septic lateral lines

[leeroyboy]

a month ago our septic tank fell in. i called and had a new one installed they also said that for 1500.00 they could clean out the lines by flushing them out with high pressure water. is this true. or did they beat me out of my money and we will have to dig them up and replace them?

[Redwood]

IMHO High Pressure Jetting is one of the bast possible methods for cleaning sewer lines and lines to septic tanks. The higher cost of High Pressure Jetting is justified by the high cost of the equipment and the maintenance it requires. The trailer jetters you often see used on residential and light commercial lines run about 12 - $40k to buy and the hoses and nozzles are not cheap.

However, if they were selling you a jetting of the leaching field lines the value of that nature of work is questionable at best.

Leaching fields lines are typically a perforated pipe surrounded by stone which allows the water to seep into the soil. Common failures are soil surrounding the crushed stone become coated affecting their ability to allow water to flow through and or, the stone has an excessive bio-mat build up slowing or stopping the flow of grey water between the stones.

Septic System Drainfield Absorption System Biomat Formation - what leads to drain field clogging and expensive drainfield repairs

The water from the jet going through the holes in the perforated pipe stirring the bio-mat will effect only a small area of the stone in the trench and may offer temporary relief at best.

Terra-Lift is another option where beads are injected under pressure into the soil in effect fluffing it up. This is also a temporary measure.

The best possible course of action is to add a second field and allow the existing field (if it has failed) to rest without use. The field will naturally rejuvenate itself to like new. With 2 fields alternating in use it is unlikely that you will ever have a failure.

Of course this excludes damage to the fields caused by roots, driving over the lines and crushing them etc.