LM - Septic Field Life Extension

Background - Thirty year old house and septic system. Four occupants, two adults and two teens (so lots of laundry and showers). Tank pumped every two years as preventative care, last in 2022. 

Situation - The leach field is soft and sometimes standing water (with the best grass on the property!). But no plumbing backing-up or discernable drain slow down. I have access to the tank but I have not dug around for a distribution box. 

I assume the commercial response may be to scope the lines and dig a new field ($$$) but browsing Amazon, I see a lot of chemical potential fixes/band-aids to add enzymes to break up the bio-mat, etc. 

Does anyone have any insight on their effectiveness? Any favorites? Treatment schedule? They seem to range in price so I'm not sure if one bug is better then another...  

I don't see how a bandaid would help.  They usually accelerate the breakdown of solids, which should be remaining in the tank. You are seeing liquid that is not perccing into the soil.

It sounds like your field is no longer absorbing like it used to.  Solids blocking the Aggregate, or perhaps a change in the surface absorption or the water table. 
 

Do you live near a water source?  Has anything changed about your surface runoff water (like downspouts, grading, etc)?

We had issues, too. Our field was put in when we bought the house in 1999, and has since spent 24 years with a family of four and all that entails. Our issues were kind of the opposite of yours, though. We've never had puddles or wet spots, but we did have one slow-moving drain. It's the floor drain in the laundry room, lowest one in the house, and it would back up when the washer emptied. Pumping the tank out would help for a month or two, then it would start happening again, especially if we did several loads in one day or if it was wet outside.

So, we called our septic guys, the same ones who installed the field and have been pumping the tank all those years. They suggested Terralift. Basically, it buys you more time with your existing field by breaking up some of the compacted soil and stuff in the field and forcing oxygen into it so it starts perking again. They told me it generally buys you another 5-10 years. So, we had it done last summer. It was around $2k, or about a tenth of what a new field would cost us. Since then we've had one backup, and that was in the spring when we had heavy snow melt and rain. We're hoping that, with one kid moved out and the other on her way soon, that this will buy us quite a bit of time on this field. So far, so good.

In reply to Old_Town :

What's your weather been like?

I know where I am, the ongoing torrential rain storms have been record breaking for several months. That affects the soil's ability to absorb. 

I can walk you though this. It was my jam for 25 years so I know my E36 M3. There is only one way to fix it without replacing everything, and if your water load is increasing, (young or growing family etc) it may not work but if water use is stable or declining (kids leaving home etc) you have a pretty good shot. 

First, no chemicals poured in the tank will help and some are criminally bad. So first you need to find your D box. (I will assume everything is a typical 1 to 3 feet down and that you have a typical tank/d box/three or four straight field line system). Try running a fish tape or tape measure down the outlet tee until it stops. Measure on the surface and dig there. You can usually tell if you are careful if the fish tape is turning a corner and a measuring tape will not turn a corner.  If it's the D box great. If it is an elbow, dig past the elbow and cut a hole in the pipe. I like to cut two sides into a V and pry the pointy end up enough to get the tape back in. Or use a small hole saw. Either way easy to patch later. continue until you find the D box. (if you take a photo of your yard I might be able to tell you where it likely is.)

Dig up the lid. The box will probably be full of water. 

Here is the first cash you have to spend. Have a pumper truck come and suck out the D box. Be sure he has a tapered fitting on an elbow he can shove in your pipes. If not find another pumper, or buy the fitting yourself. Its usually something called an Polylok extend and lock with a 90 and a cam connection attached. Have him pull  vacuum and crack the valve multiple times for each field line. This will suck all the garbage out of the pipes. 

Next, find yourself a basic jetting tip for a good size pressure washer. You can find them on line easy enough. One jet forward and three or four facing back to propel the hose. Attach the tip to a fifty foot hose. (can be regular pressure washer hose as you are just cleaning a straight length of three or four inch pipe. Jet each pipe out thoroughly multiple times. Here you will know if you are making progress because if the jetter water disappears you are winning. If it backs up in the D box there may be no point in the next step and you will need to replace your field. 

