more drainage problems

mikehaugen · Jul 21, 2013

A few months ago I had a problem with the basement flooding, I think it was back in March or April. The grey water in my house goes out a separate pipe than the septic, and so did the sump pump. In the heavy rain, the drain was not keeping up and backing up into the basement where the sump pump would pump it back into the pipe and it never got anywhere, so I temporarily ran a pipe for the the sump pump and it seemed to be working ok for now. Now the drain is not even keeping up with the gray water.

I have been doing some digging and have found that the drain pipe is perforated pvc about 2' underground and surrounded by gravel. The 2 parts that I dug up (about 3' and 8' from the house) had the holes on the side of the pipe. I can kind of see where the pipe ran because the grass is slightly greener above it. The is no geotextile fabric at all and from the parts I have dug up, it seems that the pipe is full of silt up to about the holes. I don't see anywhere that this this daylights and is too deep to go to the ditch, so I assume it is just supposed to disperse into the soil.

Getting further from the house, the pipe is getting hard to find, and I am getting tired of digging. I was hoping to find the end of it to let me flush it out. Since there is no daylight end that I know of, any kind of rodder will not work.

So one question I have is there a better way to clean this out, or is it better to replace the pipe?
Is there a good way to locate the pipe? I don't think much water is flowing through it so I think it will be tough.

Here are my options...
-keep digging until I find the end and flush out the silt. (this would be okay, but I am afraid it will keep happening)
-just reconnect the grey water plumbing to the septic
-dig new trenches and bury new perforated pipe with gravel and geotextile fabric
-dig new trench and drain to ditch (this won't work well because the ditches are shallow and the pipe I believe is already below the level of the ditch)

What do Ya'll think?

user.69169 · Jul 22, 2013

You don't say what's going into that pipe with the sump pumb.

Gray water covers a whole lot of territoryand chances are you made your own problem.
Is there a dishwasher or a laundry washer going into the gray water pipe?

What you saying says yo got no idea where the pipe goes to, so the best way to find it will be to run a rod down the pipe and use a pipe locator on it.
Once you do that you got a step into solving the problem.

Egon · Jul 22, 2013

Any chance a probe might work to follow the pipe?

Consider a jetting device on a hose that will pull itself through a flush out debris as it goes?

Any wet spots?

Any chance of finding a covered pit ??

mikehaugen · Jul 22, 2013

Sorry for not being more clear, by "gray" water I mean everything but toilets... sinks, bathtub, dishwasher, washing machine. The sump pump also used to eject through this line. I have removed the sump pump from this line and ran a temporary line just discharging into the yard for now. I can't get a rodder down the line because of the silt/sand/debris that is in it. Since it does not daylight, there is nowhere to push whatever is in it, so I feel I would need to find the end (which the best I can tell just terminated underground) in order to clean the pipe.

The two places (about 4' and 8' from the house) that I have actually found the pipe is only about 1/3 full and if I run the water in the house it will come out of the holes there, but will flood the hole- telling me that it is clogged beyond there. A covered pit? I don't think so, I may go back out with by probing stick to feel around some more before I commit to anything major. By probing stick, I mean a steel rod that I jam into the ground searching for hard objects.

After more consideration, I am thinking it may just be better to run a new line. I did not put this line in, and I think it is just not adequate for my 5 person household. I have lived here for 5 years and haven't had problems until this spring, but my family has been growing. The line is about 75' long from what I can tell of 4" perforated pvc. Even if I manage to clean it out, I feel it may just fill up again, especially since whoever installed it put the holes on the side, and the gravel that I have dug up around the pipe seems pretty saturated with dirt.

I will probably spend some time today doing some measuring/surveying to see the feasibility of running a solid pipe to a ditch so it can daylight. I will also continue to search for some kind of catch basin or cleanout of some kind. If I can find something like that, it would be great.

dodge man · Jul 22, 2013

Code would probably be for it to go into your septic, and that might be easier.

user.69169 · Jul 22, 2013

Two things I can dang sure tell you for sure, first is your laundry machine and dishwasher going into that pipe is what plugged it up, and probably done a pretty good job of plugging the drainfield as well with that many people in the house. Them laundry machines pump out tons of little strings that wind themselves together and plug plumbing. People usually use that powder soap in dishwashers too, and use too much of it. That stuff don't all dislove and it goes to working like concrete with all them little strings from the clothes washing machine.

IF you can find a rotorooter guy who knows how to run his special cutter for plastic pipe through that pipe you might get someplace, but most of them guys is just quick buck artists.

When you put a new pipe & drainfield in you want to put yourself at least a 300 gallon tank about 20 feet from the house so it collects all the string & soap along with the grease from the ktchen sink so it don't cntaminate & plug the drain field.

You live way too far north to handle gray water the way they do it at Disney World, them lilly plants just won't live much North of Georgia.

mikehaugen · Jul 22, 2013

Yes, the septic would definitely be easier but I'm wondering if it will handle the load. I guess I need to talk to the septic guy.

I will also check into the codes.

kenmac · Jul 22, 2013

It wouldn't be code in my area to dump gray water anywhere except septic system

Egon · Jul 23, 2013

If the Gray water does get moved to the septic tank seriously consider a filter on the tank outlet. Them little plastic strings plug up septic fields too.