Anyone here have any experience with this? The line is 30+ years old and ha slowed down quite a bit...no root problem just sludge. Ideas? Thanks

Baited breath. Same problem. New leach line considered..

If the lateral lines are all clogged up from lack of cleaning the tanks, you could be in a scenario for a new lateral line field. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you get some septic companies come look at it, and you're told that, they're not trying to screw you necessarily.

The problem in my area is that it might be against the law. Might have to go to arobic.

Consider dropping a can of dog food into the unit. That'll increase the microbes which eat away at all that crap.

Might not help, but it is inexpensive to try.

Same here Bill.

I'm probably going to put a bladder down in the line and let it run for awhile

Never heard of cleaning the field lines. I would think that the gravel around the line is also sludged up. That said, I imagine that a pump with a hose you can push down the line with a garden hose to flush it might clean the pipe but you’ve likely got a clogged gravel field around it still.

A neighbor at the lake had her field lines replaced last year, so it can be done. Don’t fear aerobic, except for the expense. They’re forever systems, but you gotta maintain them.

I’m assuming you’re talking about the lateral line that goes out to the field drain lines.
If you have good water pressure you can put a pressure nozzle on the end of a water hose and feed it down the line to flush the sludge down the lateral and into the field line.

Good advice so far. Do you ever put grease down the drain, that is the devil. Grease floats and will make it to the lateral lines. Could be the problem.

The septic tank has a baffle that stops flotations going into your leach lines. The flotation should be removed ever few years by the honey suckers.

The typical set up has a septic tank and a grease trap. The grease trap relieves only the grey water along with any grease from the kitchen. The septic tank gets the water from your baths and toilet.

I’ve heard of jetting(power washing) the lateral line. Just have no first hand knowledge if it’s a good alternative to replacing.

True Mr. ox, but i think he said it was like 30 yrs old, i might be wrong, but they might not have had that long ago.

Mine is 45 years old. I've had to replace one leach field due to a mistake by the builder. It cost $1,500 to have it done. I now live alone which takes a lot of pressure off it.

Mr, Ox

Had this done earlier this year on a 40yr old system. It cleared the field line and saved me thousands of dollars.

Mine was a bit over 40 years old when I replaced it this year and it did have a separate 250 gallon grease trap tank with a home run line to the kitchen. We tried every suggested trick for clearing the leaching field lines - but it just delayed the inevitable by a couple of years. As suggested, the rock and gravel beds around the field lines were sludged up.

The rules here are that any modifications to the system are a no-go. Once you touch it, you have to replace it with a new aerobic system. Not a big deal except that we cannot use sprinkler designs. The field has to buried - in our case 1,750 feet of 1/2" line with "emitter" holes . That required tearing up and trenching 7,000 sq ft of my yard - and (16) pallets of sod to lay!

The three tanks were all in great shape (1,400 gallons) and I would have gladly paid to have the main lateral lines replaced!

Marc

Did you have any problems before your flood?