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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

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Plumbing Water Septic
Accuracy & Bias Pledge
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A septic dye breakout over a septic leach field indicates field failure in this case - 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 ^©

Chapter 4-3 Diagnosing and Repairing Septic Drain Field Failures

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 Septic Drain Field Failures. 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.

4-3 LEACH FIELD FAILURES - Septic Leach Field Failures

Building on the leach field: A leach field can be destroyed by other site "improvements" such as this attempt to install a swimming pool atop the leaching area in the photo shown at left. This mistaken installation involved multiple errors: placing a pool atop the leaching area which prevents proper oxygenation and evaporation, driving over the leach field which risks damaging buried pipes and compacting the soil, and excavating to remove a portion of the absorption system soil to put in the swimming pool. The gray water you see next to the swimming pool in this larger photo was effluent from the failed septic fields.

Compacted soils: driving over the leach field in any vehicle larger than a child's bicycle is a bad idea. Heavy vehicles may actually crush buried leach field lines, or they may compress the soils around the leach field, either of which leads to failure. Driving on or parking on leach fields will destroy them. This property actually had no working septic system at all - 100% of its effluent was coming to the surface nearby, brought out by solid rock covered with shallow soils, and running down a steep hill into a local stream.

Paving over the leach field: a leach field cannot function properly if it is paved-over. Some folks may try this as a way to permit parking over the absorption system. But paving prevents both evaporation of effluent (a portion of the effluent disposal method) and it prevents oxygen from reaching the soil, thus inhibiting proper bacterial action needed to treat the effluent.

Clogged soils: The sketch shows a conventional drainfield trench in cross section. As the drainfield line ages the soils become clogged around the distribution piping, starting first at the end closest to the septic tank or distribution box. Eventually soils around the entire line are clogged with a thick biomat, or perhaps worse, by grease or salts that should have stayed in the septic tank. At this point the soil absorption system stops absorbing effluent. The soils around the leaching bed trenches have become clogged and stop passing effluent. Sending grease and floating solids into the leach field hastens this failure. The biomat which forms below the leaching beds will eventually also become too solid and impacted, stopping soil absorption. In this leach field photo effluent was appearing in the light colored area where the homeowner had begun some exploratory digging in a soggy spot only to see her hole fill up rapidly with effluent.

In the building drains become sluggish, stop, or back up into the building (unsanitary), or effluent may appear on the property surface when the absorption system can no longer function or where a pipe has become damaged.

Some septic system repairs are comparatively modest, such as replacing covers or baffles. Replacing septic tanks or leach fields is costly. No leach field has an infinite life, but proper septic system maintenance can defer this cost. Because costly septic system repairs may be upcoming, buyers of properties with a septic system are advised to inspect and test the system before purchase.

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
DESIGN ALTERNATIVES
List Your Service/Product
More Information

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

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.

Diagnosing Clogged Drains: A First Step for Homeowners
Don't Flush these things into a septic system
What Goes Wrong with Septic Systems? in the Home Buyer's Detailed Guide to Septic Systems - Buying a Home With a Septic Tank
SEPTIC FAILIURE CAUSES in our Online Septic Book - Details Address: How Does Each Septic System Component Fail? - What to Look For During a Septic Inspection - Step by Step Diagnosis

The Septic System Information Website
Directory of Professional Inspectors available via Internet (Some of these inspectors offer septic system testing and inspection)
Diagnosing Clogged Drains: A First Step for Homeowners
Performing a Septic Loading and Dye Test - How to perform this test (separate document)
Septic Tank Pumping Guide: When, Why, How to pump the septic tank
Table of Required Septic Tank Sizes: Septic Tank Capacity vs Usage in Daily Gallons of Wastewater Flow & How to Calculate the Size (in gallons) of a Septic Tank.
How Big Should the Leach Field Be? - table of soil percolation rate vs. field size
Home & Outdoor Living Water Requirements
Table of Required Clearances: Distances Between Septic System & Wells, Streams, Trees, etc.
Septic System Inspection Methods and Procedures, - online illustrated class for building and septic inspectors
Septic Systems Inspection, Testing, & Maintenance- online textbook. Detailed how to inspect, maintain, repair information

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.

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