New Septic System Troubles

[MacLawn]

To me, this septic company should just come on out and fix this drain field. One day. That's all it'd take. A few hours, but call it a day. Our system was installed in Red Clay Country (as I call it) in Georgia, in August, 1975, and nary a problem in all those years. It was done right. Soil engineer way back then called for 300' of drain line. My septic tank man, he was great, also dug three 4x4 foot holes in the center if each line. He said that'd just give it extra drain area. He didn't charge me for those holes. Our area has this red clay, so not good percolating soil, but if done right, they work good.

If I were installing a new septic field, I'd use those dome hard plastic thingamajigs that don't need gravel. Water just goes under them and leaches into the soil and fills the cavity under the dome. I've seen those systems work in some awful places for septic fields.

Tell them boys to fix it right.

 

[spursjingles]

Try a realestate attorney. Hold the engineer responsible.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Start making your phone calls with a mouth full of marbles, you'll sound like a local, not a New Yorker...Tell the sub to rent a mini ex, it will fit through a 5 ft gate.

 

[jrdepew]

Start making your phone calls with a mouth full of marbles, you'll sound like a local, not a New Yorker...Tell the sub to rent a mini ex, it will fit through a 5 ft gate.

HA! Maybe I will give that a try.

Something my realtor said to me when I moved down here...

"You know the difference between a Yankee and a **** Yankee?......**** Yankees never leave!"

Got a call from the builder that they are lining up to fix the septic this week. He says they plan on R&R one fence post next to the gate to make an 8' opening, doing the fix, and bringing in a couple pallets of sod to fix what will most likely be chewed up from the excavator.

If history holds....when they say "this week" they mean sometime in the next 2 months :dance1:.

I will update and hope to get a bunch of pictures when they get to work.

-Joe

 

[spursjingles]

Just to clarify, this is your Grey Water system. Your Septic System is plumbed for human 'waste'.

Not true, infiltrators are designed to handle black and grey water combined in the same system.

 

[spursjingles]

Thanks for this...I am hoping they are separate and I had a major brain fart thinking this was the septic!

The one thing you don't want going into the septic system is the flush water for a water treatment system. It can actually plug up the field and harden the soil, not allowing proper drainage.

 

[jrdepew]

Update, finally....

The Septic company came out and did the fix prescribed by the engineering firm.

What they ended up doing was digging up all the soil between the two drain lines. This turned out to be a 4' wide trench, about 30' long. The digging was mostly sand for the first 2-3 feet where the current drain field exists. This is the clean fill that they had brought in when the system was first installed. The continued to dig down to about 4' deep or so. They started finding some small roots, some clay, etc. The penetrated into this layer for most of the 30' long trench. There was water gushing from both drain fields into the trench...they really appeared to be holding water just like a bathtub. You can see it in the picture below:



They then filled this whole excavation with rock, up to 12-18 inches from the top of the soil level. A third drain line was added to the entire length of this trench as well, spliced into the manifold pipe. The piles of soil were then spread out over the surface of the drain field, which was not a very deep layer, and smoothed reasonably well with the blade on the excavator.

Pic of the trench filled with rock:



I went out later that day, and picked out the large sticks from the newly spread dirt. The builder then had 2 pallets of sod delivered, and him and I layed sod over the excavated area.

The yard looked great...nice new sod. I wasn't talked to about money and I was never asked to pay a dime.

That was in February...

Fast forward to Friday 4/28...

The septic system is showing the same behavior as it did before. There is a new low spot in the system where water is now punching out, causing a stinky, spongy mess.

I call the builder, he comes right over. He calls the septic installer, which went to voicemail.

I talked to the builder this morning, and he said that the septic company responded and are going to send a guy out. I asked for an ETA and have not received one yet.

So, we are back to square 1

From my research, even if I had gotten an attorney the first time, I have to allow the contractor a chance to repair the issue...so it wouldn't have gotten me far.

I have contacted the engineer to get his assessment as well, no response as of yet.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[rd_macgregor]

That has to be a frustrating mess, for sure!

It sounds like there is a clay layer or something that is preventing the water from draining. The last round of improvement/upgrade, essentially created a "dry well", but a dry well without an "outlet" of some sort just becomes a bathtub full of rocks. Water either has to evaporate, drain away/run off or sink in. Your site doesn't seem to favor any of these paths. I hope the engineers can come up with a solution that actually works for you.

I've had chronic issues with drainage control from natural seeps and springs on my property; solutions I implement only seem to work for a few years, then nature relocates the problem!

Please keep us updated on progress.

 

[RNeumann]

Two things stand out. 1) my original comment above about getting below the clay. I'll follow up and say a perk test would be valuable at this point. 2) my spider senses were way up when I read 30' of leach line. That seems way to short. A typical 3/2 house with typical soil needs 150'-200' of leach line. You are way under 100'. Adding between the two existing lines doesn't add much. Their is a space requirement between lines- both for evaporation and leaching.

 

[CADplans]

It sounds like there is a clay layer or something that is preventing the water from draining. The last round of improvement/upgrade, essentially created a "dry well", but a dry well without an "outlet" of some sort just becomes a bathtub full of rocks. Water either has to evaporate, drain away/run off or sink in. Your site doesn't seem to favor any of these paths.

I was living in Charles City County, Virginia in the 1970's.
This was happening to dozens of homes. The septic systems had been built on clay.

After many attempts, the county had to pipe all the water away to a common processing area.

As an interim (for years!!) the county hauled the water each time the tank at each home filled.

All of that water is still treated,, and dumped into a local river.