During the winter my septic system backed up into my basement laundry tubs so I had the tank pumped, (it had not been done in quite a few years). Now that the snow has melted I notice that whenever I do a load of laundry, water puddles over top of the septic tank. After a while it drains away. What would be causing this to happen?
Thanks
Sounds like your drainfield has failed......
What is involved in repairing it? Is it something I can do myself?
Leech field may need to be reworked or, as was in my case, one of my pipes was blocked going into the tank. After snaking them all out, and power washing with a power nozzle on the hose, the problem went away.
So I should get a shovel and start digging on the output side of the septic tank. I'm assuming the pipes are fairly easy to find and follow. Any tips or tricks or just start digging?
Find your tank top, once dug out and open, you'll be able to look down and see your pipe coming in. You'll have at least one, of course, or more. Mine had two going in. I ran the hose from the septic tank side up as far as I could go to flush them out. I also have a stand pipe in my yard, I open the cap and it is an access pipe between the house and the tank, I was able to flush from there also.
Just like snowflakes, no to septic setups are alike.
I wish you luck.
In my case the tank was just pumped a couple of months back so I'm thinking my problem is output from the tank not input. The same process for either direction into or out of the tank?
Thanks
Its a lot of digging--and maybe its just the outlet pipe or a distribution box has shifted.
If you are in the sticks at all, I would look around and find if a neighbor has a backhoe, often someone local can come out and inspect /advise and may well be your most economical contractor for such work, as he wont have to drive his backhoe too far to your place.
I have replaced a drainfield myself in the past renting a small excavator, but beware there are most likely permitting issues, depending on where you are located.
Good luck........
No, out of the tank goes into your leech field, you don't want to be flooding that with water. After a good amount of time, a leech field can become dirt/clay heavy instead of rock. When that happens your leech field fails to do it's job properly. That's when you have to bring in the backhoe, dig it all out and lay fresh rock, then cover it back up with dirt/topsoil/sod.
Septic tanks work well when they work, but when they go whacko, it's never an easy job.
It's been real wet here this spring and the lawn over the leech bed is much wetter than the rest of the lawn. A neighbour who has lived in town suggested that it might also be that the lines are just full of water. The weather shows 4 or 5 days of dry weather coming up so I'm going to leave it be for few days and keep a close eye on it. If it's still puddling over the tank after a few dry days I'll start digging the leech field from the tank out and hope I can find and clear/replace any blocked pipes.
Thanks
Wrong direction to take.
I had the same problem and installed a clean out at the head of each major run of the field. It was gross but having the cleanout saved a lot of digging in the following seasons.
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