Dry Well Questions

[Bert Byfield]

I've got a bell-shaped dry well (maybe 3 feet in diameter) attached to a big box (about 3 feet by 4 feet, 4 feet deep?). The thing is clogged, and I'm trying to fix it.

I'm thinking that both these well containers are open to bare dirt at their bottoms, even though someone told me he thought they had buried drainage pipes coming out and into the back yard, like a leech field. (?)

So, given all this empty bell & box space for a reserve, if I dig down behind the box (and there are no pipes coming out), and make a hole at the bottom, and fill the dug hole with gravel, and put dirt on top, the bell and box will still function as a water reserve, and the gravel will let the water go away.

Is this the best (cheap) way to do it?

[David L. Martel]

Bert,

What do these dry wells contain? Gravel? What's clogged? I know people who have gravel filled dry wells. They seem to get clogged with lint every decade. The well is dug up, the gravel removed, washed, and then replaced in the well.

Dave M.

[willshak]

on 7/21/2008 4:52 PM Bert Byfield said the following:

Can you see into the well? If it is not full, the waste water drain pipe may be clogged. If it appears full in the tank, you can call a septic tank cleaner to clean it out. Back in 1984, my round cylindrical dry well, open at the bottom and with large holes cast into the concrete all around the circumference, was installed into a large excavated hole that was much wider than the tank diameter. Before they lowered the tank into the hole, they filled the bottom of the hole with stone. After the tank was set in, they filled all around the circumference of the tank with the same stone. When I have my septic tank pumped out, I have them pump the dry well well, as well. Well, as well as they can get it. well

[Bert Byfield]

Just space. No gravel. A stick poked down the round well comes up black for an inch when it hits the bottom. I can't reach the bottom of the box.

This one has been working for thirty years or more. I can't reach the bottom of the box without breaking it.