Drain backing up

[sapper83]

And thanks to Acme sewer drains and septics, we have a pumped tank now. They were QUICK. Called at 845ish this morning. They asked if I wanted it as an emergency call or wait until 2 to 4pm this afternoon. I told them we could wait.

935am they called to say they were on their way.

I am at work but was told if we have any other issues to call them for a free inspection.

They should have done a quick inspection after they pumped the tank down.

I may have missed it so what was the verdict??

 

[Rookie]

I think he was just full of ****

 

[WebSnyper]

I may have missed it so what was the verdict??

 

[Brandon]

They should have done a quick inspection after they pumped the tank down.

I may have missed it so what was the verdict??

I wasn't here for it. They pumped it when we moved in and inspected it back then.

Fiance dealing with our son and crazy dog could only keep up with parts (and her lack of understanding) what he was saying.


All I know is, atleast for now, I can put the bucket away.

 

[sapper83]

I wasn't here for it. They pumped it when we moved in and inspected it back then.

Fiance dealing with our son and crazy dog could only keep up with parts (and her lack of understanding) what he was saying.


All I know is, atleast for now, I can put the bucket away.

Well if you can keep an eye on the tank it will take a couple days to fill back up, if the problem comes back (hopefully not) it was more then the tank being full.

 

[INP8riot]

Your septic tank is always "full". Looking in the septic tank in the middle will tell you nothing. Looking in the outlet and inlet will tell you lots. Looking in the D box will tell you lots.

If you are in the woods with no nearby neighbors, get a pump and stick it in the tank below the scum layer and pump it into the woods. You will meed to do this daily to drain off several hundred gallons. It will buy you some time to diagnose what the problem is.

I thought my leach field had failed or my baffle had broken and clogged up my leach field but the pipe between my tank and D box crushed and clogged. It is too hard to diagnose the problem without digging. I just went through this in the fall. I ended up replacing everything between the tank and the leach field. Man was it fun. I only had a port in the middle of the tank for sucking. Now I have ports at the inlet, middle, outlet and D box.

I was able to revive my leach field hardness. The hard pan can be reversed. I can't think of the name of what I used, but its way cheaper than the commercial liquid stuff they sell. If you're interested I can go back through my records.

If you are thinking of doing it yourself, send me a message and I'll walk you through what and how I did it. It is very labor intensive though.

Don't put any enzymes in your septic. It is like a vaccine for it. It kills off all the good bacteria and you always have to add it. The best stuff to break down any solids is already in there because it is in YOU! If there are problems in the system, the enzymes aren't doing anything.

 

[sapper83]

Your septic tank is always "full". Looking in the septic tank in the middle will tell you nothing. Looking in the outlet and inlet will tell you lots. Looking in the D box will tell you lots.

If you are in the woods with no nearby neighbors, get a pump and stick it in the tank below the scum layer and pump it into the woods. You will meed to do this daily to drain off several hundred gallons. It will buy you some time to diagnose what the problem is.

I thought my leach field had failed or my baffle had broken and clogged up my leach field but the pipe between my tank and D box crushed and clogged. It is too hard to diagnose the problem without digging. I just went through this in the fall. I ended up replacing everything between the tank and the leach field. Man was it fun. I only had a port in the middle of the tank for sucking. Now I have ports at the inlet, middle, outlet and D box.

I was able to revive my leach field hardness. The hard pan can be reversed. I can't think of the name of what I used, but its way cheaper than the commercial liquid stuff they sell. If you're interested I can go back through my records.

If you are thinking of doing it yourself, send me a message and I'll walk you through what and how I did it. It is very labor intensive though.

Don't put any enzymes in your septic. It is like a vaccine for it. It kills off all the good bacteria and you always have to add it. The best stuff to break down any solids is already in there because it is in YOU! If there are problems in the system, the enzymes aren't doing anything.

View attachment 340490 View attachment 340491 View attachment 340492

I keep saying full, i keep confusing people. I guess I mean OVERFULL when the baffles are not visible. 100% the D box will tell you mostly what you need to know.

Did you secretly repair that your self? Was there not a gravel bed below the pipes? Or was that the sections before the weep holes?

So the initial treament we used was sodium precarbonate it wasn't an enzyme. It feeds the bacteria oxygen to reproduce in the feild that eats biomat, the black tar like layer. It got hings flowing again. I still swear by reobic leech feild opener though, we had grass growing so fast over the leach and eventually it stopped growing like a jungle.

