Diggin' in the Back Yard

What a beautiful weekend. Temperatures in the 70s both days.

We had given up running the washing machine because of the overflow problem so on Friday I contacted the septic service and they agreed to come out on Sat. When Gary got to the house he poked around in the back yard for a while but didn't locate the lid of the tank so he decided to come back on Sun with a small back hoe. He dug from the house along the pipe and eventually located the top of the tank about 10 ' into the back yard.

After he cut roots out of the drain pipe K filled the washer and drained it a couple of times without problem. Gary built up the top of the septic tank with cinder blocks so now the lid is under only inches of dirt. We were curious about whether we had a field drain or a cesspool so there was more digging to discover where the exit drain went. He found a cesspool about 15' further back from the septic tank and declared it to be in good shape. We asked him to build up the top of that too so its lid should be easy to find if we ever need to.

He pumped the tank (1000 gal capacity) and called it a day. The real test will be this coming weekend when clothes washing starts in earnest.

Total cost for digging, raising the 2 lids, and pumping was $860.