegal), but I have heard of people pumping their tanks out onto the ground until the field lines have time to recover(dryer weather).

You can also add additional field lines.

Around here, when a leach field fails and you have effluent coming up from the ground in the drain field, the health department requires you to abandon that drain field and put in new lines.

In wet weather failures the cause is usually too much water in and not enough water out.

You can also look at how your surface water is controlled. It is best if the only water that gets on top of your drain field is rain water that falls on it.
Do not let storm water stand on the drain field. Use swales and berms as needed to direct any surface flow away from the drain field.

You can go by your local environmental health department and get a copy of your septic paperwork. It should have a drawing showing you where everything is supposed to be. It should also include the soil test that will show you where the good soils are if you need to put in new drain lines.

I like chamber systems. In questionable situations I like them to go in at no reduction in length.
In GA you only need 65% of a conventional field line length if you use chambers.

Around here they require engineers/landscape architects/surveyors to site plan septic systems. I still design them myself and then tell the engineer where to put it on the site plan.

edit: I added pics because every thread needs some pics.

[wlgorman]

Is it the big panels for a drain field or just the 4" pipe with holes in it for a drain?

Im not sure, honestly. Im assuming its pipe, being that there is about a 3-4' wide strip of green grass running to the corner of my yard from the tanks

[ramrod]

Sounds to me like a drain field problem. Could be saturated/under sized/ roots-stoppage or if it's older the pipe could have collasped. I would quit guessing and get a company out there and run a camera. You don't need addatives for a healthy system, but it will help.

[wlgorman]

Thanks for the input GAbowhunter

[wlgorman]

Sounds to me like a drain field problem. Could be saturated/under sized/ roots-stoppage or if it's older the pipe could have collasped. I would quit guessing and get a company out there and run a camera. You don't need addatives for a healthy system, but it will help.

Yeah. Been thinking that myself. Would you call a septic company or a plumber? Im skeptical on calling a septic company, b/c I feel like they would just tell me I needed a new field or system regardless of whether I did or not.

[twobittxn]

A plumber isn't supposed to touch a septic system without a license.

How old is your system? The field may be past it's usable life span.

No doubt the field has failed. Water isn't supposed to run back from the field into the tanks. It could be rain water intrusion. It could also be ground water intrusion.

You can extend the risers on the tanks, but that could also be wasted money if you have to replace the system due to it failing and age.

As you have discovered, showers and laundry need to be spaced out. It sounds like the system may be a little undersized so it's going to be easy to overload.

[LeanMachine]

Are you in a rural area where you can get away with working outside of the rules a bit?

My system on the house I bought is complete garbage. Soil quality is way too poor for a conventional system and it def was not a pro install. Front yard was always flooded from coming out the clean out. I used to work in septic install and maintenance and said i can fix this problem. I ordered a $100 pump like goes in an aerobic system and dropped it in the last tank with a float switch. Dug lines for 2 sprinkler heads. Done. It works like a champ now. So basically I ghetto converted my conventional system to an aerobic. I'm not an expert on the matter but about the only difference in my ghetto system and a real aerobic is a compressor pump that supplies air into the tank to help grow bacteria to break down solid matter.

A healthy system pretty much never needs to be pumped. What kills a system is when your laundry and dish water go into the system. If you use a bunch of anti bacteria soaps, its killing the good bacteria in the tanks that is needed to break the poop down....i think.

You mentioned the water in the clean out being higher than the water in the tanks. That sounds like a clogged line before it dumps into the tank to me. Then you snaked it out. If it keeps happening, I'd assume you have a root or other obstruction that paper is hanging on and forming a dam.

[friscopaint]

Sent you pm

[BrianL]

When the ground is saturated the water has nowhere to go. Best rural solution is to find the end of the field line and add a valve that can be opened when ground is saturated. Best non rural solution is to upgrade to either clear water or low pressure system.

[fullsizeaggie]

I would find a way to bypass your washer at minimum. There is definitely no fault in that.

[Paycheck]

I think the blockage was cause by water backing up from your field through your tanks and floating solids collecting in the pipe. water usage goes down, level in tanks go back to normal and the blockage is there. I agree the problem is in your lateral lines. Probably saturated soil.

[chief262]

PM sent

[buck40]

We had a traditional septic in Livingston. Had problems after we bought the place. Called septic company and issue was old drain field with roots, etc. TRA had new regulations so we could not fix the problem within the law. I was told that I could only fix a line if I knew the exact issue, (i.e. if I ran over it with a car and broke it), but could not just dig up and redo my field lines. $8k later we have an aerobic system that costs to maintain (per law) and costs to repair after warranty and things start breaking...long story but my advice is to find a way to fix the traditional system. If it is roots in the lines, they may offer a jet system cleanout but I was not convinced it would work and maybe even cause more damage to old pipes. But I agree that the saturation problem seems to be your issue. My old system had some sort of jumper between the tanks and the field lines that prevented backup once the tanks emptied downstream. Is it maybe possible to install a jumper (up over a foot and back down) in your line to stop "backflow" from field lines to tanks? Oh, and I am no septic expert by any means.