Jerry thought he had problems

[Esther]

In Jerry's thread about the arbor starting to collapse, I mentioned we had called the "roto rooter" man twice for one of our duplexes. The last guy thought he had removed baby wipes so we breathed a sigh of relief. To soon though I guess as the tenant called back two days later saying it was clogged again. So the roto rooter man came again and this time put a camera down the pipe. Clean as a whistle until they got to the very end where it enters the septic tank. HMMM something there. Break through it and nothing else. So Pete is getting a digger today or tomorrow and going to dig down to the top of the tank and take a look. Probably will have it pumped while it is open. We can't help but wonder if it is frozen where it leaves the tank and goes into the drain field or that the drain field is frozen. We've had a much colder winter than normal and there was a thaw a while back that removed the snow cover, alowing the soil to freeze much deeper than usual. GRRR!! Finances don't need this.

[Jerry]

Maybe you can get the guy from "Dirty Jobs?"  It's a mess I know.
My big beam comes tomorrow.  It cost 163.00  heck it's only money.

[Esther]

I can only hope mine doesn't cost any more. It's around $400 now and who knows what will happen after this. The digger is free seeing it is owned by the company Pete works for when he works. LOL. But if we have the tank pumped, it'll be another $150 probably.I don't know what'll happen if the drain field is frozen. Pete says it's not possible as they put it well below the freeze line around here. He said the top of the gunk in the tank is at 30" below soil surface which is well within code.

Where the pipes come out of our house and go to the old tank, the snow would always melt first and sometimes things I had planted there would winter over when they weren't known to be a hardy plant. So the constant heat from the water going down the pipes and laying in the ground help keep the tank warm. I don't know what the ground temp is under the freeze line but we hear about heating things that pull the heat from the ground and is used to heat a house.

For now, we are waiting and if we hear from the tenant again, we'll have to start digging.

[Jerry]

I do rent to college girls at UCSB.  The Plumber visits often. :'( :'(

If it is feminine items it comes out of their Security deposit which is huge.  No problem.  A property manager handles it.

[Esther]

Is the security deposit equal to one month's rent? That's what is common around here. But the rent is probably small compared to California's. I know the security deposit doesn't cover much. Michigan is really hurting anyway. Everywhere you look, there's somebody laid off or a business closing it's doors. Michiganders have a joke. "Would the last person to leave Michigan turn out the lights?"

[Mikey]

Do you think your rooter guy ran the snake far enough down the line the first time?  Do you know if he ran a bunch of water through afterwords to ensure the line was clear? 

I get occasional root blockage from a city tree in the parkway and it irritates me having to pay for something that I am not responsible for causing...  At least my rooter guy only charged me $60.

[Jerry]

No Esther, it's a LOT MORE.  This is Santa Barbara, very pricey, but 3 girls to each unit, so its a relative bargain.  My own granddaughter has to rent across the street.  We are booked for a few years.

I wouldn't mind living there myself, close to the ocean and  better climate than the hot valleys.

[Esther]

Pete was with each guy that came. And yes, they filled and ran 5 washer loads the next to the last time. The first time they flushed the toilet twice. He said the last time with the camera it was clean all the way to the end and then looked like something (maybe frozen crud) was at the very end. This line has a Y where the other side of the duplex attaches. The other side hasn't had a problem so none of this makes sense. We wonder if they have put grease down and it has stopped the bacteria action. The tank pumper guy will know.

[Esther]

Poor Pete is headed over there right now and will begin digging up the cover with one of those minidiggers. Luckily the company he works for has one and lets him use it for free. So hopefully he'll have access shortly to the tank and be able to see what's wrong in there. HE talked to the pumping company this morning and they told him what to look for. Crusty surface gunk, BAD. Watery gunk, good. Fortunately Pete has no sense of smell, was raised on a farm, and has plumbed for 44 years, so smells don't bother him and is used to gross stuff.

