# Grey water opinion



## Bollinger plumber (Apr 3, 2009)

I don't get much work but when I do they are a doozy. 
Got a call yesterday from a lady and said her gray water line was stopped up. She is way out in the boonies her road was more a goat trail. First thing that happens is I get out of the truck and she has a beautiful golden retriever with very muddy feet who jumps on me and covers me with mud. It s o k though I love dogs and its only mud. next she jumps into my truck:laughing: and gets mud all over the seat. Its ok though I love dogs its only mud and it will wash off. 
next the lady takes me in the house and explains to me how the plumbing is done. The only thing that goes in the septic tank is the toilets everything else dumps into a 2 inch gray water line that is about 130 ft long. At the end of the line her plumber drilled holes in a 5 gallon pvc bucket with a lid on it. he drilled a 2 inch hole in the top of the bucket and turned a 90 degree into the top of the bucket. then he put 1 inch creek gravel all the way around it for a dry well.
The problem is the dry well is full of water so I cut the pipe bail all the water out with an ice cream bucket (didn't have my sump pump with me) which took about an hour. I got the water below the pipe and had her go run water in the house. Water came out full blast. I told her that her pipe wash clear and the problem was with the dry well. It took me almost an hour to convince her that the problem was not with the pipe but with the way her plumber had designed the dry well. I suggested to her that she dig up the 4 inch line going to the septic tank and the 2 inch line going to the dry well and tie in the 2 inch into the 4 inch septic line. There fore everything in her house would dump into the septic and she could eliminate the dry well altogether. 
My question is do you think that is good advice since the water table in the dry well is almost to the top. The only other option that I see would be to extend the 2 inch line down the hill about another 50 or 60 feet where it would follow the natural grade until the pipe would be out of the ground letting the gray water come out on top of the ground instead of a dry well that ain't so dry. It is still legal to that around here as long as you have over 5 acres of land and the gray water doesn't go onto your neighbors land.


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## drtyhands (Aug 16, 2008)

Can the leach field handle the much larger amounts of liquifer?


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## Bollinger plumber (Apr 3, 2009)

drtyhands said:


> Can the leach field handle the much larger amounts of liquifer?


 I think the leech field and the drywell are run together as I smelled raw sewage as I was bailing out the water. So the answer is probably not but she did not want me to do too much due to the fact that she is unemployed and money is tight. That is why I also suggested she extend the 2 inch line another 50 or 60 ft and get it away from the leach field. I also suggested that she call someone with more experience in septic systems and see what they thought on the matter.


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## nhmaster3015 (Aug 5, 2008)

First off, in most states dry wells are illegal. Secondly, a 5 gallon bucket with holes is nowhere large enough. we use 55 gallon plastic drums, sometimes two or three of them.


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## OldSchool (Jan 30, 2010)

seeing you were able to bail it out...then more than likely it is not the water table as the water would keep coming in as fast as you bailed it out. It seems more like her pit has plugged up not allowing the water to leach.


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## Miguel (Aug 10, 2009)

Yeah. Is that gray leaching pit dug into clay or hardpan? It needs something to soak into and for a typical small one bedroom cottage, somewhere on the order if 45 - 60 cu ft for a chamber.
We use Infiltrator chambers to do those nowadays. http://www.infiltratorsystems.com/productline/quick4_infiltrator.asp

Still, the ground needs to have the ability to soak up the liquid and the chamber can be sized according to how well it can do that.


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## breid1903 (Feb 8, 2009)

*bp*

i live in rural indiana. do the woman a favor and tell her to put the extension on. it's legal and it will save her major money. i have customers that run their septic fields to drain tiles in their farm fields. i hooked my dads with an extension up like you are talking about. breid...................:rockon:


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## Bollinger plumber (Apr 3, 2009)

OldSchool said:


> seeing you were able to bail it out...then more than likely it is not the water table as the water would keep coming in as fast as you bailed it out. It seems more like her pit has plugged up not allowing the water to leach.


 If I stopped bailing for just a few seconds the water would fill right back up to the original level if I stopped bailing for just a few seconds.


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## Bollinger plumber (Apr 3, 2009)

Miguel said:


> Yeah. Is that gray leaching pit dug into clay or hardpan? It needs something to soak into and for a typical small one bedroom cottage, somewhere on the order if 45 - 60 cu ft for a chamber.
> We use Infiltrator chambers to do those nowadays. http://www.infiltratorsystems.com/productline/quick4_infiltrator.asp
> 
> Still, the ground needs to have the ability to soak up the liquid and the chamber can be sized according to how well it can do that.



I am sure the septic system was not properly put in as it was all done without any permits. The ground is most likely all silica which is very hard red clay and rocks. I couldn't even get my probe to penetrate it. The lady doesn't have much money as she is unemployed so I really didn't waste to much time investigating it. I cut her all kinds of breaks but I wasn't going to take the chance of staying there all day working on a rubber check. I did the job on a saturday with week day rates I gave her 30 miles of free travel (the job was 54 miles away) and cameraed the line for free. That is all the beating I was willing to take. if she wants me to come up and investigate properly she will have to come up with some proof of payment.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

That "leach pit" sounds like it's undersized by a factor of 50.


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

Protech said:


> That "leach pit" sounds like it's undersized by a factor of 50.


I usually use a coffee can... :laughing:


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