Not only is that broke, there's water coming back from the field lines (which is where all that effluent came from). The tank isn't full enough for anything to flow into the field lines yet. He fixed that, put in the riser, redid the baffle, and we "reinstalled" some of the soil. Gonna' think about whether or not I'll do the Root-X treatment since there's quite a bit of water in the lines, but he left that with me since it was on the invoice.
Assuming cast iron pipe on top has a hole where goes into plastic riser. not good...bad news worse news ... where is Xtra stuff coming from it should not be tank if just pumped.. should be at least 500 gallon tank and it's backing up pipe. which should have a 1 10 pitch on it other way.. in short it's chit, luck pun intended
Yeah, that outflow pipe is "sewer pipe" and it's some kind of plastic. He must have stepped on it right after he got here, and the water came out right there. When we lifted the lid to redo the baffle, the tank effluent was still over a foot below the outflow level. Nothing coming out of the tank, all that fluid came back from the field lines. They used quite a bit of water to jet the lines. I'll be keeping my eye on it and in another few days, the tank should start emptying in the lines. I'll know more after that point. My wife was right about there being roots in the lines, but it's starting to look like the field isn't going to take a lot of fluid........which is what I thought. So, I guess we're both right, yet still possibly screwed. Once we get the health dept. involved, based on the clay they found, whoever redoes the field will need to pull out quite a bit of material in order to get a decent field put in. At least the tank is in good shape, although the health dept. may require it to be replaced as well. We may need to go back into limp along mode for a few more months......again. The field never did completely stop taking fluid.
Hey Dave. Just caught up with your project. Any chance you have enough room to go sideways with a new field, instead of adding the $$ of removing the old one too... if it comes to that? Not sure how that's determined in your area. In Maine, a soil scientist has to design the system and moving sideways has been done.
Yeah, thought of that too, but I'm at the mercy of the health dept. and he's not involved yet. I was shocked that they found clay. Guess I've not dug far enough so far. It would actually be fairly easy if he'd allow it, but I still think we'd need to go several feet below where the lines would be laid unless he required a mound system. Might require all old stuff be removed even f the field got put in another locale. The outflow pipe has an angle fitting on it to go left, and we could just make it go right instead. Maybe. I asked the kid today how much he thought they'd charge for just a new field, and he said it would be somewhere around 3-3500, but he didn't make those decisions. It's really very dependent on health dept. guy.
Aw man, that last posted pic probably ain't a good sign.....unless that percs outta there in a couple hours. Most every on lot system here in my parts is a sandmound.....soil just doesn't perc so good. I know a guy close by that found one good site, for a sandmound only, on a 50 acre property.....almost couldn't build.
What a mess you are having with that field. It is very hard to get them fixed right on your own. Hope you sign off on getting it done for you. Plant your new lawn and forget about it. I don't recall if you mentioned this, but is your gray water separated from the black water? If not, that is worth considering. I had a sick field, but fixed it by taking the gray water out of the system. After a while, never any more boil over. All this sewer talk has me making arrangements to have my tank pumped proactively. I want it done before my son and his family move it. We had 6 people on that field for many years, so I'm not anticipating a problem. Much of the gray water is separated out.
You know Larry, that's a good idea, if they'll let me do it, and it's not a huge money bump. I'm not to that point just yet. Great idea to have them dig it out. The pile of soil was quite......large. The excavator made short work of it.
Yeah. That. However, things are fairly laid back up here. I'm not quite sure what to expect from this guy, but he seemed nice on the phone.
My dealings with the district 4 health department (same one I think you deal with) when I bought my place up north last year were positive. They couldn't tell me how my field was laid out, just that it was replaced in 1983. The department down here is a bit different. Very rare to see a conventional field approved in my area anymore. Lots of mounds in new construction. If my field here ever croaked (knock on wood that it doesn't) I can almost guarantee I'd have a small ski hill somewhere on my property.
So my septic guy came up yesterday morning with the truck and excavator, gave up probing for the tank after 20mins, I had spent a couple hours probing as well. Came back this morning with the camera and beacon locater... Tank is under the deck no way to tell if it even has a lid
oh man, that is bad, it is going to be hard to locate the lid. If you can find out where the sides are, you can be more accurate in finding the lid. I keep a paver in the lawn directly above the lid. With the kids moving in, I think I'll drive a stake in so we know where it is in the winter should we need to access it for a clean out.
The 2x6 stringer nearest where the probe went off is maybe 2-3" off the ground. 21'x16' deck wasn't really built well 2x6 stringers 24" OC the center has probably sagged ~3" since it was built. Not me, it's been there since probably not long after the house was built, then later added onto 10x10 that is attached to it(doesn't have it's own footing) Septic guy said they see homebuilt tanks in my area all the time and it may not even have access lids. Told me about one ladies house - somebody used an old concrete farm cistern was ~10,000 gallons, she wasn't happy with the bill for 4 tanker loads
Meant to add these - this is where I dug the outlet down 2-1/2' in our concrete clay and a pic of the deck, probe went off right between those two oak leaf hydrangeas. I drove a 4' piece of rebar and didn't hit the top
