Plumbing conundrum

[Chick Norris]

When you hear a glub glub or gurgling sound, you are right in thinking it is an airflow problem. Downstream blockages cause the toilet or other fixtures to bubble up, not make sucking noises. You can either snake out your main vent stack or try putting your garden hose down the vent and flushing it with water to blast out whatever is preventing your airflow. One of those high pressure nozzles for your hose would be a bonus if you have one.

 

[MeatKing]

After having the septic cleaned out, and hubby doing everthing he knew how, He found a hidden pipe.. That I think was the "out gasses pipe" forget what he called it.. . Said that was our whole problem.. But could never see pipe. We've lived here 5 years, and he's pretty handy/smart.. To let a pipe outsmart him.. It was hidden..
Could there be a hidden pipe somewhere? Can you follow things along in basement? And try to track it? I know this sounds "out there" but just want to make sure your thinking outside the box.. For hopefully a cheaper solution!

 

[WingingIt]

Quote:
You're right that there's no way it should be full of solids after just four years with you there. How old is the system? Maybe the lines have been infiltrated with roots and can't take the water out like they should. I think it's well worth getting a new estimate on putting in a clean out valve if you want to do that (but sort of sounds like that's not the issue right now). I had one put in on the house we bought (the old owners just smashed a hole in the pipe and covered it up with crap and hid it from the inspector by creating a small 'patio' area over it) and I also had them replace the line from the house to the tank at the same time since it was old and brittle pipe and the whole thing was about a 1/4 of what you were quoted.

How far down is your tank buried? Might be worth it to dig up the top and take a peek and see if it's full of water or not.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

It's possible there's a low area in one of your drain lines where water is accumulating rather than all draining out.

$1800 is WAY too much to install a simple clean out plug

I wouldn't call that guy for anything else

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

So the system started working again. I did nothing. Sigh. I did bring home a bottle of Drano. Perhaps the threat was enough.

Bear Foot- I thought it sounded high, but what do I know about plumbing? There are a number of plumbing issues to be dealt with eventually. All of the pipes under the house should be replaced. Almost all of them are the iron (?) pipe they put in in the early 60s. We have calcium rich/lime rich water and I'm sure they are all clogged up with deposits. Sadly, there are many things in line before the plumbing issues. It is a really old house.

Wingingit- The septic was likely put in when they added the bathroom in the 60s. I know the kitchen wasn't tapped into it when I moved in. The kitchen drained out into the middle of the backyard.

I had it cleaned out about 4 years ago. Part of it had broken so the guy fixed it when he cleaned it out. It was the section that led to the leach (sp?) lines. The rest of it looked good.

I will dig around again for more air flow pipes. There is only one pipe that comes out of the roof though. I thought all vent/air pipes had to break through the roof. Dunno. Plumbing confuses me.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll keep working on it in hopes of stopping it in the future. It's very strange.

 

[zzGypsy]

the house we're leasing has a septic for the house and one for the kennel building. for unknown reasons, the kennel septic doesn't flow into the leach field, and because of how the roof runoff and exterior run drains are set up, most of the rain that hits the roof goes in the septic tank... which means it fills up any time we get a decent rain.

when it's full, we get the same symptoms - glugging from some drains when you run water down others. I suspect the pipe layout under the building is such that when the tank is 3/4 full, some pipes are filled with standing water, no air in those lines.

anyway, the glugging clears up when we pump the tank out... so maybe your tank is full enough to flood some pipes. even with low usage, if there's a way for water to get in, and your tank isn't draining into the leech field, it could fill up. are you in an area that gets rainier this time of year?

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

I thought all vent/air pipes had to break through the roof.

By "code" they do, but in old houses you might find anything at all, especially those built before most people even had indoor plumbing​

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

The problems you describe seems to be typical of a dry vent stack. This is why the newer codes now require all vent stacks to be washed at their base. This is probably the reason that the plumber wanted the amount he did to add a clean-out. I can almost guarantee you that if there is no clean-out, the base of the vent stack is not properly washed. There are also a couple of less likely causes for your problem but without seeing the piping it would be hard to tell from my computer screen.

Studor vents are for applications where roof penetrations are not possible. They will in no way make a improperly working system all of a sudden "cured". There is alot more to properly plumbing a building than just slapping the pipes together. I've seen it all though...lol.

Good Luck!!!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Thanks, Chook!

So the system isn't really working again. It fooled me. It's running better, but not great. This is about the point that I dump a bottle of drano down the drain. Sometimes it helps. Can we think of any reasons why I shouldn't do it again? I don't have $1800 to pay a plumber right now.

 

[spottedtail]

Never use Drano (or anything like it) in a septic system.
Never.
It will ruin or damage the microbial process of the system.

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