oh I'm OK it's grandfathered in, I guess advantages of long driveway. disadvantages are taking snow off it, mud season, and i need 90 yards of gravel for an inch of topcoat.. the top of my tank is 6 feet below grade because sewer line run below slab in basement "working man's toilet " nephew called it that when 3 and he was helping, in basement sits on slab. made it fun to find tank though dug around house a week never found it, not in town records, house was a foreclosure but with that much over it I can drive anything on it
Now that right there would be gooder. Not. All the pipe in the crawl is schedule 40 PVC, and the main line going into the tank just goes into the tank a few inches and dumps the flow. The little bit I looked inside the tank, it didn't look like there was anything other than a plain old tank, but I couldn't see the other end well.
I only talked to the guy at the health dept. on the phone and he's not held up much hope there will be any records, unless maybe it was redone after the house was built. I need to take him the tax ID number so he can start checking.
Water running back in to a tank that's just been pumped ain't a good sign. High water table could be the problem. I had this exact setup, dry weather all was fine, spring rain and snowmelt caused sluggish draining. I don't think my old place and it's drainfield was a problem, I think it was just a poor site for a drainfield, low lying, slope of land merging right into back yard, high water table, etc. Don't blow cash on the 'fracking' thing, I did, and it didn't do a dang thing but lower my bank account. I would find the distribution box and make sure it ain't clogged, and if it is, I'd maybe jet the lines, old tanks often let too many solids pass through and clog up the lines, and then the distribution box. I have a new place now, well, 7 years old, new technology, two tanks, and sandmound, all is well here. Good luck.
I don't know what your problem is but I feel your pain. I had a plugged leech field. metal tank & the outlet baffled rusted off at the welds & fell over & the solids plugged the leech field. Flooded the crawl space . Of course it was winter, had it pumped 3 times until it could be repaired. $6500 . I have a 100 year plastic tank, new leech field. Now I have it pump annually. Wife likes charman soft, the TP that don't break down. & wet wipes + a teen age G-daughter. Septic guy says could probably go every other year, but I like annually. Not want to go thru it ever again, crapping indoors is a luxury I don't want to loose again. Yard where the new system went in is pretty good grass now. Good luck ! Brings back ugly memories.
Weve got this problem big time at work. I guess some people just figure 'outta sight outta mind'? http://www.ottawasun.com/2015/03/28/fatbergs-threaten-to-wipe-out-sewage-systems
The rule here is nothing other than pee, poop, and tp go in the toidy. However, I'm not the bathroom nazi, so I have no idea if the "rule" is followed. Kleenex don't disintegrate well either, along with certain other items. I can only imagine what's in my field. I watched a show not too long ago that took a tour of a waste facility and the guy running the place showed how bad their filters got clogged with all that stuff. LOT of extra money wasted dealing with it, all because some people are lazy. We even buy the "septic safe" TP, but don't really know if it's better or not.
The way my buddy explained it the last time we cleaned ours out is that the stuff that shouldn't be flushed will get hung up on the floating scum blanket and has a hard time actually getting into the field. Our stations at work have to be cleaned regularly as the grease and wipes hang on to each other which makes a blanket on top that will set off the alarm from the transducer.
No inlet tee, so I'll assume no outlet tee either. Probably just a pipe out to the field. No risers, just an access hole with a cap that has a taper fit.
My sisters was an old old one and it had some kind of baffle going out to the field which I forget what it looked like. with a half moon baffle on the pipe coming from the house. This is all guessing what I'm saying dave as you aint gonna know till you get everything looked at in the spring and hoping the best for ya's.
We are in a "new to us" home that had renters in it on and off over a decade or so. Had it pumped twice, hopefully whatever was probably in there that should not have been is gone.
I'm thinking now, that what I find in the tank (or don't find) might also unhide some clues as to the problem. Was out in the yard and garden for a bit, and the ground is very slightly thawed, but far from letting me dig. Might be another couple weeks or more.
Not all tanks where made the same. Mine has no tee on the inlet or outlet side either. But a concrete baffle from side to side that keeps the top scum layer from directly entering the outlet pipe. From your original description of your problem I would have to think a problem on the outlet side is the culprit. What it could be is any ones guess. Broken pipe from frost heave, plugged drain field, who knows. Forgive me if I missed it in an earlier post but do you know what type of pipe was used when the system was installed? PVC, cast, Orangeburg, clay tile?
All I know is that there is Schedule 40 PVC in the main line from the crawl to the tank. From there, I don't know......yet.
Copper Sulfate - it's allowed my father to creep his 30-40's era leach field along for the past ~5yrs if you have tree roots in the area dump directly into the d-box and let it do it's job, kills roots and they will eventually disolve
