InspectAPedia TM

Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, Repair, & Problem Prevention Advice
InspectAPedia
Home		 | Air
Conditioning		 | Electrical | Environment | Exteriors | Heating | Home
Inspection		 | Insulate
Ventilate		 | Interiors | Mold
Inspect/Test		 | Plumbing
Water
Septic		 | Roofing | Structure | Contact Us
New Directory of Professionals to Inspect or Test a Building New


SEPTIC SYSTEMS HOME
SEPTIC INFO ARTICLES
  Info for Home Buyers or Owners
  Septic System Design
  Septic Inspection Testing
  Septic Maintenance Repair
HOME BUYERSGUIDE
  1-INTRODUCTION
  2-YOU NEED TO KNOW AND DO
  3-SEPTIC SYSTEM COMPONENTS
  4-WHAT GOES WRONG
    4-1 TANK FAILURES
    4-2 PIPING FAILURES
    4-3 LEACH FIELD FAILURES
    4-4 OTHER SEPTIC TROUBLE SIGNS
  5-HOW TO INSPECT & TEST
  6-FINAL OVERVIEW
SEPTIC SYSTEMS ONLINE BOOK
SEPTIC PUMPING REPAIR
SEPTIC TREATMENTS
SEPTIC CONSULTANTS
SEPTIC AUTHORITIES
BOOKS REFS CODES
SEPTIC SYSTEM DESIGN BASICS
DESIGN ALTERNATIVES
List Your Service/Product

InspectAPedia TM Home & Site Map
Plumbing Water Septic
Accuracy & Bias Pledge
Contact Us


Septic piping failures - an expert can find clues and perform tests that reduce risk of a costly surprise

Home Buyer's Detailed Guide to Septic Systems - Buying a Home With a Septic Tank
SepticAPedia ©

Google
 
  • Chapter 4-2 Diagnosis & Repair of Clogged Septic or Sewer Piping
  • Advice for buyers of a home with a septic system - what to do
Our site offers impartial, unbiased advice without conflicts of interest. We will block advertisements which we discover or readers inform us are associated with bad business practices, false-advertising, or junk science. Our contact info is at inspect-ny.com/appointment.htm.

This chapter discusses how to diagnose and repair clogged septic systems or piping. Septic backups, failures, breakouts, odors: This document provides advice for home buyers who are buying a home with a private septic system: homes using a septic tank and drainfield or similar soil absorption system. Chapter 4 in this file outlines what goes wrong with septic systems and their various components. Chapter 5-recommends and describes septic inspection and test methods in more detail, explains how to be sure your septic inspection and septic test are conducted properly, tells you where to get more septic system information about a given property, and warns of unsanitary or dangerous site conditions. Use the links at page left to navigate this document or to go to Other Resources. The Green links at left show where you are in our document & website. Also see The Septic System Information Website. © Copyright 2008 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left.

4-2 PIPING FAILURES - Septic Piping Failures

Septic Main Drain or Municipal Sewer Piping Failiures

  • Distribution piping connects the house drain to the septic tank, running between the building and the tank inlet. More distribution piping connects the septic tank outlet to the distribution box and from there to the leach field. Distribution pipes can settle (especially in new construction), break, become blocked or clogged, or become invaded and blocked by tree roots or soils as shown in the first photo above. Clay pipes also break and have a tendency to become blocked by tree roots at their joints as happened here.

    Older "orangeburg" pipes which look like black asphalt-soaked cardboard (they are) crush and deteriorate with age. You won't know what kind of piping is installed until it is excavated, but the age of the property may be a clue.

    Homes built from the 1970's on, certainly from the 1980's on, use cast iron or more often plastic ABS or PVC piping for these connections, as shown in the second photo above where we were replacing a root and mud-clogged clay sewer line with a new plastic line.

    See "Drain Line Replacement diagnosing a clogged drain leads to drain line replacement" for a step by step photo-illustrated guide to diagnosing failed septic piping (or sewer line) and the subsequent drain replacement procedure.

    • Septic Distribution Boxes

    • Photograph of a septic distribution box or D-box (US EPA). Distribution boxes serve as a connection point to distribute effluent which arrives from the septic tank outlet and is to be sent into two or more individual leach field lines. Distribution boxes ("D-Boxes") can settle or tip. A damaged or tipped D-box will fail to divert effluent uniformly among the effluent receiving drainfield lines, causing flooding of one leach line. If you see depressions suggesting that there are four leach lines at the property and the end of just one of them is producing wet soil or surface-breakout of effluent, we'd suspect a tipped D-box. (Photo courtesy U.S. EPA)

    Septic Drainfield Distribution Piping

    • Sketch of a drain field or absorption field, conventional septic system design (US EPA).
    • Drainfield piping is usually constructed of perforated pipe buried in gravel-filled trenches. It receives effluent from the D-box and allows it to percolate or seep into the soil around the trench where added filtering and bacterial treatment occur. Like the distribution piping discussed above, individual drainfield pipes can become crushed, shifted, or clogged by tree roots or other debris. More general clogging and failure of the leach field is discussed below. A broken or clogged pipe, once it has been located, may be much less costly to repair than a complete leach field replacement, so this possibility needs to be considered during diagnosis of a "failed" septic system.

      We have more to say about septic distribution piping failures in the next section 4-3 where we discuss Leach Field Failures.





