my septic system failed

[russ446]

our septic system failed inspection at my mom's house. we're moving in there and building her a granny flat. nothing fancy. the issue started when we found out that no system had ever been registred. i'm going to lay the pipe, and install a sewage pump. i feel comfortable doing that. will have someone in to dig, and then get the sand trucked in. any advice that could be offered would really be appreciated. this is my first attempt.

[440Ken]

Sounds like a crappy job...good luck with it.

[abodyjoe]

just make sure its all up to code.   what part failed? the tank ot the drain field?   during our home inspection when buying the house we are in now the septic failed.  we made the sellers pay for a new drain field (the part that was bad). cost them like $12,000. what a freaking mess.  the new system is about 4 times bigger then the original. codes changed over teh years. i swear my house can fit in the hole they dug..  they put like 12-14 loads of sand in.  i have a ton of pics if you want them for reference.     

[DART VADER]

My buddies septic system is the tabletop jump on his motocross track. Now we are all jumping over crap.

[68_Val_Sedan]

my advice is that shit runs down hill ...

Seriously though ... the pump ususaly is installed in the pump tank when you buy the tank, use conduit to run the wires back to the house,  use schedule 40 pipe not schedule 20 sewer and drain, the thin stuf will crack if some one drives a lawn mower over it.   other than gettign everthing inspected  I would sayit is a no brainer ...

[Dono]

Sounds like you guys have some odd building codes where ever you are.  The only sewer pumps we use here is if you have a finished basement and need to pump it up into the tank.  Off the tank there is a main header of pipe that has 3/4" holes drilled into the sides of it.  Layed on a 1" every 10 feet slope.  Then off the header is the runs layed on the same slope but in 3/4" stone.  It is a two foot trench two feet down.  10"s of stone on the bottom of the trench then the pipe 8"s of stone on top and 8-10"s of top soil on top of that.  These runs are 4 feet apart and as many as long as needed by the engineer.  Number of baths and kitchens = number of runs and lengths.

[russ446]

hi guys. what failed was the weeper system. bringing the piping upto code is no big deal, but then i'm stuck with this 5' high huge lump of ground in my yard. the yard there is beautiful. so what i decided to do was move the weepers and header to a small hay field right beside the yard. i need the pump because doing this increases the distance quite a bit. the tank is fine and i can use it, but everything else has to change. this is the first time i've attempted this. i'm a little nervous about it, and kind of excited too. weird huh? oh well thats me for you. any pics thoughts, web sites...etc.. would be very helpfull. thanks guys.

[Mopar Tom]

I'm with Dono on that , Russ . Here in Illinois we do it a little differently . We only pump poop up so we can get it to flow downhill .
I did my own (unless you own it county regulations requires a licensed septic installer ) and is still working good after 24 years (knock on wood!)
Flows out of the house @1/4 " per foot drop to tank-tank size is based on # of bathrooms & planned usage. After poop & paper settle in tank , effluent flows to field @1/4" per ft. drop to field which is set level . I have a huge field cause I have a slow perc. 360 linear feet !
A lot of folks in this area use a gravelless system like I did. In our subdivision all of the aerated systems have failed . I've helped 2 neighbors design graveless fields for their aerated systems and are successful !
This system uses the corrogated plastic tile that has  a row of holes on each side (like sewer pipe) --12" diameter and comes with a fibrous sock encasing it . Around here they're even making it in the 4" size for foundation & other water drainage ! The sock stops the dirt from getting into the pipe . No gravel ! The field is set level and tied back into itself so it forms a loop . (I set mine in a rectangle with a run down the middle) You complete the loop and set it level so that the effluent forces itself to run to the path of less resistance or in this case -absorbance ! Sand pits are illegal here !
This probably won't help but is good food fer thought .!!! Good luck !!---Mopar Tom

[LILBLUE65]

Here ya go Russ.  http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/land/septage/index.php

Go to the bottom of the page for a link.

Rob

[abodyjoe]

hi guys. what failed was the weeper system. bringing the piping upto code is no big deal, but then i'm stuck with this 5' high huge lump of ground in my yard. the yard there is beautiful. so what i decided to do was move the weepers and header to a small hay field right beside the yard. i need the pump because doing this increases the distance quite a bit. the tank is fine and i can use it, but everything else has to change. this is the first time i've attempted this. i'm a little nervous about it, and kind of excited too. weird huh? oh well thats me for you. any pics thoughts, web sites...etc.. would be very helpfull. thanks guys.

  yea thats what was wrong with mine too. we thought about movig the drain field furhter in the yard but we lucked out and didn't need a big mound for ours so we put it behing the house.

[abodyjoe]

here ya go. found the pics from when they did mine..    this is for a 3 bedroom hoese.   more bedrooms i guess it would have to be bigger.

before

[abodyjoe]

here is the size of the old one.  see the stones. thats all that was needed when the house was built in the 70's





 here is the hole for the new one. people thought i was getting a pool...

[abodyjoe]

they run the pipe from the tank tot eh D-box then to all those legs.  there is no more stone used (atleast around here)  the bottom of the hole got filled with some sand, then those plastic things got layed down then more sand then dirt then top soil.












here it is finished.

[68_Val_Sedan]

hi guys. what failed was the weeper system. bringing the piping upto code is no big deal, but then i'm stuck with this 5' high huge lump of ground in my yard. the yard there is beautiful. so what i decided to do was move the weepers and header to a small hay field right beside the yard. i need the pump because doing this increases the distance quite a bit. the tank is fine and i can use it, but everything else has to change. this is the first time i've attempted this. i'm a little nervous about it, and kind of excited too. weird huh? oh well thats me for you. any pics thoughts, web sites...etc.. would be very helpfull. thanks guys.

OK is your existing tank divied into 2 compartments ?  If not you cannot put a pump into it.  the single tanks are only to seperate the solids from the liquids, the pump will pick up the solids and jamb immediatly.   you will need to put in a seperate tank for liquids only.  the second tank will have the pump and 3 floats in it. 1 float for an alarm if the pump fail and the level gets to high.  1 float to turn the pump on and a second lower float to turn the pump off.   

[fourspeed]

Our septic system is crapping out too. It's dying a slow death. I took the sump pump and piped it out the basement window. It used to dump into the septic system. After doing that, the septic seems happier. Around here, I think the work has to be done by a certified guy.

[eldubb440]

mine too.......i gave it a acid treatment a year ago; and another last week........ this time i removed the laundry drain

[russ446]

the pump will be going in the line after the septic tank. got a guy coming saturday to quote gravel and sand. it's getting interesting. thanks for the site rob.

[acpat]

setting here next to me in the laundry room is a bucket of copper sulfate. Tree roots hate copper so I put a cup down my drains once a month works great. I got this from tractor supply. I was told this trick by a plumber of 50yrs

[Cpt Panzer]

  MAKE SURE YOU DO EVERTHING UP TO CODE. AND TRY TO FIND OUT WHAT FUTURE CODES COULD BE, AND UP DATE TO THOSE IF YOU CAN.   When we got our home the system was less than 8 yrs old and up to code when it was built . It was big enough for a 4 bed home we only have 2bed home now .  we are trying to ad a 3rd bed room now ,but the only thing that is keeping us from it is a suposedly out dated septic system. the updates will cost us around 16k . that will more than double the cost of our adition.