First time septic owner losing her crap! LITERALLY:,(

[Jessica Waldeck]

I AM BEYOND FRUSTRATED!? So long story short...
My neighbor bought a house and asked me to move with her. I take care of her pups and we just became really close. Regardless I was like heck no techno! I got 2 kids youre crazy if ya want all of us to move in with ya! Well turns out there was a barn on the property that was the "groundskeepers place". Legit picture a barn with a garage downstairs that had a bathroom and a loft with a bathroom and a kitchen sink...
I seen potential! She let me do what I wanted to it! Well we started having problems from the get! She gave me keys Feb 18th 2018. I did some painting and simple stuff before we decided to move it. Well...we move in the end of march. According to the realitor we shared a septic tank. Sellers paid to have it emptied before sale was even final. Every time we would flush the upstairs toilet and the downstairs one the downstairs one overflowed all over the bathroom floor! YUCK!? So I decided to just not use the downstairs toilet right. Easy fix? Psh. Well we decided to do some more renovations. We put a kitchen in downstairs (yes it was done by a professional). Everything worked great. She got the tank emptied again in august. It wasnt full but she wanted to play it safe with 2 households sharing a tank. Well the last month whenever we flush the upstairs toilet it comes out of the downstairs one! So I turned the water off to the downstairs toilet. Well I ran a load of laundry and ran to get more laundry soap and came home to 2 freaking inches of water in my downstairs! Sooooo we called a septic company. Turns out our washer line had a clog. So they fixed it and we went about our lives. I legit made that man sit there while the washer finished its cycle to make sure it worked. Highly reccomend the spin mop btw! So that worked FOR A FREAKING DAY! So I call the septic guy again. This time he runs a camera... well guess what guys!? I have my own septic tank... THAT HASNT BEEN EMPTIED SINCE IT WAS PUT IN OVER 30 YEARS AGO!? Just typing that I get so heated! UGH!? Anywhoooo. So we get it pumped out obviously. Now I'm 700 bucks in the hole. I flush the toilet downstairs and it's never worked so beautifully! I was beyond pleased. The nightmare is finally over! So my optimistic self decided to completely remodel the downstairs bathroom. Looked great untill exactly 13 days later my brand new floor is ruined! Nightmares back. Ya cant flush downstairs toilet again without it going all over the floor AND my yard it filled with nasty poop water! I called septic people AGAIN! (I get the same poor guys out here every time) They tell me my tanks full again!? Son of a biscuit eating bulldog!? I'm sorry but I'm about to pull a 2006 brittany spears!? I'm out of money at this point and this is just getting better and better
I love being an adult
*I'm sorry. That wasnt short at all

 

[Jeff Handy]

Ok! Assuming this whole story is not just part of your stand up comedy act, or a homework assignment from your drama teacher.

Meanwhile, if your septic tank is somehow getting fully overloaded in a very short time, it probably means that stuff is flowing in, but not being distributed out into the surrounding soil through the leach field system.
Underground pipes that extend out from the septic tank, to let liquids be gradually leaked out and absorbed over a large area.
The heavy solids normally stay in the tank, to be broken down biologically but eventually will need pumping out.
The urine and lighter elements get rinsed out to the leach field, to be broken down by bacteria and also naturally filtered into the soil.
So if your tank was never pumped out for 30 years, the leach field might be log jammed with solids, and you probably need to install a whole new system.
That would also explain the yard being filled with poop water, the leach field is totally corked up with crap and paper.
Find a local septic pro who can inspect and advise.
Meanwhile, if you can somehow rig up a system to divert as much gray water out of that septic tank as possible, you will have more capacity to hold hard core poop.
Gray water is just fairly harmless discharge water like from sinks, showers, washing machine, etc.
Some towns or counties let you dump that out onto the surface, as long as it stays on your property.
Ask your town or county about that, but ask anonymously.

 

[FishScreener]

With the system unpumped and full for as long as it was, solids may have been pushed out and clogged the drain field.

The probability on the may have been, is almost a certainty, and you probably need a new leach field.

 

[Diehard]

It should be determined if that septic tank shared a common leaching field with the main house.
If so, are they experiencing any slow down in their sanitary waste?

In my state(and others), it's mandatory that when a home is about to be sold that the septic systems be inspected and certified to be properly functioning and meet specific requirements.

Sounds to me the the previous owner was well aware of the problem, hence the reason they had the tank pumped.

Have the owner look into this with the local local health department.

Looks like some locations in Michigan have similar requirements.

Example: Washtenaw County Health Department

Just found this...https://www.freep.com/story/news/lo...tic-systems-fouling-michigan-waters/96639750/
"At least 11 counties in Michigan have requirements that septic systems be inspected when a property is sold."

 

[Jeff Handy]

That’s a good point.

You might be able to go after the previous owner, either in court or by at least threatening to sue, for failing to disclose that serious known defect.

They might at least kick in part of the cost of a new leach field, to avoid a civil judgement.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Meanwhile, consider my suggestion of trying to route most of your gray water away from that system, if your local laws would allow it, to be surface dumped onto your lawn or gardens.

 

[CT18]

Septic systems are engineered systems. When you start adding fixtures to the system it is not designed for that. I am not saying that is your issue as stated you may have leach issues. Get someone out that knows what they are doing.