off my chest - ongoing septic issue
septic installed early 2000s; i purchased the property in 2022; no issues until recently. mid-atlantic region, on the coast special designated flood plane. due to soil conditions, the distribution box and drain field are another plot of land about 700ft away from house & septic tank
- first septic alarm in mid-march; got it pumped out and told: "water table too high" - ok, believe it, we had a ton of rain
- few weeks later alarm goes off again; get pumped "electic to pump looks bad" - run new electic to septic pump
- last week alarm goes off AGAIN; call a different septic company for service:
- pump is running but its not moving anything
- truck drains some fluid; open discharge line and tons of backflow into tank. tech wants to find distribution box to see if its dry (fluid not getting to dbox) or full (not draining to field)
distribution box not marked, we cant probe deep enough; thinking depth needed 13-15 inches but ground is too hard to get past 9. walk the lot looking for some kind of marker; use health department schematics, no luck.
ongoing troubleshooting:
- scope the discharge line looking for break or clog: but the scope is only so long and cant do the entire lengh of line
- is it possible to locate the scope and install secondary access/clean out so they can scope the first xxxft then move to access and scope further
- excavate second plot in order to locate distribution box
- i dont know what it would mean and possible solutions if the drain field is "full" or cant leech any more
inspector who claims to have looked at the distribution box at time of home purchase is not answering phone calls
company that installed the septic says they instaled pvc markers back when originally installed (early 2000s) says "we put it where the home owner pointed so schematics might not be accurate; also people bush hogged those lots a while back and ripped all our markrs out"
So for the past week, and foreseeable future, kids and i are taking outdoor showers; paper plates; and flushing as little as possible.......getting towards the end of "this is a fun adventure; like camping" and moving towards "how much money is worth getting this solved tomorrow"