[Esther]

It wasn't long and he was home. Said he opened it up and sure enough it is full. We don't know if the action has been destroyed or not. Seems odd that it filled in a year and a half. Yup, there are 11 people living in that duplex. It is huge on one side with 4-5 bedrooms and two baths. The other side has 3-4 bedrooms and two baths. The reason I can't say how many bedrooms for sure is that sometimes they use what I think is a family room as a bedroom. Anyway there are 4 in the smaller side and 7 in the larger. There are 4 adults, 4 kids under 4 years a couple of preteens and an 8 year old. Most of the little ones are in diapers. The amounts of water from laundry shouldn't affect the tank action.
So he called the pumping company and we'll see what they have to say when they come.

[reddad35]

It wasn't long and he was home. Said he opened it up and sure enough it is full. We don't know if the action has been destroyed or not. Seems odd that it filled in a year and a half. Yup, there are 11 people living in that duplex. It is huge on one side with 4-5 bedrooms and two baths. The other side has 3-4 bedrooms and two baths. The reason I can't say how many bedrooms for sure is that sometimes they use what I think is a family room as a bedroom. Anyway there are 4 in the smaller side and 7 in the larger. There are 4 adults, 4 kids under 4 years a couple of preteens and an 8 year old. Most of the little ones are in diapers. The amounts of water from laundry shouldn't affect the tank action.
So he called the pumping company and we'll see what they have to say when they come.

Did they get their toilet paper from sams? My wife got some from there that hates our toilets. Nice soft feel on the tushy but easy on the usage. Man what a gross topic.

[karen J]

[

Did they get their toilet paper from sams? My wife got some from there that hates our toilets. Nice soft feel on the tushy but easy on the usage. Man what a gross topic.

I wonder about that. We switched to Sam's and/or Costco cheap toilet paper and I gotta say... gross as it is... it doesn't work very well! Can I say "Klingons"?!  We have two kids and they were using the entire roll... !!! ! When we switched back to the "fluffy" stuff, the problem seemed to have ended. For now. We'll see. Kids are a separate issue, though. We probably would not even be having the discussion if it were not for our kids and their poop. Fact of life, I guess. 

ESTHER, Wow, 11 people is a lot of people on a septic system! When we had ours pumped out last spring, we decided to go with a "collar" or whatever they call it. Basically, it's a concrete necklace that brings the top of the septic tank to the ground level, for easier identification and pumping, with no digging. So the guy pumped out the septic, and installed this "collar" a couple days later. Lo and Behold, when he opened the system up to install the collar, the entire system was completely full!
No explanation was available. Maybe the wet spring? Maybe the collar itself? Maybe the fact that I do a million pounds of laundry? Nothing.
We're still scratching our heads about that.  There were probably a few bowling balls and a million Matchbox cars in there, not to mention a couple hundred baby wipes. 

[Mikey]

We switched to Sam's and/or Costco cheap toilet paper and I gotta say... gross as it is... it doesn't work very well! Can I say "Klingons"?! 

I still like the old #2 size corn cob.....but it is a little tough flushing...

[Esther]

Mikey I can tell you are a city guy. We hadn't better catch you flushing a corncob down our system or shiny catalog pages either.

Turns out the pumper guy said that the biggest problem is with little kids and toilet tissue. It doesn't break down as quickly and well as body waste.  Remember when your kids were little and you no longer wiped their butt?? They would tear off lengths and more lengths of paper until they had a softball size wad and then wipe. That was the first wipe as they would drop the one wipe wad immediately and begin to construct the next softball size wad. After several wads, of which the third and fourth were clean as a whistle, we'd realize we had heard the paper roller rolling and rolling and have to yell for them to stop. That is, country folks with septic systems would be aware of that but it doesn't matter to city folks as long as junior is able to flush the 4 wads down without clogging the toilet.

Also Pete told me that the guy gave him a sheet that lists all the dos and don'ts that affect the septic system. I went on their website and copied it off to give to the people on the other side of the rental as they have 2 adults and two little kids. I'll post the link so those of you who live in the country can read it if you like.  http://www.fullersepticservices.com/dos__donts_ So turns out that water can harm the system when used in large amounts at one time.

As for toilet tissue, I have seen it advertised as septic safe. I don't know what that means or if one is better than another. I think that the single ply is stupid because I end up using twice as much as the double ply and it is the same in the end.  LOL. get it??? I did a funny.

Pete reminded me to use white and red/brown ones. The white ones are to check to see if you need another brown one.