Crappy topic (septic drainfield)

Concrete Helmet

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Alright so on my way to the mailbox a couple of weeks back I noticed water bubbling up around our paver pathway leading to the front door. This caught my attention because as I was walking I was thinking of the new landscaping layout that we are about to have started along with replacing the pavers in that area of the house.....Now this water wasn't untreated sewage but rather was graywater discharge downline from the septic tanks.

So the next day I began to start prodding the area with a metal rod and again in the same area graywater began to spew out of the ground. So out came the trenching shovel and I began tracing the discharge pipe from the 2nd tank toward drain field which lies under the paver area and part of the lawn in front of the house. I'm thinking the pipe was cracked by the tree roots which are close to the drainfield area....negative.....the pipe made a sharp left and went into the opposite direction of the leak....my senses tell me the drain field is shot. Call the septic company and they agree so I ask for a quote for a new drain field.....$8,650 for a new 800sqft drain field installed with permits and all.....My question is the size? Is 800sqft big enough for the house? Don't get me wrong, I'm doing backflips over the price(I was expecting $15K or so)

Also as I'm typing this I beginning to think about another option which would be to rent a trencher, buy about 250 feet of 1.5 inch PVC pipe, connect it to the 2nd tank discharge line and run it around the side of the house and out to the lake where I dump my used motor oil and carcasses from the dead nuisance squirrels and rats that chew my garbage cans and get into my cottage....:lol2:
 

Concrete Helmet

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10-4....in our case it is more likely just overuse, age(25 years), tree roots and until recently poor practices. Over using the garbage disposal and a lot of small loads of laundry. Keep in mind until last month there were 5 adults and 1 child living in our house......That's a lot of bath's, showers and toilet flushing not to mention running the dishwasher and such everyday. Also I guess it is a good practice to have your tanks pumped at least every 3-4 years as letting the sludge level get too high allows it to pass into the drainfield which upsets the biological make up and keeps the soil from draining.....

Anyway I was more curious about the pricing and was wondering if anyone had gone through the process recently.
 

Concrete Helmet

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I have no idea about pricing in your area but my rural area about $2-3,000.

Edit.......Permits would probably cost that much in your area....haha
$450 for Health Dept......Oh, but I'm sure there will also be an EPD permit....a county permit... and of course...the city blood suckers will get their share. The worst part isn't even paying all of them, it's getting and keeping them all on the same page during any kind of process as well as getting all the knuckleheads to properly close them out which takes an act of God and at least 6 months to a year:headslap:
 

crosscreekcooter

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After 25 years, biomat is what causes the drainfield to fail. Stop with the disposer period. Reduce your water consumption. No more anti-bacterial soap. This stuff kills the organisms that makes the septic system work.
 

URGatorBait

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I have no idea about pricing in your area but my rural area about $2-3,000.

Edit.......Permits would probably cost that much in your area....haha

$450 for Health Dept......Oh, but I'm sure there will also be an EPD permit....a county permit... and of course...the city blood suckers will get their share. The worst part isn't even paying all of them, it's getting and keeping them all on the same page during any kind of process as well as getting all the knuckleheads to properly close them out which takes an act of God and at least 6 months to a year:headslap:

we just had ours replaced not long before Crete started this thread.
$3200 all in.
Probably about half the size of cretes though.
 

bradgator2

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10-4....in our case it is more likely just overuse, age(25 years), tree roots and until recently poor practices. Over using the garbage disposal and a lot of small loads of laundry. Keep in mind until last month there were 5 adults and 1 child living in our house......That's a lot of bath's, showers and toilet flushing not to mention running the dishwasher and such everyday. Also I guess it is a good practice to have your tanks pumped at least every 3-4 years as letting the sludge level get too high allows it to pass into the drainfield which upsets the biological make up and keeps the soil from draining.....

Anyway I was more curious about the pricing and was wondering if anyone had gone through the process recently.

The pumping the tank is an interesting question where opinions vary widely. As a first time septic owner, I asked this several years ago:

http://gatorchatter.com/threads/septic-owners.10882/
 

LagoonGator68

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$450 for Health Dept......Oh, but I'm sure there will also be an EPD permit....a county permit... and of course...the city blood suckers will get their share. The worst part isn't even paying all of them, it's getting and keeping them all on the same page during any kind of process as well as getting all the knuckleheads to properly close them out which takes an act of God and at least 6 months to a year:headslap:

Don’t you live in the city limits?
Whorlando doesn’t have sanitary sewer systems?
 

Concrete Helmet

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That's the reason the I posted the picture of the Water Table showing ground water.
Which is why I say it is stupid....I would think having a pipe carrying wastewater away from any soil so close to an environmentally sensitive area like a lake would make double the sense of letting failing drain fields leach into soil so close to the groundwater....Then again rarely does anything "environmental" make ANY sense....
 
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Assume you routinely use Rid-X or yeast in the toilet monthly? I have had my drain field over 30 years without problem. My older son is a plumber and built the drain field far beyond routine specs.
 

Concrete Helmet

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Assume you routinely use Rid-X or yeast in the toilet monthly? I have had my drain field over 30 years without problem. My older son is a plumber and built the drain field far beyond routine specs.
I had never lived in a house with a septic system before and really wasn't aware of a lot of the do's and don'ts involved....However as I mentioned earlier in this thread I believe our drainfield just became wornout from the amount of water that goes into it from so many people using it. I have learned quite a bit though researching it and from here of course, so I plan on putting all of those tips into use when we get the one for the main house installed....I also need a new one for our cottage on the back of our property but that will also have to wait until it is replumbed as tree roots from a giant Live Oak have collapsed the main drainline.......:banghead:
 

ChiefGator

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I had never lived in a house with a septic system before and really wasn't aware of a lot of the do's and don'ts involved....However as I mentioned earlier in this thread I believe our drainfield just became wornout from the amount of water that goes into it from so many people using it. I have learned quite a bit though researching it and from here of course, so I plan on putting all of those tips into use when we get the one for the main house installed....I also need a new one for our cottage on the back of our property but that will also have to wait until it is replumbed as tree roots from a giant Live Oak have collapsed the main drainline.......:banghead:

You might get your house plumbed so that the gray water goes into watering the lawn or gardens. That will greatly reduce the amount of water that goes into the septic system, or at least it could.
 

grengadgy

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You might get your house plumbed so that the gray water goes into watering the lawn or gardens. That will greatly reduce the amount of water that goes into the septic system, or at least it could.
Irrigation is no longer included as a permitted use of gray water in the Florida .
 

ChiefGator

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Irrigation is no longer included as a permitted use of gray water in the Florida .

Interesting, I wonder what they do with facilities (like houses) that have such systems.

My post was just to inform people that this is a possibility in some areas, thanks for specific information for Florida.
 

crosscreekcooter

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The problem with returning grey water untreated and filtered to the lawn or garden is that it finds it's way almost directly to the aquifer
 

Concrete Helmet

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The problem with returning grey water untreated and filtered to the lawn or garden is that it finds it's way almost directly to the aquifer
Well think about it this way when considering houses that are on septic...
I would think greywater would be better directly going onto the ground and then through the soil and into the aquifer versus going into a tank full of poop, pee, grease and household chemicals then into the drainfield which puts in back into the aquifer, right? Environmentalist often over think a problem until they create something worse imo....
 

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