Long story short I came home yesterday afternoon to a septic system that was backing up. The grinder pump was not pumping. The pump is plugged into an outdoor outlet right above the tank pit. The previous owner had installed pipe wrap that featured a stackable plug, think Christmas light plug. Anyway, the heat tape failed and the stackable plug had an open short. I was concerned that the system might freeze when the temps drop again. I went into town after work to buy a couple straw bales and could not find a single one for sale. I came home, dug out a couple pine rounds that were seasoning, grabbed the 395 and went apechit. About a half hour later I had a nice sized pile and an empty saw. Hopefully this will get us through.
Please tell me more about your septic system and where the grinder is? We are considering a new system.
You are hilarious Yoops, but I really would like to know. That being said, some of the posts here about bodily functions are the funniest LOL!
The current system was installed in the late 80s. We are in a tamarack swamp. It is essentially a conventional trench system built in a small sand pile. Since the pile is at about the same height as the house, the effluent runs by gravity into a pit just out side the wall. The pit gas a grinder pump that pumps the effluent over to the septic tank. St Louis County MN has a huge bee in their bonnet about septic systems. They want everyone to convert to the 'pressurized mound' system. That system was designed for a climate that is on average 30 degrees warmer in the winter. In short, they freeze up and don't work 6 months out of the year. The septic contractors love them. No one will warranty the work, and since we are forced to use this system, the contractors are not worried about getting a bum rap when the systems fail. A coworker estimates his 10 year TCO at about $60k when you figure the install, having a contractor come thaw it several times a winter and the damage it has done to his house when it failed. The county has been on us to replace it. Fortunately, we bought our house under the old laws and are grandfathered. They changed the rules about 12 months ago and now they are throwing people in jail, replacing their systems, and sending them a bill when they get out. The cost for us to do a new system would be about $22,000, would require roughly 170 yards of sand to be brought in. No way are we doing that for a house we paid 32,000 for. The previous owner said our systems has never froze, even in 94 when there was no snow and week after week of -35f lows. I hate to replace infrastructure that works better than what would replace it. We would like to add on eventually, I am investigating composting toilet systems.
I'm a big fan of most things northern MN has to offer, being from the southern portion of our great state. However the yahoo's that get elected to the county boards up there are really something. The only thing I can come up with is that all the common sense folks are too busy working for a living to mess around with getting mixed up in the politics. Quite the mess if you asked me.
Yeah something like that. I don't think this will be our long term place we settle down. Probably 5-8 years. We both want to move further west. We picked our house and location with that in mind, something we could walk away from if things got bad enough.
