F’ing Septic Tanks

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Sounds like maybe your lateral lines are installed wrong, and could also be in wrong location. If the ground doesn’t drain properly, it’ll cause you problems. May need to have the ground tested.
 
Yunick13 said:
Sounds like maybe your lateral lines are installed wrong, and could also be in wrong location. If the ground doesn’t drain properly, it’ll cause you problems. May need to have the ground tested.
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It’s Georgia clay the county inspector swears it percolates, he was giving me a line of **** over the phone. I can’t wait to see him tomorrow when he comes out. He said when the septic company was doing the leach install they already had it covered before he made it out to inspect it and yet he still signed off on it. So he has some liability there. It’s hard to hold anyone accountable these days. I would spend more money trying to fight it then just fixing which is sad.
 
Had that problem with my Dad's septic system a few years back, come to find out when the cement truck came and poured his new front porch, it collapsed the lateral lines. He had new lateral lines installed and it fixed the problem. I also saw a friend's system once ruined were cigarette butts had been flushed down the toilet, was told they wont break down and stopped up the holes in the lateral lines. There are alot of pond systems up here were I live due to the poor perk of the ground, folks put cattails and lillies in them as a landscape, but I don't like the idea, I also know a few folk's that have 2 tanks, problem here is slate rock instead of clay though.
 
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Previous post.
Crushed drain field line?
I know no more about this than anyone else who doesn't do it everyday.
But going up hill on a drain field doesn't sound workable to me.
Especially in Georgia clay.
The inspector and the installer probably know each other at best.
And are buddies at worst.
Since it's 5 years I'm afraid they either are going to point fingers.
Or attempt to say the home owner has flushed incompatible items down over the intervening years.
I can't recommend anyone but these people are local to you and ad on WSB.
So they should have some credibility if push come to shove.
Atlanta's Educated Plumber Call Today | Plumbers Atlanta - Delta Plumbing, The Educated Plumber™

The absolutely best thing you can do is get the washing machine off the system.
Put a french drain in if you have to or run the grey water out the back to a garden or your lawn.

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Can you explain?
red67gts said:
I will have to disagree with the sock because it doesn't take long for the slim to stop it up
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If its gurgling something's wrong. When anything is draining, it needs air to allow flow and equalize pressure. Turn a pop bottle completely upside down, it'll gurgle. Put it on a 30* angle and pour. The air goes in as pop(poop) goes out, that's what you want.
67/6barracuda said:
They gurgle but most when the tank gets full from the rain.
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4spdragtop said:
Can you explain?

If its gurgling something's wrong. When anything is draining, it needs air to allow flow and equalize pressure. Turn a pop bottle completely upside down, it'll gurgle. Put it on a 30* angle and pour. The air goes in as pop(poop) goes out, that's what you want.
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4spdragtop, when the tank is completely full after a hard rain and wife decides to take a shower, or run the washer machine, the toilets will start having bubbles of air escaping, within 5-10 the water backs up in the shower. Now the toilets have always made a weird gurgling sound when flushing, even if we haven’t had rain in a while. Which is why I thought maybe my roof vents where clogged up as well. I have two bath rms with a vent stack in each. Master bath has a 3” and the other bath 2” venting up through the roof. The county inspector will be here at 1:30. I’ll see what he has to say and take it from there. I might just dig up the lids later and take a measurement so I can order the risers for starters that will at least eliminate that point as an intrusion point. I had the tank pumped July 18’ then it backed up again a few times, I found the discharge pipe leaking fixed that in may 19’. Now I‘m here again back to square one. I’m trying to eliminate all the variables. I’m going to figure this out eventually, God willing.
 
I know you can't tell now but in summer dry weather can you see 3 green streaks where the lateral lines are running. They need to be installed perfectly level so the liquid will migrate over the entire leach field. If they are not level it can't travel from one end to the other so if you can only see a green spot over part of field that would indicate that it is not operating properly. Trying to point out all possible causes because I understand the frustration
 
After being in the civil engineering field for 40 years.
It sounds like part of the problem is the drain field or leach field as it's also called maybe under designed.
They take what is called a perc (percolation) test to
determine the soil type and absorption rate of the soil to design the size of the field. Here's a video of what I'm talking about.
 
