F’ing Septic Tanks
Feel your Pain.
Sometimes easier to see a drawing or layout of a septic system.
Here is a drawing of my septic system. Notice the stand pipes coming out the top of the tank for servicing. Uncapping the stand pipes will allow your system some more air to drain down the line in case your system is air locked.
In your case of air bubbling up in the toilets, (and your drainfield being saturated or plugged, if so gray water can't get out of the septic tank so it backs up as a place to go of the least resistance).
Say your wife is using the shower and the toilets are bubbling. The water going into the septic tank is exchanging the top air in the septic tank for the incoming gray water.
The extra air then backs up to the toilets looking for the highest point out of your system so that it can equalize the pressure.
Just like bleeding your front disc brakes with the bleeder screw at the highest point to let the air out of the system.
SSG_Karg has a good idea here of something you can do cheeply yourself to help relieve the topsoil water over your drainfield and help to keep from saturating it so that it can drain into the lower levels of the ground like it was supposed to do.
That clay in the soil is slowing down the drainage, so you can help it out by diverting the top water away from the drainfield area.
I like doing all my own work, not having to deal with inspectors that are supposed to know what they are doing. Just figure out a solution and go to it.
Feel your Pain.
Sometimes easier to see a drawing or layout of a septic system.
Here is a drawing of my septic system. Notice the stand pipes coming out the top of the tank for servicing. Uncapping the stand pipes will allow your system some more air to drain down the line in case your system is air locked.
In your case of air bubbling up in the toilets, (and your drainfield being saturated or plugged, if so gray water can't get out of the septic tank so it backs up as a place to go of the least resistance).
Say your wife is using the shower and the toilets are bubbling. The water going into the septic tank is exchanging the top air in the septic tank for the incoming gray water.
The extra air then backs up to the toilets looking for the highest point out of your system so that it can equalize the pressure.
Just like bleeding your front disc brakes with the bleeder screw at the highest point to let the air out of the system.
SSG_Karg has a good idea here of something you can do cheeply yourself to help relieve the topsoil water over your drainfield and help to keep from saturating it so that it can drain into the lower levels of the ground like it was supposed to do.
That clay in the soil is slowing down the drainage, so you can help it out by diverting the top water away from the drainfield area.
I like doing all my own work, not having to deal with inspectors that are supposed to know what they are doing. Just figure out a solution and go to it.