Septic Drain Field Issue?

[monc440]

Looking for some guidance on how to check if my drain field is plugged. I will try to make this as short as I can but I want to gve enough info for you guys to give me some direction.

First thing I want to say is I'm going to do as much as I can myself before paying someone to come out.

History: The house was build pre 1900's so a very old farm house. We bought this farm in 2014 and the previous owner moved to a retirement home in 1990 so the house sat empty for almost 24 years. The owners grandson inherited the property in the mid 90's and had plans to fix it up. He gutted the house of everything (all old plumbing) put in a new submersed well and had the septic tank pumped but he never moved in because he moved away for work. When we bought the farm he told us his family had owned the farm since 1936 and his grandpa and grandma lived in town and used the farm as kind of a weekend place for years. When his grandpa passed away in 1970 his grandma decided to move in full time and she had the septic system installed at that time along with some other improvements. We renovated the house and put in all new supply and drainage plumbing inside and moved in late 2014. In 2015 I had a drain issue, I ran a snake down the drain in the basement clean out and found out the old clay (I think it was clay, not hard clay pipe but a kind of soft material) had collapse. So I put in new plastic drain pipe from the house to the septic tank. We didn't have any issues until the fall of 2021 when it backed up again. Again I ran the snake down and it was not plugged so we had the septic tank pumped and this fixed the problem. When we had the tank pumped they inspected the pipes inside the tank and the inlet and outlet pipes looked good.

Present Issue: The drains are baking up again. It happened quickly without any symptoms like the year before when the tank was getting full and we had slow draining and had to plunge the toilet every few days. I figured the main drain was plugged so I ran the snake down and it goes all the way to the skeptic tank with out any resistance so no clogged pipe. Also the draining is completely stopped because the water doesn't go down at all overnight. So I'm assuming it is some kind of drain field issue, maybe it is the same kind of old clay pipe and is broken down like the inlet pipe to the tank. I have an idea of the direction of the drain field but not 100%. The other thing I don't know is what kind of drain field was installed, if it has a split box or how many legs it has. Does anyone know what was the typical drain field design used in Mid-Michigan in the early 70's? My thought is to dig down to the tank outlet pipe and start following it looking for bad pipe but I'm not sure if something else I can do to confirm the drain field is the issue. I have inspected the area that I think the drain field is located and can't find any standing water, extra green grass or other visible signs of a bad drain field I have read about. One thing that kind of puzzles me is they also built a new garage next to the drain field area in 1970 when they were doing all the other work and it has a center drain. I'm making an assumption that the garage drain is plumbed into the drain field. When I run water down that drain it doesn't back up at all.

Any thoughts on what I should do next?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Dig the outlet up.

 

[monc440]

Dig the outlet up.

Ok thanks, then what? Keep digging to see if it broken or what?

 

[Twowaxhack]

Ok thanks, then what? Keep digging to see if it broken or what?

You may have a distribution box where the individual field lines split apart from the tank outlet.

Then again you may not. You’ll need to dig it up and see.

 

[LaChapel]

You could did the outlet up and snake out the leaching component possibly a pit or a DBox. Look for common signs of leaching area failure. These can include green grass stripes in yard or breakout from the area. If it all looks good you could try and locate the leaching line and see if the stone under and around is clean. Feel free to reach out to this thread with more questions I’ll keep my eye on it.

 

[monc440]

You could did the outlet up and snake out the leaching component possibly a pit or a DBox. Look for common signs of leaching area failure. These can include green grass stripes in yard or breakout from the area. If it all looks good you could try and locate the leaching line and see if the stone under and around is clean. Feel free to reach out to this thread with more questions I’ll keep my eye on it.

Ok sorry for my ignorance. Is the leaching line different from the drain field? Thanks

 

[LaChapel]

Ok sorry for my ignorance. Is the leaching line different from the drain field? Thanks

Leaching line is just a general term. Leaching fields all connect together and meet at the end. Leaching trenches are just straight trenches. Most people just call everything a field or a “bed”. But they’re are many different types of leaching areas you could always go to your Board of health and see if they have any plans on it. I don’t know how that works where you live but could be town hall or separate building.

 

[monc440]

Leaching line is just a general term. Leaching fields all connect together and meet at the end. Leaching trenches are just straight trenches. Most people just call everything a field or a “bed”. But they’re are many different types of leaching areas you could always go to your Board of health and see if they have any plans on it. I don’t know how that works where you live but could be town hall or separate building.

OK Got it. Thanks

 

[monc440]

Started digging yesterday and my tank is about 2.5 feet under the ground. I hit gray water just as I got to the top of the tank.

