sewage problem - Posted by Bill

Posted by Lazaro on March 12, 2002 at 23:39:44:

You may be having the same problem I encountered not to long ago. The sewage was backing up and making a nice ‘pool’ of feces in the backyard. The toilets where not flushing either. I had pumped the septic tank out a year ago and it usually takes 3-5 years for it to fill. In my mind I was thinking “These people must have to go to the bathroom pretty frequently to fill it up in one year.” I called the guy who pumped it out the year before (cheapest guy in town) and had him pump it out again. I then asked him if it was humanly possible to go to the bathroom so much that it would fill the septic in one year and he said NO. The reason for the problem had to with roots growing over the pipe that leads to the septic. Many plumbers take the pipe just up to the tank and do not pass the pipe into the tank. Within a short period of time roots grow at the point where the pipe meets the septic causing problems. This can be solved with $5 or less and 45min of your time. All you have to do is cut the existing pipe back a bit and put a union between the old pipe and a the new one. Do make sure that the pipe goes well into the septic. How far doesn’t matter. You don’t even have to cut it. Just make sure it goes at least a foot inside. After you do this you are done. Before doing this you may first want to have someone check it out or try it and see if it solves your problems. I hope this post makes sense. It is very late and I am tired meaning that this post may not even make any sense to you. If you have further questions let know.
Cordially,
Lazaro

sewage problem - Posted by Bill

Posted by Bill on March 12, 2002 at 22:50:13:

Here’s an interesting situation.
Buyer of a house needing quite a bit of work has now moved into the house. It seems the former occupant , a 90+ single person, finally went to a nursing home. The relatives , apparantly knew the septic system was bad, so they hired a cheap outfit to put in a new system (8K). Now that the new owner has moved in with his family, there is a leakage problem and raw sewage is in the yard. The county has required him to get a licensed and bonded sewer company to fix this. Cost???
Moral: when someone says we got it fixed about some problem, check double close. Then check again and make sure it’s done right and legally.

Re: sewage problem - Posted by Randy

Posted by Randy on March 13, 2002 at 08:38:31:

Another thought resulting from a property I once owned: Walk the lot over the drain field, does the land from adjoining properties slope toward or will drain across your property? The property I mentioned earlier had 3 lots totaling approx 2 acres drain through my backyard. as soon as the water hit the drain field trench it went straight down and would back flow from the drain field into the septic tank and it overflowed onto my patio, and then into the neighbors front yard.

How did I solve my problem? Sold the house and FULLY disclosed to the seller the problem. He tried to come back on me, but I showed him the Acknowledgement he signed at closing. and that was that.

Good luck.