    SEPTIC SYSTEMS HOME
    SEPTIC INFO ARTICLES
      Info for Home Buyers or Owners
      Septic System Design
      Septic Inspection Testing
      Septic Maintenance Repair
    HOME BUYERSGUIDE
      1-INTRODUCTION
      2-YOU NEED TO KNOW AND DO
      3-SEPTIC SYSTEM COMPONENTS
      4-WHAT GOES WRONG
        4-1 TANK FAILURES
        4-2 PIPING FAILURES
        4-3 LEACH FIELD FAILURES
        4-4 OTHER SEPTIC TROUBLE SIGNS
      5-HOW TO INSPECT & TEST
        5-1. ASK ABOUT THE SYSTEM
        5-2. VISUAL INSPECTION
        5-3. LOADING & DYE TEST
          WHAT'S A DYE TEST?
          TEST LIMITATIONS
          FLOODING TESTS
          PROBE TESTS
        5-4. PUMP THE TANK
        5-5. ADDED INVESTIGATIONS
        5-6. ASK OUTSIDERS
      6-FINAL OVERVIEW
    SEPTIC SYSTEMS ONLINE BOOK
    SEPTIC PUMPING REPAIR
    SEPTIC TREATMENTS
    SEPTIC CONSULTANTS
    SEPTIC AUTHORITIES
    BOOKS REFS CODES
    SEPTIC SYSTEM DESIGN BASICS
    DESIGN ALTERNATIVES
    List Your Service/Product
    More Information

    InspectAPedia TM Home & Site Map
    Plumbing Water Septic
    Accuracy & Bias Pledge
    Contact Us

    Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

    Home Buyers Guide to Septic Systems - Chapter Index

    HOME BUYERSGUIDE
    1-INTRODUCTION
    2-YOU NEED TO KNOW AND DO
    3-SEPTIC SYSTEM COMPONENTS
    4-WHAT GOES WRONG
        4-1 TANK FAILURES
        4-2 PIPING FAILURES
        4-3 LEACH FIELD FAILURES
        4-4 OTHER SEPTIC TROUBLE SIGNS
    5-HOW TO INSPECT & TEST
      5-1. ASK ABOUT THE SYSTEM
      5-2. VISUAL INSPECTION
      5-3. LOADING & DYE TEST
        WHAT'S A DYE TEST?
        TEST LIMITATIONS
        FLOODING TESTS
        PROBE TESTS
      5-4. PUMP THE TANK
      5-5. ADDED INVESTIGATIONS
      5-6. ASK OUTSIDERS
    6-FINAL OVERVIEW


    SEPTIC SYSTEMS HOME
    SEPTIC INFO ARTICLES
      Info for Home Buyers or Owners
      Septic System Design
      Septic Inspection Testing
      Septic Maintenance Repair
    HOME BUYERSGUIDE
      1-INTRODUCTION
      2-YOU NEED TO KNOW AND DO
      3-SEPTIC SYSTEM COMPONENTS
      4-WHAT GOES WRONG
        4-1 TANK FAILURES
        4-2 PIPING FAILURES
        4-3 LEACH FIELD FAILURES
        4-4 OTHER SEPTIC TROUBLE SIGNS
      5-HOW TO INSPECT & TEST
      6-FINAL OVERVIEW
    SEPTIC SYSTEMS ONLINE BOOK
    SEPTIC PUMPING REPAIR
    SEPTIC TREATMENTS
    SEPTIC CONSULTANTS
    SEPTIC AUTHORITIES
    BOOKS REFS CODES
    SEPTIC SYSTEM DESIGN BASICS
    List Your Service/Product
    More Information

    InspectAPedia TM Home & Site Map
    Air Conditioning
    InspectAPedia Bookstore
    Electrical
    Environment
    Exteriors
    Heating
    Home Inspection
    Insulate Ventilate
    Interiors
    Mold Inspect/Test
    Plumbing Water Septic
    Roofing
    Structure
    Accuracy & Bias Pledge
    InspectAPedia TM Home & Site Map
    Contact Us

    Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

    More Information on Septic System Testing, Diagnosis, Repair, Maintenance, Design, & Alternatives

    Original Source Credits

    Portions of the original text were provided by the CT Department of Public Health and Addiction Services. Daniel Friedman (web author) has made extensive edits and content additions to the original file.

    Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

    goto InspectAPedia.com - authoritative, in-depth Building Diagnostic and Repair Information for building buyers, owners, inspectorsInspectAPedia TM Home & Site Map - Building Inspection, Diagnosis, & Repair, Environmental Inspection & Testing - Research Website

    GO TO the MOLD and INDOOR ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION CENTER for in-depth advice on avoiding testing for or cleaning up mold and other indoor environmental hazards, odors, gases, contaminantsThe Mold Information Center: What to Do About Mold in Buildings, When and How to Inspect for Mold, Clean Up Mold, or Avoid Mold Problems

    GO TO our PRE PURCHASE BUILDING INSPECTION SERVICES: Authoritative information for home buyers and home owners is included with your inspection.Home Inspection Construction Consulting Services & advice for home buyers

    GO TO MOLD TEST KITS: This expert-recommended mold test kit is cheap and yet top performing *IF* you use a competent analysis laboratory!Use this simple, economical mold test kit by following our instructions on how to collect and mail mold samples to our lab

    GO TO IAQ/MOLD-TEST LAB SERVICES: Mold, Pollen, indoor air quality, field and laboratory services by an expert.Environmental Inspection, Testing, & Diagnosis On-Site IAQ, Gas, Air Testing, Mold Investigation, Sick Building Diagnosis, Lab Services, & Remediation Plan Preparation - indoor air quality testing, problem source determination, supporting lab work, written remediation plan addressing removal of environmental and other hazards and prevention of their recurrence.

    CONTACT Daniel Friedman - Dan is a senior ASHI home inspector, nationally recognized expert on building inspection, building failures, and sick building investigationContact Daniel Friedman for website content suggestions or for fee-paid consulting

    Google
     

    07/14/07 - 09/04/97 File: www.inspect-ny.com/septic/buyguide4-2.htm
    Web page design © Copyright 2008-1997 by Dan Friedman - edited version of public document