well septic is DONE...
was realy suprised when a little old lady, her daughter and her oldest grandson (about my age) showed up...and the little old lady got right in there with the shovel! lol
but they dug up the tank, unfortunatly its a 3 peice slab top so they had to uncover an entire slab in order to gain acess, but least we now for next time...
they cracked upen the top and even THEY gagged...how i have NOT been having issues with my toilet we dont know, the liquid level was sooooo high that it was literally at the top of the tank and was spilling out form under the lid...
it completly covered the baffle thats supposed to keep said water from entering back into the inlet pipe...by all technicalities the water SHOULD have been backflowing into the toilet...(so i must have some kind of check valve in place somewhere on that pipe line thats blocking backflow because i havent had any issues. by all technicality my toilet should have even flushed...there was nowhere for the liquid to go other than UP, it literally couldnt have gotten any fuller.
so they started clearing it out and in the mean time the owner (75yr old opal) started digging where she thoguht the feild line woudl come out...sure enough they found it...BAD news...
the field line about 2" from the tank has cracked and collapsed...theres essentilaly about 2" of pipe missing (and theres roots in the rest of the field line) and because the liquid was having an issue getting through the roots and the tank was SOOO full and the earth around it so dry and hard the water had just started to escape any way it could, hence the puddling...
they removed as much root matter as they could reach from the tank and the opposite side of the crack, theres some more roots in there that are going to slow the system but this shoudl at least give the liquid an alternate escape route, then they used some briks and peices of shingel to literally cover the cracked area so dirt and junk wont fall in which SHOULD keep also help keep water flowing the direction its supposed to.
since the septic is all concrete its been sugested thatuntill i can afford the next option to add salt to the system wich will kill and help disintegratethe fine roots that cause the most problems.
the long term goal is to have someone come in, dig up the section of feild line between the tank for about 8ft of pipe (just beyond the large pine thats causing the root issue) and ust simply cutting and replacing that 1 section of pipe...assuming the feild lines are otherwise working correctly by replacing the 8ft of pipe with NEW pipe to ust beyon the big pine thats causing the issue this should solve ALL the issues that crack will cause in the future at a tiny fraction of the cost of replacing the entre system...
So im going to have someone come in...give me a quote for that and see how long thats going to take me to save up for lol.
In GOOD news, i now have a mostly empty 1200 gallon septic tank there wa a little gunk left in the bottom but she said that should help reseed the entire system with good bacteria...
and they think, given its just the one toilet, even if my field line is USELESS at this point as long as im carefull i should be good for about 1 1/2-2 years between pump outs at current usage even with the fluid having no escape line...(thats assuming the feild line is completly and unsolvably clogged and not replaced between now and then...
thankfully the tank loks otherwise helathy and sound, no cracks, no odd tie ins, nothing untowards...so...
*fingers crossed*
id realy liek to put this little adventure behind me.
They did say that unfortunatly what hapend to me is VERY VERY common,
contractors hand the inspector $100 to say the system has been checked and pumped ect and they pass them...
this tank hasnt been dug in about 15 yrs was their estimate..."could be longer" and given the junk they pulled out of the hole where the field line was cracked (blastic bottles and such) Opal is pretty certain previous owners KNEW the pipe was broken and used the plastic trash to try and keep the clay from clogging the field line...
so im pretty sure my neighbor was the one that did that despite him saying "i couldnt find the field line"
Idiots.
but yeah unfortunatly they said its REALY a common problem with scam artists and the like.
The maintence crew instead used bricks i had laying aroundto essentially form a "gravel bed" (which wilhelp water drain down instead of up) then used a couple of peices of the roofing shingles to put a "roof" on it to keep anythign falling down and into the pipe then back filled it with the dirrt they dug out...they said it shoudl dry up fairly quickly now that the moisture is not literally pressurized behind it and it should help anything that cant get down the lines drain a little quicker instead of pooling up.
either way, tank is pumped and should give me at least a few months worry free, ill continue to be stingy with my flushing as usual too to try and keep this good for as long as possible
but yeah thats been my morning...
this afternoon i need to get some cleaning done, do some dishes and make my list for tomorrow...