So our septic system froze yesterday. About 32' of 4" of ABS was frozen solid as well as the vault. Whoever installed this system only covered the vault itself with about 2" of road base and even less over the pipe. It also runs under our driveway, and is not sleeved and cracked. Had to call a plumber friend who has a large hot water jet and it still took 2 hours to break through today. Was about to leave the house for the day after starting a load of laundry until I heard running water downstairs. Well it was black water and about 100gal of it coming out of the tub and toilet lifting the lid up, it had some serious force! Now to go access the damages, didn't have a respirator and not to sound like a wuss but it smelled so bad I wouldn't go down without one. Worst part is I couldn't take a real shower after being sprayed with my own excrement for over 24 hours! Thankfully my girlfriend has a sinus infection and can't smell a thing or I bet I would have a hotel bill on top of everything else. Won't post pictures for everyone's sake.
Sorry about your troubles Colosplit. I have been through similar issues. Not as much back up, but similar. I just had my tank pumped out, a couple months ago I guess it was, and it was full. We would of had a big problem had I waited any longer. I waited too long as it was. Hope the clean up and everything else goes smooth for you.
What a crapper deal!! How are you cleaning up, or is it an insurance claim? If it helps, our septic in Lory State Park started freezing at around 35 or 40 years after being built. Too many floods washed away alot of top cover. I cannot help but wonder if the floods of 2013 did the same to yours? We were able to limp along with free mulch from the place on one of the roads up to Horsetooth res. I cannot remember if it was harmony or prospect but there was a tree cutting guy there that offered mulch for free, as well as I heard Christmas trees are now being chipped by the city and that mulch is offered NE of old town somewhere near lemay and vine. I got lucky and scored 5 truckloads of native dirt from an excavator working on my road, and that solved the freezing problem completely.
Horrors, just a living nightmare. Find some spoiled hay and cover the area, then toss a tarp over that. Might get you through until spring when you will have to make it right.
Man! What a nitemare! We had the opportunity to possibly take over a house my parents built back in the late 90s. It had a septic tank and for years growing up, we always had issues with it. Im glad we didnt follow through and eded up giving up the house. I remember my step dad spending about $12k on a leach field and all that crap and still having issues within the tank.
Thank you for not posting pic's!! I can't even imagine what getting sprayed with that would do to to a fella! I know this guy would have added to the mess. I can get gagging just taking the garbage out though. lol I hope all is getting better and there's minimal damage. Best of luck Colosplit!
Sorry to read about this Colosplit ... winter septic problems are the worst. Jack Straw idea of sawdust would be a good temporary fix for the winter after you get "things" pumped and cleaned out.
Man, what a headache! As WW asked, I hoped you had the tank pumped right away. The big problem is in your statement that the drain pipe is only a couple inches below grade? Really? How the heck did it ever pass inspection with the health department? Not only do you have to add fill, but with "32' feet of ABS froze solid as well as the vault", you more than likely have larger problems than just some additional fill brought in. For the fill, could you get by through this winter with just some hay bales? Keep 'em dry by covering with plastic. don't want them to absorb moisture and then freeze, right? For the 32' of ABS, well, sounds like you're going to be digging to check for damage and replacing. And, if the vault really was frozen solid, well.... Good luck with it all.
As wildwest stated I live in a horrible area for flash floods and wildfires. After the High Park Fire of 2012 which leveled 6 out of 14 houses on my road, we had no ground cover and minimal vegetation which in turn causes our gulch to flash flood with very minimal rain fall/snow melt. I thought that the flood water could of been enough to wash enough dirt away from the top, but if I added just 6" of fill now the grade to my garage doors wouldn't make sense, like a speed bump when exiting the garage. There was a lot of controversy with my house when it was built. One lady from California bought the land and tried building a 3000sq ft home surrounded by 500-1000sq ft cabins, it just wouldn't fit in. Then she decided to put money into all the wrong things. Do I have $80,000 worth of granite countertops? Yes. Do I have the most efficient radiant floor heat as was suggested by the contractor? No, I have the most pathetic forced air system available. So I am assuming that utilities were done quickly and cheaply. She ended up listing it for sale, never living here and it took her five years to sell it for about 100k less than it cost her to build it. There must be a large belly in the line or a long flat spot. I'm thinking of that if it freezes again I will take care of it sooner than later. It's not too deep so a few fires in split 55gal drums will thaw the ground hopefully. I am just thinking that it was installed hastily and without thought, the line isn't even sleeved in cast iron and it's right under the driveway! I guess you can't fix stupid.
Hope you can make things right. Sounds like by the time you are done with all the "upgrades" (septic, heating, etc.) you may as well have paid full price.
No the tank was not pumped because the pump truck couldn't make it to my house, roads are too icy and we have a ice dam at the first creek crossing that he would of broke through. I have a septic engineer coming up tomorrow morning to help re-design the system and hopefully help me think of something to do until we can install a new one. If I moved it on the other side of my property I could install a leech field as well, where it is currently I cannot because of the floods. I rented the place for two years while it was on the market. I figured if I took the amount of rent I paid, then added all the necessary repairs and alterations I wanted to do, and an additional 65k for unknowns and offered that amount I would be safe. We ended up pretty close to that number and it was less than half of asking and close to 100k less than she spent to build, not including the land. I knew I would have to put a good amount into the house but I was hoping to wait until spring melt to start.
Sory to hear this. what kind of temps, hi's & low's are you seeing and for how long. Colder than usual?
That's the weird thing, last week we were 0-15 for about 7 days. The last three or four days though we have been a steady 30s.
Maybe if you lighten the usage, it can help? It wouldn't be unheard of if you had to use a port-a-potty till better times
