It’s been a bit busy the past few months. Some things expected and some things not so much. The bigger of the items that most people don’t want to deal with is realizing that your septic system drain field has failed. We knew our drain field had begun having issues, but with only two of us it was pretty easy to “baby” it for the past several years to keep things flowing (ha ha). No long showers, don’t flush if someone is in the shower, wait an hour or so between showers, if you take a tub bath while someone else is in the other shower wait a while before draining the water… but on Thanksgiving things changed.

On Thanksgiving we had all the kids and grand kids home for several days. Then two days later our tricks no longer worked so we had to make a call to have it pumped ($550). This was finally the breaking point to move forward with getting it repaired. Try explaining to your 5 year old grandson why he can’t flush the toilet yet.

In order to get it repaired we had to hire an engineer to come out and do a survey. That took a few weeks to coordinate and get on his schedule. The engineer arrived the first week of January. He surveyed the issues, dug holes to test the soil composition for proper drainage, and determine a new location in our yard for the system.

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Our existing tank from 1987 looked to be good (fingers crossed there are no surprises when digging starts), but the system will need to be embellished some with an additional tank, pumping system, and new location for the drainage system (improved drain field). Once that was done we wait for his report, health department inspections, and a permit from the county.

His report finally arrived a few weeks later with his survey of our soil quality, drainage specific, location markings for where to put in the new system, the design of the system, required parts for the new system, and the permit our county office requires before hiring someone to do the actual work. Since this new system will be up hill from the existing tank we also have to have an electrician run electricity to the new system. Things just keep adding up, but have to be done.

Now that all the official work our county requires is done its time to find a septic company to do the work. We located a company and got on their schedule and we wait. Finally the last week of January we are go for the work to begin. Weather and rain delayed pushed the work but it was finally time. The workers showed up at 7am and started working.

The required system to meet county specifications for our location, soil quality, and the number of bedrooms our home has (3) came up to $9,550 which included the engineered design, county permit, inspection, parts and labor. We can add to this the $550 pumping cost that we paid at Thanksgiving. Overall total: $10,100.

It is a good feeling to finally not have to worry about things backing up, but I have a feeling our water bill will go up now that we aren’t so water conscience and conserving. Haha!