The hidden septic tank

[Doc]

It appears from the crap overflowing the downstairs toilet that there is a major septic tank failure. The trick is that I have no idea where the tank is. It would appear that the tank is not steel, but rather concrete or fiberglass, so a metal detector is of no use. I checked the town hall for a plot plan that might show the location from when we had the house built, but there is none on file.

So what's the secret. How do you go about finding one of these things without digging up the whole yard?

[helmut in the bush]

Maybe your health department has a drawing or plan that could point you in the right direction, otherwise see where the sewer goes through your foundation wall, then go outside to that area and look for depressions in your yard maybe 50' away from your house. Or call your local septic tank pumping company.

[Merlot]

maybe get a plumbing contractor to snake the line going out the house. I assume he/she would use a metal snake. once the snake is installed in the line, maybe use the metal detector to see where the snake is. side benefit...maybe the snake will break up a blockage and save you a dig up.

[Steuben Jerry]

I had one pumped for the first time at a previous house we owned. I didn't know where it was either.

They showed up and found it by poking rigid wire (like a straight coat hanger) into the ground. They found it quickly, and we had very minimal disruption to the yard.

[Doewhacker]

Go look for the pipe heading out of your basement and measure off the corner of your house, then outside at the predetermined area measure off your house @20 feet and begin poking the ground with something like a shovel or other pointy metal item. You should be able to feel the top of the tank and find the clean out. Then get to digging to find the handle of the clean out hatch. Usually the handle is metal.

[growalot]

Feel for you Doc  but have to say..you put in a septic system when YOU built the house and then never put in easy clean out tops? The first thing we did when buying our place was put 3 man hole covers over our septic...easy clean out...Septic guys love us...Have you never had it cleaned? If you did that company might have the location on file.

All that said ..been looking for the septic down at camp for well over 15 years...dug holes cant find it...too cheap to pay for a flush-able GPS tablet...I believe that's what they said they use in these cases expensive

PS you had to submit plans to the town when building ..I assume they required the septic plans as well? taxes assessor may have all that in your file.

Edited April 11, 2017 by growalot

[hunter]

What Doewhacker said but use a threaded rod or rebar a dig bar works but gently so you don't break anything. As you're probably gonna need it pumped they will find it. Make sure they snake out the over flow line or lines to the leech field or it will work fine till the tank is full and backup again cause the water can't leech back into the soil. I think the county health dept would have the info.

[philoshop]

There are tools made for this kind of work. Here's a sample:

https://www.amazon.com/Bully-Tools-99203-T-Style-Sharpened/dp/B00KOMTJ7E

Start where the the outlet pipe leaves the building and then follow it until you find the 'big box'. If there's any chance of hitting an electrical wire somewhere use a non-conductive probe.

When you find it take some measurements off the house, draw a map, and store it with other house-related documents.

[diplomat019]

I was unaware specifically where my septic was when we got it pumped.   The guy who came over found the main line exiting the house and measured it up on the outside and got a general idea of where it was.  Sure enough it was right where he thought.  

[Adkhunter1590]

Any septic company worth their salt can find your tank. They have multiple ways to do it.

I had some septic issues recently but more so with my leech field. The guy I called to pump my tank said he has this probe thing they send out on a snake and a machine above the ground tracks the probe. They use that to find tanks and distribution boxes and such. I'm sure any company you call has something similar.

O and your tank should be concrete. If it's steel, it's very old and should be replaced. I couldn't even get a loan for my house until the old metal septic tank was replaced with a new 1000 gallon concrete tank.

[Doc]

Thanks for all the ideas. But we found it yesterday. I had a guy come out with a special probe thingy that was about 3' long, 1/2" in diameter, pointed on the end, and had a wooden tee-handle. He started pushing this thing into the ground and found the tank in about 15 minutes. Today they are coming in to pump it out (first time since the installation 43 years ago). That is no guarantee that all will be fixed, and life will go back to normal .... lol. That still does not mean that we have found the problem, but the tank had to be found and pumped anyway. Now we  will see where we go from there to locate the blockage. The tank was not full, so I suspect there is a blockage some where toward the house.