Plugged drain field. Leaking household plumbing. The effluent does not have time to process. You need a consult with a highly qualified licensed septic system installer. This sounds like a big problem to me. I have had four homes with septic/drainfield systems and not had to replace a drainfield yet. I pump mine every five years and put an additive in once a month to help the bacteria work properly.
Good luck, your issues are not fun to have and I hope you get it corrected!
 
The county inspector came out and we got into a pissing contest. In the end he recommended that I have soil engineers test the soils, to determine what type system should be utilized. He believes there is transient water that’s filling the tank when the water table gets to high. Basically the system is too deep right now and should be brought up higher on the hill, and the new system will need a pump. He bored down 5’ on the front hill, soils where dry. He then probed 5’ at the bottom of the hill and the soils was soaked where my tank and leech bed are. 300.00 to 400.00 for the soil analysis, probably 10,000 grand for the system up grade. FML....why didn’t he recommend that type system the first time when it failed. I am so pissed.
 
Sounds like he didn't do his job the first time.
You may have a case there. There should be records of his tests from the when it was installed.
That is if he took any.
I hate to say it you may have to get an attorney.
 
He got really defensive as did I, I pretty much said he didn’t do his job. My wife was outside crying because we were going back and forth. Then the asshole called me out on my construction in the back yard. For pouring a concrete pad for the patio. He asked “did you get a permit for that” I said no. Turns out I don’t need one, i called after he left. I’m thinking of packing my ****, listing this house and moving back to Florida. Getting a lawyer will just add another layer of bullshit and wasted money.
 
Sounds like it will be cheaper and easier to install some supplemental drains around your property to prevent rain water from permeating your leach field. Rent a ditchwitch and get yourself some 4” perforated sewer and drain pipe and create an escape path for the excess water. Only needs to be 12-18” deep. Backfill the ditch with #2 river gravel and just a skim of topsoil so the grass will grow. Lead it to the edge of your property and daylight it if possible or if not lead it to a drypit.
Only happens when it rains a lot right? There’s your problem.
 
I just read this for the first time..... Was expecting the outcome from reading the symptoms. Has the same thing exactly in our first house in IN in the 80's.... leach field in a low spot and the lines would essentially become the French drain for the whole back yard and back up into the tank. Worked on it but moving the field was the only practical fix.

Newer neighborhood? The whole drainage plan may be the cause. Not sure the health dept inspector is really liable for the final area drainage to be right for any individual septic field. The defensiveness may be due to not being liable and gets hammered over and over when it is not his fault.

Not sure what you can do legally that will be cost-effective. Seems like the builder or his septic sub were the' designers'.

And French drains around it may carry off surface water but won't carry off water that is flowing UNDER those drains and is going on downhill to the leach field.
 
I live in a rural area on a horseshoe shaped road. Every house on the inside of the U needs it’s septic redone before selling. Luckily I live on the outside of the U on two acres with farmland all around. My house was built in 1974 and the tank was never emptied when I bout it in 1985. To this day it’s still never been emptied. I don’t even know where the tank and leachbed is as I have a nice downhill grade. The inside houses only have 45-50 feet to the road.
 
67/6barracuda said:
He got really defensive as did I, I pretty much said he didn’t do his job. My wife was outside crying because we were going back and forth. Then the asshole called me out on my construction in the back yard. For pouring a concrete pad for the patio. He asked “did you get a permit for that” I said no. Turns out I don’t need one, i called after he left. I’m thinking of packing my ****, listing this house and moving back to Florida. Getting a lawyer will just add another layer of bullshit and wasted money.
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Take a breath man, this is just another pothole in the road of life. Yeah it is tough to deal with but a licensed installer can fix it. The real estate folks could be on the hook for non disclosure and you may have relief coming from them. Whatever you do don't take shortcuts. Fix it right. Good luck.
 
In Alabama engineers or licensed surveyors approved by state to perform perk tests do the tests then turn it into the county which in turn visible inspects where tests were taken. They check soil type and holes that are 28" deep that they pour water into to see how many minutes it takes to perk. They also check the 42" deep holes to make sure no ground water is standing in it. After they verify this then it is approved for construction.
After the contractor installs tank and field lines the county inspector comes back out to make sure proper installation was done and all lines level before contractor can cover up. If Ga is the same then the county inspector must not have done his job
 
Sorry to read, what a dick the inspector is. How did he know you poured a slab?
He should pay more attn to septic stuff and not worry bout concrete lol.
I'm not surprised about the prices. Unfortunately most times septic stuff is big $$. BUT maybe it can be fixed DIY?
Good luck
 
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.

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