We've lived in our house 2 years now, the previous owner had flushed loads of baby wipes and sanitary products, probably used bleach down the loo as well. I've had a bath put in, where as she had a shower in. We had the tank emptied last year, but the soak away is over flowing again. What is likely to be causing these problems and how do I fix them?
Could be many reasons. Even though the tank was emptied there could be clogs in the piping to the leach field, the ground may be saturated with chemicals stopping absorption.
You really need a pro to examine it. Sometimes the solution is a new system.
You are probably going to have to dig up and replace the leach field runners. Big, expensive job. To prolong leach field life, I have placed a quality filter on the output of the clothes washer (most clothes now are at least partially synthetic fibers, ie plastic. These are not biodegradable). Also, a fairly fine mesh filter on the shower/tub drain to catch those sock fibers that stick to your feet. Everything that goes down my drains is biodegradable, including laundry and dish and body soaps, and kitchen and household cleaning products. My drain field is now over 30 years old, and so far I have had no problems.
Roebic makes a variety of septic system cleaning/rejuvenation products. There is a possibility these might postpone total failure for a while.
-dan z-
Agree, assuming that a "soak away" is the leach field.
We had to install a separate field after a year of moving into this house as field was wet. There is a switch box where I can easily switch between fields if needed and the second field got wet after several years. Someone told me that the fields will get renewed when dormant and getting rain. Now I believe it is a county rule to have two drain fields. My fields are both seepage and evaporation. Probably a good thing because i think the county has also cut back on seepage rate allowed as two neighbors had to install tanks with chemical filled pillows to clean up the gray water before going into their fields.
Years ago I recall the county would limit the number of bedrooms in a house as to perk tests for septic. If perk was not good, the less bedrooms, the less people dumping into the septic.
With us, sons grown up and moved, low flush toilets etc. we have been using original field for years now with no problem.
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