Septic system

If you remember, the kitchen and mud room's gray water septic system froze over Winter.  As time went on the water would drain very slowly, then a little faster, a little faster, until a week ago I heard both sink drains gurgle as water quickly drained down the pipes.

So Wednesday I washed clothes.

Well... the septic system was still not completely open.  As the washing machine drained, the water backed up through my broken dishwasher and spilled out all over the kitchen floor.

What a wet mess!

Before the washing machine could reach its rinse cycle drain, I dug up the septic system.

I found ice still covered much of top of the water.  Also the drain pipe from the house was partially blocked from grass roots that grew though the crack between rings that made up the concrete holding tank.  The grass roots were screening/partially blocking the free flow of water.

I broke the ice and scraped the roots away and the rinse cycle of the washing machine drained perfectly.

As you can see the lid is not far below the ground surface.

The white material is ice.

The small pipe is from the house.  The white pipe goes out to the drain field.

This is the original septic system from the 1940s.   An annoying feature is that the house pipe is barely higher than the drain field pipe.  Fortunately with the soil type here the water drains quickly.