I have no idea why they don't cast a big steel ring in the lid for the tank cleanout. I would have easily found it with my metal detector, and a ring in the lid would assist with pulling the lid.

Back in '74, we had a pretty crude zoning set-up, and things were fairly slip-shod in terms of records-keeping. So there was no records of the tank location. The builder has been long out of business, so no help there.

But anyway, we've got it found now, and thanks  to everyone for the advice.

[Adkhunter1590]

Glad ya found it pretty easily. Now comes the fun part of digging up the line to find the problem!

I had this problem last year. Blockage between house and tank. Dug it up and found that there was an old cast iron trap about 3 ft off the house where the line came out. Neighbor said they used to put traps outside like that back in the 30s and 40s but definitely not these days. Had to cut that sucker out of there and replace with pvc.

It's always something ain't it?

[First-light]

Back in the day they used tarpaper pipes from the house to the tank. These will fail over time and cause a blockage. I actually had the same problem Saturday night in my Corning rental. The pipe caused a major backup. Good luck hope its an easy fix.

[growalot]

Doc,these man hole covers we have are great,you should think about it for future pumps...I just put big potted plants on them in summer...good luck

[First-light]

FYI if thats an old cinder block septic tank you may want to replace it with a precast. Here on long Island there have been times where these old block tanks cave in and people have died. Just have a pro look at it.

[GreeneHunter]

21 hours ago, growalot said:

Feel for you Doc  but have to say..you put in a septic system when YOU built the house and then never put in easy clean out tops? The first thing we did when buying our place was put 3 man hole covers over our septic...easy clean out...Septic guys love us...Have you never had it cleaned? If you did that company might have the location on file.

All that said ..been looking for the septic down at camp for well over 15 years...dug holes cant find it...too cheap to pay for a flush-able GPS tablet...I believe that's what they said they use in these cases expensive

PS you had to submit plans to the town when building ..I assume they required the septic plans as well? taxes assessor may have all that in your file.

We installed the covers for both of our septics and they work great !

[grampy]

Good luck Doc. Hoping it will be a relatively easy fix. Any property owner, outside of public service, either has, or will go through septic issues at some point. Good you have a starting point now.

[Doc]

All Better now!! Tank is pumped, and water is going where it is supposed to now. Had to snake out the line to the house to break through & with the help of a plunger, the blockage broke loose. Life is good again!

[fasteddie]

Okay Doc - that's enough of your crap !  

[t_barb]

I am surprised that you have not pumped t out since the house was built and you have never had a problem until now..   We get ours pumped out every 3 years and they say it is just about the right amount of time.

[Fletch]

We get our pumped every 4 years. Still have bad shit happen at times. One of the kids dropped rocks down the vent pipe when they were little and caused a blockage one year.

 

43 years thats a lotta shit!

[growalot]

Quote

with the help of a plunger, the blockage broke loose. Life is good again!

metamusil

Fiber One

Benefiber

miraLax

[NFA-ADK]

http://www.rid-x.com/products/home/rid-x-septic-tank-system-treatment-powder/

Use this once a month or so.

 

 

[Moho81]

29 minutes ago, NFA-ADK said:

http://www.rid-x.com/products/home/rid-x-septic-tank-system-treatment-powder/

Use this once a month or so.

 

 

I'm new to the whole septic system thing. I always had public sewer up until the house i'm in now. Is something like Rid-X highly recommended by everyone or one of those things some people believe in and some people don't? not trying to start any septic tank wars here i'm just generally curious? And how do i know the tank needs to be pumped out? just do it every 3-4 years no matter what or is there a some sort of indicator i should be looking for? 

[growalot]

New to septics? rules to remember:

Get the girls under control in the house...No flushing!, What the package says and what is real aren't always the same.

Not all TP is equal either.

No dumping of chemicals and mop buckets with detergents and bleaches waxes and such

look for the septic safe stuff

No dumping hot grease down the drains. That is kinda like with people on well water..no dumping hot water in the toilet...it will crack the porcelain, well water is much colder,that's why tanks sweat on hot summer days.

When you killing off bacteria with these things...you need to at least try to get some growing again...poor term but....septic tanks are a living thing if healthy