Questions about our drain field.?

Question

We have been told our drain field has to be replaced at a tune of about $4000.00. The thing is, within about 1 to 2 years the county I live in will have installed a sewer system which will make the $4000.00 a hugh waste! So we are just going to have the septic pumped every 2-3 months at $225.00 a pop, but it is still cheaper.

My question, any suggestions on how to make the 2-3 months stretch any farther? We do the obvious, IE: limit water use, limit flushes, wash large loads, don't put anything down the garbage disposal, etc... I didn't know if there were any other tricks of the trade someone could suggest. Thanks in advance!!

The county really is putting in sewers. They have done about 1/2 of the county already. We are projected to be started on in a year, that is why I pushed it to 2 years since I know how things go.

Also, $4000.00 was the average bid from 3 different companies.

Answer 1

if you live out in the country than I would use a slump pump dig a big hole and pump it in I do it all of the time

Answer 2

This is not a science, the less water you put into your septic tanks the better. There's no tricks to this, the only thing that might help is flushing down a septic treatment. But it wont help much if your drain field is gone. $4000 for just the drain field (no new tanks) is a bit steep, at least where I'm from. Now, i cant tell you how many times i have heard people say "the county/city says they will install a sewer line in a year or two". My mom and dad have been saying that for ten years now. Some people discharge the laundry waste into the yard or bushes. This helps. But my advice is pump out the tanks three or four times. Then call the city/county, if they tell you another year or two, get a new drain Field.

Answer 3

All areas are not the same. Now the $225.00 is pretty high, I just paid $75.00 and watched the guy, he did a real good job. The $4000.00 doesn't sound right, where we come from about $12,000.00 for a new drain field and tank is more like it, even without the tank, it's closer to ten grand.

Were also allowed to run gray water (laundry and baths) in the ditch, find this out, it would save. Only the toilet has to run into the tank, for obvious reasons, some do run it into the ditch, we spent all summer running these people down.