Topgun510
New Member
I apologize ahead of time for this protracted post. I want to include as much info as possible so someone here can hopefully guide me in the right direction.
We started experiencing problems with our septic a little over three weeks ago. The first indication was "gurgling" from the shower one night. It didn't happen again and all the drains appeared to work okay and we shrugged it off. A few nights later, the same thing happened. This time, it was a little worst. While I noticed that the softener/ sump pump was running seemed to coincide with the gurgling. The shower started to fill with water so I immediately ran down and unplugged the softener and sump pump.
The last time our 1000 gal septic tank was pumped was roughly 3 years ago. Its just the wife and I and we really don't think we use water excessively. Nevertheless, I dug up the access cover the following day to have a look see and that is when I discovered exactly just how full the tank had become. The inlet from the house was submerged in gray water, so the tank was literally full to the top. I arranged to have the tank pumped asap, and we have since replaced the toilet with a ultra low flow unit that uses between 1.1 - 1.6 gals per flush. I have been running all of our laundry down to the laundromat, and there has been no softener output being dumped in. On a hunch, I didn't back fill the septic access cover because I had a feeling that wasn't going to be the end.
Over the weekend, I lifted the cover off once again to have a look. Again, the tank is full to the top. It has only been 3 weeks since the tank was emptied. Looking at the diagram the previous owners left behind, we have a dry well and then a drain field. Does that make sense? When we purchased the house, we were told that the drain field had been replaced 10 years before, so the age of the field is roughly 15? From what I have described, what is my most likely cause of failure? I started digging around the tank yesterday in hopes of finding a clean out for the soil pipe. No such luck. Apparently there is no baffle on the outlet side of the tank either, so now might be the time to take care of this. Any advice you all have is welcomed.
We started experiencing problems with our septic a little over three weeks ago. The first indication was "gurgling" from the shower one night. It didn't happen again and all the drains appeared to work okay and we shrugged it off. A few nights later, the same thing happened. This time, it was a little worst. While I noticed that the softener/ sump pump was running seemed to coincide with the gurgling. The shower started to fill with water so I immediately ran down and unplugged the softener and sump pump.
The last time our 1000 gal septic tank was pumped was roughly 3 years ago. Its just the wife and I and we really don't think we use water excessively. Nevertheless, I dug up the access cover the following day to have a look see and that is when I discovered exactly just how full the tank had become. The inlet from the house was submerged in gray water, so the tank was literally full to the top. I arranged to have the tank pumped asap, and we have since replaced the toilet with a ultra low flow unit that uses between 1.1 - 1.6 gals per flush. I have been running all of our laundry down to the laundromat, and there has been no softener output being dumped in. On a hunch, I didn't back fill the septic access cover because I had a feeling that wasn't going to be the end.
Over the weekend, I lifted the cover off once again to have a look. Again, the tank is full to the top. It has only been 3 weeks since the tank was emptied. Looking at the diagram the previous owners left behind, we have a dry well and then a drain field. Does that make sense? When we purchased the house, we were told that the drain field had been replaced 10 years before, so the age of the field is roughly 15? From what I have described, what is my most likely cause of failure? I started digging around the tank yesterday in hopes of finding a clean out for the soil pipe. No such luck. Apparently there is no baffle on the outlet side of the tank either, so now might be the time to take care of this. Any advice you all have is welcomed.