My neighbor recently levelled a spot for a new shed near our property line. I was gone yesterday and he sent me a bunch of text messages about stuff from my septic system bubbling up where the dirt had been moved. My drain field is on that side of my house, but it's about 15-20ft north of the bubbly goo. And I barely used any water in my house in the previous 24hrs. It seemed unlikely, but my neighbor was sure it was from my septic, which made me pretty nervous. When I got home after dark, I walked over with a light and saw the puddle of frothy brown liquid. I imagined the worst, spent a bunch of time reading about drain fields, looked up local companies that could do an inspection, and had a terrible time sleeping. First thing this morning I was out there to look into it further. 30 seconds with a shovel exposed the culprit. Just below the surface there's a root bleeding water out. Looks like the tractor broke it. It's from one of the huge maples i had cut down in january. My stumps are oozing a ton of water right now and when I drilled holes in them last week for the stump killer, the holes were instantly peeing water. Problem solved. Total cost: $0.
I left the root exposed for the neighbor to see and sent him a text about it. Our schedules are opposite so I only see him a couple days a week. When I first texted him about the root he thought I was wrong but then I sent him pics. I also noticed a couple of smaller roots doing the same thing where the tractor cut into the bank a bit. The amount of water in the stumps is crazy. The stump killer says to drill 1" holes, ad granules, then fill holes with water. I drilled the holes and before I could add the granules, the holes were full of water from the stump.
Well unfortunate this is not a story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer that barely kept his family fed.
Glad it turned out the way it has. I'm thinking the neighbor was a bit skeptical when he got your message though....at first!
Speaking from experience, you'd have known it was septic when you smelled it. So no smell tells you it ain't.
Yup, been there. Definitely obvious. In my cases, it was just seeping a bit and the smell wasn't bad.
This stuff has a foul smell. Almost like sewage. I drilled extra holes in the sides of the stumps thinking it may help kill it sooner. They're leaking nasty smelling foam too.