Last step, order a product called Septic Scrub. https://www.arcan.com/ (or pull the trigger early and have it ready. It's not too expensive.)

Mix it into several 5 gallon pails and pour it into each line as quick as possible so it flows as far as possible. If you want to go the extra mile you can dig up the ends of the lines and pour from each end. Be sure it is in full suspension before pouring. If you have standing water in the D box that will not drain at this point, and before using this product it will probably be a waste of time and money. 

Cover everything up but keep access to the D box for future maintenance. Use water sparingly for a couple weeks and then go back to normal. 

This advice is worth exactly what you paid but I have done it with success many times. 

Another point of data; Our septic field in place when we moved in had 3 legs and our family of 4 quickly overpowered its capacity.  A local septic installer dug and put in a new field (longer and with 2 legs) with a switching valve between the two fields.  He gave instructions to turn the switch every 5 years.  This was 2 years ago and $4k.

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

We had issues, too. Our field was put in when we bought the house in 1999, and has since spent 24 years with a family of four and all that entails. Our issues were kind of the opposite of yours, though. We've never had puddles or wet spots, but we did have one slow-moving drain. It's the floor drain in the laundry room, lowest one in the house, and it would back up when the washer emptied. Pumping the tank out would help for a month or two, then it would start happening again, especially if we did several loads in one day or if it was wet outside.

So, we called our septic guys, the same ones who installed the field and have been pumping the tank all those years. They suggested Terralift. Basically, it buys you more time with your existing field by breaking up some of the compacted soil and stuff in the field and forcing oxygen into it so it starts perking again. They told me it generally buys you another 5-10 years. So, we had it done last summer. It was around $2k, or about a tenth of what a new field would cost us. Since then we've had one backup, and that was in the spring when we had heavy snow melt and rain. We're hoping that, with one kid moved out and the other on her way soon, that this will buy us quite a bit of time on this field. So far, so good.

I talked to the Terralift company at one point was told they expected the procedure to last 2-3 years, and they counted on the fact that the average American only stays in his home for 5 years before selling and moving so they were prepared to redo a certain number of them a second time as part of their business model.  They entered bankruptcy after a lot of regulatory problems stemming from the fact that their method involved fracturing the soil beneth the drain field, which created direct channels for untreated wastewater to enter and contaminate the subsurface watertable.

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

I talked to the Terralift company at one point was told they expected the procedure to last 2-3 years, and they counted on the fact that the average American only stays in his home for 5 years before selling and moving so they were prepared to redo a certain number of them a second time as part of their business model.  They entered bankruptcy after a lot of regulatory problems stemming from the fact that their method involved fracturing the soil beneth the drain field, which created direct channels for untreated wastewater to enter and contaminate the subsurface watertable.

Oh. That's discouraging. 

Thanks all! I'm outside Philly so we've had a crazy stretch of lack of rain the last few weeks. It has gotten better but I wanted to get in front of it. 

Interesting feedback about the Terralift system... I saw a few YT clips on it. 

My twin 500 gallons were having to be pumped every other year because the outlet was pinched 90 degrees(by the septic dudes) the field line was a single 6 inch with a single row of bottom holes. Have the tractor with a backhoe. Rerouted the discharge to three new thirty footer (6"dia with 4holes on the bottom) field lines. Have not had any issues for over four years now....yes I understand this a bit of a stretch for most to embrace but I'm done

Our fifty year old concrete cone field essentially disappeared about a decade ago. Replaced it with an infiltrator system. That works so well we've not had the system pumped since. We call them out every four years to inspect and end up just paying fuel mileage.

The killer for our old system was when a housing development went in up the hill and the runoff kept our backyard flooded for two years. The entire neighborhood had similar problems and forced a retention pond to be built.