 

[LaChapel]

Something is backing up could be a crushed pipe or a leaching area problem. I’d just bite the bullet and have a company come check it out with a camera. You’re going to have to pump it anyways for a repair or an inspection. Call around look for a company that does full system pumping and inspections.

 

[FishScreener]

And, when you get it exposed make your self an “As-Built” drawing with swing ties from fixed objects, like the corners of teh house to the things that you or the next guy might want to find again. Life is much easier when you have the location of things narrowed Dow to within a foot, instead of just guessing.

I’m an Engineer, I draw up “As-Builts” of everything, where the sewer, water and electrical underground lines are and how deep, which receptacles are on what breaker, etc.

 

[monc440]

And, when you get it exposed make your self an “As-Built” drawing with swing ties from fixed objects, like the corners of teh house to the things that you or the next guy might want to find again. Life is much easier when you have the location of things narrowed Dow to within a foot, instead of just guessing.

I’m an Engineer, I draw up “As-Builts” of everything, where the sewer, water and electrical underground lines are and how deep, which receptacles are on what breaker, etc.

That is a great idea. I will do that.

I went down to the township and they had a permit from 1972 for the septic system. So the system is 50 years old. The drawing on it looks like a sketch on a napkin. lol It did however let me know the area of the original leach field and I'm going to dig to find the tank outlet today.

If I do have to put in a new drain field I'm going to move it to a new location because it looks like an elm tree (probably about 50 years old is just a few feet to the west of the old field.

 

[monc440]

OK looks like I need a new drain field.

Before I start looking for a contractor I would like to hear your opinions on gravel vs gravel less systems.

I dug a test spot where I want to put the new field and my perc test is 8 min/inch.

I was looking at the systems from a company called infiltrator that offer a chamber type system and a system called ez flow that uses a geosynthetic aggregate around the pipe instead of gravel.

Anyone have any thoughts on these systems?

 

[LaChapel]

I’ve inspected around 1000 septic systems in my short career. I strongly recommend that you do not use infiltrators or any type of geoflow system. The installers love them because they are easy to install. The down side in my experience is that they fail very quickly. Usually those systems use a lot of sand whitch clogs up with bio material a lot faster that traditional systems. I’ve seen infiltrators fail within 10 years on the regular. I’ve also seen geoflow fail within 15. I recommend you try for a traditional trench system or even a pit system if available. Pits last the longest in my opinion but are rarely used nowadays. The only reason to use infiltrators or geoflow is if ground water is high and it is REQUIRED. Those are my “2 Cents”.

 

[Twowaxhack]

The number one cause of field line failure is the occupants using too much water.

This pushes suspended solids that you can’t see with the naked eye into the drain field where it produces a biomat.

This biomat seals the ground like a pond bottom.

 

[willlp]

I’ve inspected around 1000 septic systems in my short career. I strongly recommend that you do not use infiltrators or any type of geoflow system. The installers love them because they are easy to install. The down side in my experience is that they fail very quickly. Usually those systems use a lot of sand whitch clogs up with bio material a lot faster that traditional systems. I’ve seen infiltrators fail within 10 years on the regular. I’ve also seen geoflow fail within 15. I recommend you try for a traditional trench system or even a pit system if available. Pits last the longest in my opinion but are rarely used nowadays. The only reason to use infiltrators or geoflow is if ground water is high and it is REQUIRED. Those are my “2 Cents”.

My Dad who was born in 19313 and died at 101 years old had said many times for a septic tank is flush down a mildew piece of liver and let mildrew do the job of dissoling the effuent. whats left over is passed on to the septic field. Works for me.

 

[monc440]

The number one cause of field line failure is the occupants using too much water.

This pushes suspended solids that you can’t see with the naked eye into the drain field where it produces a biomat.

This biomat seals the ground like a pond bottom.

So if that is the case would you recommend a drain system pre filter to catch the solids that make their way into the system?

 

[Twowaxhack]

So if that is the case would you recommend a drain system pre filter to catch the solids that make their way into the system?

I do recommend an outlet filter.

However, the outlet filter will not prevent microscopic solids from entering the field due to using too much water.

It will stop sludge and larger particulate that you can see with the naked eye from being washed into the field.

 

[Ferdinand]

I do recommend an outlet filter.

And (speaking from unfortunate experience) be sure to clean that filter frequently! Otherwise the filter will eventually clog up and block the outflow causing your septic tank to overflow. That's really not good, eh.

 

[Twowaxhack]

And (speaking from unfortunate experience) be sure to clean that filter frequently! Otherwise the filter will eventually clog up and block the outflow causing your septic tank to overflow. That's really not good, eh.

I haven’t cleaned mine in over 5 years.

If you’re having to clean your outlet filter frequently then maybe it’s something you’re doing that’s requiring excessive maintenance