 

[INP8riot]

You can also use liquid gypsum. Before I filled it all back in I poured liquid gypsum in each field. That's what I couldn't remember. You could pour it dirwctly into your D box if you have access to that. It softens soil. Its made for plants but it does the same thing as those expensive leach field repair kits. I had bounced this off some guys on an OH board and they all swear by it. The one guybsaid he has ancient clay leach fields and he does this yearly and he's still going strong.

https://www.soillogic.com/ This is where I got it. I was able to get a lot of it for less than those kits. I think I poured 2 gallons down each field over a period of 3 days. I mixed it with some water to make sure it got the length of the field.

Those were the pipes leading to the leach field. Those were crushed/ovaled. The previous owner (and builder of the house) used thin wall. I replumbed it with schedule 40.

I bought a jet kit on Amazon for a power washer (had it to clean my gutter drains). It came with 100' of hose and the spinning nozzle. I also did that before using the gypsum. Not much came out so I knew the leach pipes were not clogged.

What a crappy job that was!

I had a company come out and because I only had that one hole, they were real nervous about giving me a quote. They knew they were going to have to exploratory dig and the price would go up as they found more.

So I bought myself a Harbor Freight backhoe (laugh all you want, that thing works!) and spent the next 2 months digging nights and weekends.

 

[sapper83]

You can also use liquid gypsum. Before I filled it all back in I poured liquid gypsum in each field. That's what I couldn't remember. You could pour it dirwctly into your D box if you have access to that. It softens soil. Its made for plants but it does the same thing as those expensive leach field repair kits. I had bounced this off some guys on an OH board and they all swear by it. The one guybsaid he has ancient clay leach fields and he does this yearly and he's still going strong.

https://www.soillogic.com/ This is where I got it. I was able to get a lot of it for less than those kits. I think I poured 2 gallons down each field over a period of 3 days. I mixed it with some water to make sure it got the length of the field.

Those were the pipes leading to the leach field. Those were crushed/ovaled. The previous owner (and builder of the house) used thin wall. I replumbed it with schedule 40.

I bought a jet kit on Amazon for a power washer (had it to clean my gutter drains). It came with 100' of hose and the spinning nozzle. I also did that before using the gypsum. Not much came out so I knew the leach pipes were not clogged.

What a crappy job that was!

I had a company come out and because I only had that one hole, they were real nervous about giving me a quote. They knew they were going to have to exploratory dig and the price would go up as they found more.

So I bought myself a Harbor Freight backhoe (laugh all you want, that thing works!) and spent the next 2 months digging nights and weekends.

Good info! I never heard about the gypsum i will definalty look into that. We send the salt to the tank so that may help longevity. No joke on harbor freight. I buy a lot of their stuff as throw away and it gets the job done, if it works to do more that is a bonus.

 

[INP8riot]

Good info! I never heard about the gypsum i will definalty look into that. We send the salt to the tank so that may help longevity. No joke on harbor freight. I buy a lot of their stuff as throw away and it gets the job done, if it works to do more that is a bonus.

I'm freaking out about my softener going into my septic. I have been here a year and a half and it's on my mind multiple times a week. Is that what you mean? I have to knock a hole in the wall and run it into the woods.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I'm freaking out about my softener going into my septic. I have been here a year and a half and it's on my mind multiple times a week. Is that what you mean? I have to knock a hole in the wall and run it into the woods.

In the house I used to live in, there was a grey water line that went straight to the leach field, bypassing the septic tank. If I remember right, the softener discharge was routed into that so that it didn't send all that salty water into the septic tank.

 

[INP8riot]

In the house I used to live in, there was a grey water line that went straight to the leach field, bypassing the septic tank. If I remember right, the softener discharge was routed into that so that it didn't send all that salty water into the septic tank.

Thats what I'm worried about. The leach field. Salt hardens soil and will kill leach field drainage.

 

[firecadet613]

I'm freaking out about my softener going into my septic. I have been here a year and a half and it's on my mind multiple times a week. Is that what you mean? I have to knock a hole in the wall and run it into the woods.

The house I grew up in had that (built in '63), but I believe they've since outlawed that and everything must go to the septic now.

