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About a week ago, noticed the dishwashing water had overflowed into basement garage.
Plumber cleaned out connection to tank. Didn't find much. Seemed to work for a few days. Then flooded again. Septic pumping service opened tank. It was full. They came back a day later and it had gone down a little, but not much. They pumped it.
Told me drain field wasn't working, and as the house was built in the 60's, it was likely the drain field was failing.
Health Dept. Environmental Services Inspector is to come out in a week or two, to determine what's what. I think just to lay out where a new drain field could be put. I don't think he will be doing any determination on the current drain field.
Who would I contact to determine problem and solution beyond merely guessing by the guy who pumped put the tank?
The septic tank has what's called a baffle and its purpose is to keep floaty stuff from going into the leach field. In my case that baffle was concrete and it had failed over the years and let floating garbage (like tampons) that had been improperly flushed down the toilet to go into the drain field eventually causing a clog.
We had an engineer out to evaluate the soil for a new leach field and he said there was likely nothing wrong with the existing one and recommended that a rotor rooter type of company try and first look for and remove the clog. Luckily the clog was found and removed and this did fix the flow problem. The original baffle was concrete and a new one made of PVC was installed so floaty stuff can not enter the drain field. The PVC baffle should last longer than I will. After the fix, I dumped something like 425 gallons into the tank in one hour and the drain field handled it. Signs were added above each toilet warning about flushing anything other than TP.
About a week ago, noticed the dishwashing water had overflowed into basement garage.
Plumber cleaned out connection to tank. Didn't find much. Seemed to work for a few days. Then flooded again. Septic pumping service opened tank. It was full. They came back a day later and it had gone down a little, but not much. They pumped it.
Told me drain field wasn't working, and as the house was built in the 60's, it was likely the drain field was failing.
Health Dept. Environmental Services Inspector is to come out in a week or two, to determine what's what. I think just to lay out where a new drain field could be put. I don't think he will be doing any determination on the current drain field.
Who would I contact to determine problem and solution beyond merely guessing by the guy who pumped put the tank?
It depends on how your system is designed. My tank (25 years old) has two parts, the part where the solids stay and the part where the solid-free waste goes and gets pumped out. My solids part is always full, and is supposed to be, unless it was just pumped out. Its only when the level reaches a certain point that the liquid spills over into the part where the pump is while the solids are held back.
It could be your drain field or it could be your pump or it could be a problem in whatever connects the two.
Yes, much depends on your septic design and circumstances... septic tanks should always be full, but they do need to be pumped from time to time to remove the floating solids layer that can either clog up the inlet and outlet pipes, or clog up the drain field.
Be cautious here, and hire a GOOD septic design and repair company to evaluate. Counties and municipalities like to use events like this to require a lot of expensive upgrades or changes.... hiring a good septic company can sometimes allow for another educated voice in the mix to suggest workable repairs or alternatives.
Curious you are describing it only as an issue with the dishwasher.... if the drain field has failed and is no longer draining, it will be more than just dishwater that will end up in the basement. If it's just the dishwasher, there's something else going on.
Last edited by Diana Holbrook; 12-31-2022 at 12:47 PM..
I had a septic system in MA (2o years old) and shortly after I moved in the lower bathroom/laundry room drain backed up. I called a plumber. He said call the septic tank pumper. I did and the drain worked fine after the pumping. The pumper advised I pump once a year. Some say that is to often but for what it cost, a wise idea. We lived in that house for another 12 years with no issues.
When we had problems with our 40+ year old septic system I found the solution on the internet after the septic guy couldn't figure it out. ( it was a slow leak in our toilet which flooded the system with water).
While Googling on the internet I learned about how to care for a septic system. Don't do multiple laundry loads during periods of heavy rain, don't use powdered detergent ... these things I never knew.
Aside from getting it pumped every 2 years, at some point an access and filter was put in. Every 3 months my husband would pull out the filter and rinse it off with a hose.
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