Drainage issue

steve-in-ga · Apr 16, 2009

A couple of weeks a go, my wife had our two little girls in the tub giving them a bath. When draining the water out of the tub, I heard a gurgling noise in the toilet in the other bathroom at the other end of the house. When I went to investigate, most of the water in the toilet was gone. I have sense heard it a couple more times when either draining the tub OR flushing the toilet in the same bathroom as the tub that caused it right after draining the tub. Everything seems to drain fine in the house. No slowing draining. The house has a septic system with tank and drain field. What steps would you take to troubleshoot this problem? Is it time for a drain field replacement? Ouch.

Thanks in advance for all help,
-steve

SewerRatz · Apr 16, 2009

steve-in-ga said:
A couple of weeks a go, my wife had our two little girls in the tub giving them a bath. When draining the water out of the tub, I heard a gurgling noise in the toilet in the other bathroom at the other end of the house. When I went to investigate, most of the water in the toilet was gone. I have sense heard it a couple more times when either draining the tub OR flushing the toilet in the same bathroom as the tub that caused it right after draining the tub. Everything seems to drain fine in the house. No slowing draining. The house has a septic system with tank and drain field. What steps would you take to troubleshoot this problem? Is it time for a drain field replacement? Ouch.

Thanks in advance for all help,
-steve

You have a partial blockage in your building drain or sewer. It needs to be power rodded. Best call a local plumber that deals with drain cleaning. I could never recommend a DIYer to rent a drain cleaning machine knowing how dangerous these machines are in un-trained hands.

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steve-in-ga · Apr 16, 2009

SewerRatz said:
You have a partial blockage in your building drain or sewer. It needs to be power rodded. Best call a local plumber that deals with drain cleaning. I could never recommend a DIYer to rent a drain cleaning machine knowing how dangerous these machines are in un-trained hands.

What is the best way to determine if the blockage is between the house and septic tank or in the drain field?

Thanks again,
-steve

SewerRatz · Apr 16, 2009

steve-in-ga said:
What is the best way to determine if the blockage is between the house and septic tank or in the drain field?

Thanks again,
-steve

If you have easy access ports to open on the tank you can open the one closest to the house and have a look at the inlet. Then have some one run lots of water, like drain a full tub and flush a couple water closets at once and see how it is coming into the tank. If it coming into the tank yet you are getting the gurgling you talked about that means its a partial blockage between the house and tank. If the water level rises over the inlet then you get the gurgling then the problem is out in the drainage fields.

steve-in-ga · Apr 16, 2009

SewerRatz said:
If you have easy access ports to open on the tank you can open the one closest to the house and have a look at the inlet. Then have some one run lots of water, like drain a full tub and flush a couple water closets at once and see how it is coming into the tank. If it coming into the tank yet you are getting the gurgling you talked about that means its a partial blockage between the house and tank. If the water level rises over the inlet then you get the gurgling then the problem is out in the drainage fields.

Can the drain fields be rodded or will they have to be dugg up and replaced? Sorry for all the questions just trying to be well informed before I call in the pros.

Thanks again,
-steve

SewerRatz · Apr 16, 2009

steve-in-ga said:
Can the drain fields be rodded or will they have to be dugg up and replaced? Sorry for all the questions just trying to be well informed before I call in the pros.

Thanks again,
-steve

Its rare for drainage fields to fail. If there is root intrusion and you have end caps on each leach line you can rod them. Some times the bio-mat around the leach field gets to dense and will not allow the water to leach out when this happens most opt to dig them up and redo them. There is a company that came out with a machine that fractures the soil around the leach field and pumps beads into the fractures to help break up the bio-mat to help them to leach like they used to.

I would bet you a dollar to a donut that its a partial blockage between the house and the tank.

Redwood · Apr 16, 2009

SewerRatz said:
There is a company that came out with a machine that fractures the soil around the leach field and pumps beads into the fractures to help break up the bio-mat to help them to leach like they used to.

That is a bandaid at best.

SewerRatz · Apr 16, 2009

Redwood said:
That is a bandaid at best.

They came out and did my uncles leach field about 8 years ago as a demo for us. It was still working up to last year. Only reason it stooped was they tore down the house and built two new houses and hooked up to the city sewer.

steve-in-ga · Apr 16, 2009

Redwood said:
That is a bandaid at best.

Redwood,

What is your take on this problem?

thanks,
steve

Redwood · Apr 16, 2009

Pop the tank cover and see...

Anything else is a guess...

steve-in-ga · Apr 17, 2009

SewerRatz said:
Its rare for drainage fields to fail. If there is root intrusion and you have end caps on each leach line you can rod them. Some times the bio-mat around the leach field gets to dense and will not allow the water to leach out when this happens most opt to dig them up and redo them. There is a company that came out with a machine that fractures the soil around the leach field and pumps beads into the fractures to help break up the bio-mat to help them to leach like they used to.

I would bet you a dollar to a donut that its a partial blockage between the house and the tank.

If you replace a leach field do you put the new leach field in the same location? Again, just trying to be well informed depending on what happens.

Thanks again,
-steve

Redwood · Apr 17, 2009

What I would recommend doing is putting in a complete new field. If the Bio-mat is fouled, after a few short years of non-use you're field will regenerate and be as good as new. If you have 2 alternating fields chances are you will never need a new ine installed again.

But we are putting the cart ahead of the horse, First you need to check the tank and see where the problem is.

hj · Apr 17, 2009

gurgles

When you talk about replacing the field, you are taking the shotgun approach to killing a fly. That would be the most radical approach for a problem which probably does not even concern the field. You might even just have a flooded leach area because of excessive rain so the system momentarily floods when a lot of water is drained and it takes a few minutes for the water level to stabilize, causing the symptoms you see. But there can be other causes, which would require treatment, which also cause those symptoms. YOU probably do not have the experience to determine what, if anything, has to be done.

Drainage issue

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