How Interesting

I received a visit today from the county health department, inquiring about my septic issues.  Whoa!  I didn't know that when you have septic problems, the septic company that you worked with reports it to the county.  And if the county deems it sufficient enough for a visit, they do just that, to make sure things are on the up and up, and to ask if you have plans to address the problem.

As it turns out, the county guy was super nice, and offered some helpful advice.  Basically, it boils down to this:  if the problem is inside my house, I can deal with it (or not) however I want, but if the problem is outside the house, it becomes a concern for the health department.  That makes sense to me.

My problem is a drainfield that is too small, so when the the drainfield gets saturated, water from my washing machine backs up into the bathtub. So the symptoms are occuring inside the house, but it's a problem I'll eventually have to deal with.

For the time being, I am limited to infrequent use of my washing machine, and I'm being ultra careful about how much water goes down my drains.  When I change the dogs' water bucket daily, the old water gets thrown out the back door.  I'm handwashing delicates in a rubber tub and tossing the old water outside.  I turn off the shower between lathering up and rinsing off.  (Brrrrrr!!!)  Kleenex gets tossed into the burnable trash, not the toilet.  No more washing dishes under running water.  I'm conserving water like mad.  So far, so good.  Let's hope I can put off making any decisions for a while longer!

Septic Woes

Oh dear.  I need a new drain field for my septic system. 
I've had problems for years with sluggish drains, and last year the sinks started gurgling every time I did a load of laundry.  And for the past several months, whenever I did laundry, the wash water would back up into the bathtub.  Recently, I made the horrifying discovery that in addition to flooding the bathtub, wash water has somehow been getting under the bathroom linoleum and saturating the subfloor.  So in addition to replacing my drain field, I'll also have to tear up the bathroom floor and replace it. 

Of course, first I rented a snake and tried to snake out the pipes.  That didn't work, so I hired a plumber.  $300 later, he said it wasn't a plumbing problem.  Next came the septic people, who pumped out my septic tank.  (Another $300.)  They inspected the tank and said that wasn't the problem, either.  The next day, the septic people came out with their camera that can be inserterted down your pipes.  (More money!)  That's when they discovered the problem with my drain field.  And that's when I discovered it will cost $7,000 - $10,000 for a new drain field.  Possibly even more. 

Let me just say one word:  "Ugh."

Like, double ugh.