The Septic Field Saga – Part 1

It’s August 2013 and it’s backing up. Never happened before. Another cottage 1st. The “it” is the septic field.

This is not a good thing.

The fluid from the rectangular settling tank is not flowing out into the field. This pretty much puts the cottage on high alert as everything that flows into the tank is about to start spilling out all over the yard.

After probing with a garden host to try an clear any unknown/unseen blockages with out any success,  I decide that we really need to dig into this problem a little deeper.

Repair Stage #1

After digging from the settling tank to the header pipe and across the header a bit I decide to cut out some of the pipe to gain better access to the pipes going out into the field in an attempt to flush them out. In the photo black pipe is the old stuff and white is the new. The flushing seems to be effective so I splice back in the new white pipe and call it a day. Time will prove that this was not the complete answer.