Does anyone on septic treat it regularly with Reobic Leech Field Opener or similar?

 

[ditcherman]

Thats what I'm worried about. The leach field. Salt hardens soil and will kill leach field drainage.

Not familiar with “salt hardens soil”.
How much salt do you dump in your water softener? That’s the max amount of salt that could make it to the fingers, if it doesn’t fall to the bottom of the septic tank, or chemically react with something to become inert/something else.
So from that “max” amount, you can do the math comparing the volume of that salt compared to the soil in your field.
My field is maybe 100 x150, so 1/3 of an acre ish.
There are about 2000 tons of soil in an acre, per foot, so my field has 680 tons of soil in the top foot (not a good comparison I know, a septic field is probably 3’).
I might go through 100 pounds of salt a month, or 1200 lbs a year, or 6/10’s of a ton per year.

So how much salt does it take to “harden” the soil?

I wouldn’t worry about it. If this is all you have to worry about consider yourself lucky.

You can find salinity problems where long term irrigation has affected the soil but this is a much higher rate of sodium than you could ever put through your softener.

 

[INP8riot]

Not familiar with “salt hardens soil”.
How much salt do you dump in your water softener? That’s the max amount of salt that could make it to the fingers, if it doesn’t fall to the bottom of the septic tank, or chemically react with something to become inert/something else.
So from that “max” amount, you can do the math comparing the volume of that salt compared to the soil in your field.
My field is maybe 100 x150, so 1/3 of an acre ish.
There are about 2000 tons of soil in an acre, per foot, so my field has 680 tons of soil in the top foot (not a good comparison I know, a septic field is probably 3’).
I might go through 100 pounds of salt a month, or 1200 lbs a year, or 6/10’s of a ton per year.

So how much salt does it take to “harden” the soil?

I wouldn’t worry about it. If this is all you have to worry about consider yourself lucky.

You can find salinity problems where long term irrigation has affected the soil but this is a much higher rate of sodium than you could ever put through your softener.

That puts my mind at ease, thank you. No I have a ton more to worry about, that's why it is still not fixed after 1.5 years! lol

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Not familiar with “salt hardens soil”.
How much salt do you dump in your water softener? That’s the max amount of salt that could make it to the fingers, if it doesn’t fall to the bottom of the septic tank, or chemically react with something to become inert/something else.
So from that “max” amount, you can do the math comparing the volume of that salt compared to the soil in your field.
My field is maybe 100 x150, so 1/3 of an acre ish.
There are about 2000 tons of soil in an acre, per foot, so my field has 680 tons of soil in the top foot (not a good comparison I know, a septic field is probably 3’).
I might go through 100 pounds of salt a month, or 1200 lbs a year, or 6/10’s of a ton per year.

So how much salt does it take to “harden” the soil?

I wouldn’t worry about it. If this is all you have to worry about consider yourself lucky.

You can find salinity problems where long term irrigation has affected the soil but this is a much higher rate of sodium than you could ever put through your softener.

The houses I've seen with grey water lines that bypass the septic tank were fairly old houses. Do they still do that with new construction do you know? Or do they run everything into the septic tank? Just curious, I'm on city sewer.

 

[Rookie]

Last time I looked into it, indiana doesn't allow you to separate gray water.

 

[singlestacksig]

I'm freaking out about my softener going into my septic. I have been here a year and a half and it's on my mind multiple times a week. Is that what you mean? I have to knock a hole in the wall and run it into the woods.

the water coming out of your water softener does not have much "salt" , is has traded ions with the water and now has calcium chloride in it.. very good for your lawn..

 

[INP8riot]

the water coming out of your water softener does not have much "salt" , is has traded ions with the water and now has calcium chloride in it.. very good for your lawn..

Boom! Totally didn't consider the combination process with the iron, calcium and magnesium. I was too focused on the salt! Thanks!!!

Sorry OP to thread jack. But there is good info in here for you if you are a novice septic operator like me. I'm atill learning.

 

[sapper83]

I'm freaking out about my softener going into my septic. I have been here a year and a half and it's on my mind multiple times a week. Is that what you mean? I have to knock a hole in the wall and run it into the woods.

It is always better to not send salt to the tank bc i was told it can kill the bacteria and clog the feild, but i been doing it for 7 year since we fixwd the field and havent had an issue.