I had a leak in my rental's leach line, or at least the driveway over the
leach line had a constant big foul-smelling puddle all the time the
septic tank was in use. It dried up while the rental was empty and while
the sewer line was plugged.

I had the tank pumped and dug up around the line and it looks ok. Broke
off some of the 'concrete(?)' fastening the line but saw no obvious
leaks. Leach line itself looks ok, I can only assume the leak is in the
tank/line connection and I didn't see it. I don't know wherec elae it
could be. I hate to fill up the tank with enough water so the leach line
is in use because I may have to have it pumped to do some work on the
leach line later.

I can see no other possible place for the liquid to leak out.

The question is, what is used to attach the leach line? Plain concrete?
Plain cement? Special concrete or cement? Something else? I Googled for a
long time but couldn't find this info. Wrong search phrases?

TIA


--
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator
when something closes the door from the inside.

On Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 1:50:41 PM UTC-4, KenK wrote:
I had a leak in my rental's leach line, or at least the driveway over the
leach line had a constant big foul-smelling puddle all the time the
septic tank was in use. It dried up while the rental was empty and while
the sewer line was plugged.

I had the tank pumped and dug up around the line and it looks ok. Broke
off some of the 'concrete(?)' fastening the line but saw no obvious
leaks. Leach line itself looks ok, I can only assume the leak is in the
tank/line connection and I didn't see it. I don't know wherec elae it
could be. I hate to fill up the tank with enough water so the leach line
is in use because I may have to have it pumped to do some work on the
leach line later.

I can see no other possible place for the liquid to leak out.

The question is, what is used to attach the leach line? Plain concrete?
Plain cement? Special concrete or cement? Something else? I Googled for a
long time but couldn't find this info. Wrong search phrases?

TIA


--
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator
when something closes the door from the inside.

A leach line is supposed to link, that's the whole purpose, right?
I guess it's not supposed to leak a lot until you get to the part
where the holes are, so maybe the first X feet should be relatively
leak free, but it would seem even if there is a leak there, it's 3ft plus
down, so I don't see why you'd have a pool there, but no pool at the
leach field itself. Maybe the problem is the leach field is plugged up,
the water has no place to go, so it's backing up where it can?

Back years ago they had cesspools with no leach fields. I know cases
where a leach field was then added decades later and those didn't use
anything to make the whole thing watertight. They knocked out a hole
in the side of the cement block wall, put the perf pipe in, threw some
cement around it. That was it and it worked, with nothing happening
at ground level.

On 6/28/16 1:50 PM, KenK wrote:
I had a leak in my rental's leach line, or at least the driveway over the
leach line had a constant big foul-smelling puddle all the time the
septic tank was in use. It dried up while the rental was empty and while
the sewer line was plugged.

I had the tank pumped and dug up around the line and it looks ok. Broke
off some of the 'concrete(?)' fastening the line but saw no obvious
leaks. Leach line itself looks ok, I can only assume the leak is in the
tank/line connection and I didn't see it. I don't know wherec elae it
could be. I hate to fill up the tank with enough water so the leach line
is in use because I may have to have it pumped to do some work on the
leach line later.

I can see no other possible place for the liquid to leak out.

The question is, what is used to attach the leach line? Plain concrete?
Plain cement? Special concrete or cement? Something else? I Googled for a
long time but couldn't find this info. Wrong search phrases?

TIA



As Trader_4 said "Maybe the problem is the leach field is plugged up,
the water has no place to go, so it's backing up where it can?
"
Can you partially fill the tank, then use a sump pump to pump water
into the tank outlet, and see if it backs up rather than flow freely ?

If necessary use a submersible pump, with a handle that you can attach
a rope to, to lower it into the tank.

On 28 Jun 2016 17:50:37 GMT, KenK wrote:

I had a leak in my rental's leach line, or at least the driveway over the
leach line had a constant big foul-smelling puddle all the time the
septic tank was in use. It dried up while the rental was empty and while
the sewer line was plugged.

I had the tank pumped and dug up around the line and it looks ok. Broke
off some of the 'concrete(?)' fastening the line but saw no obvious
leaks. Leach line itself looks ok, I can only assume the leak is in the
tank/line connection and I didn't see it. I don't know wherec elae it
could be. I hate to fill up the tank with enough water so the leach line
is in use because I may have to have it pumped to do some work on the
leach line later.

I can see no other possible place for the liquid to leak out.

The question is, what is used to attach the leach line? Plain concrete?
Plain cement? Special concrete or cement? Something else? I Googled for a
long time but couldn't find this info. Wrong search phrases?

TIA


Rental property - on septic - there's your first problem !
People flush diapers ... and worse !
.. even otherwise intelligent, decent, people..
... or their invited guests do so .. ignorant city folk.
As another has posted - you might have a clog -
- downstream from the leak.
Septic Pumper guys might have a way to snake ? Dunno.
Good strong modern weepers or old rotten clay-tile ?
Good luck . Let us know how you make out.
John T.

On Tue, 28 Jun 2016 11:05:53 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 1:50:41 PM UTC-4, KenK wrote:
I had a leak in my rental's leach line, or at least the driveway over the
leach line had a constant big foul-smelling puddle all the time the
septic tank was in use. It dried up while the rental was empty and while
the sewer line was plugged.

I had the tank pumped and dug up around the line and it looks ok. Broke
off some of the 'concrete(?)' fastening the line but saw no obvious
leaks. Leach line itself looks ok, I can only assume the leak is in the
tank/line connection and I didn't see it. I don't know wherec elae it
could be. I hate to fill up the tank with enough water so the leach line
is in use because I may have to have it pumped to do some work on the
leach line later.

I can see no other possible place for the liquid to leak out.

The question is, what is used to attach the leach line? Plain concrete?
Plain cement? Special concrete or cement? Something else? I Googled for a
long time but couldn't find this info. Wrong search phrases?

TIA


--
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator
when something closes the door from the inside.

A leach line is supposed to link, that's the whole purpose, right?
I guess it's not supposed to leak a lot until you get to the part
where the holes are, so maybe the first X feet should be relatively
leak free, but it would seem even if there is a leak there, it's 3ft plus
down, so I don't see why you'd have a pool there, but no pool at the
leach field itself. Maybe the problem is the leach field is plugged up,
the water has no place to go, so it's backing up where it can?

Back years ago they had cesspools with no leach fields. I know cases
where a leach field was then added decades later and those didn't use
anything to make the whole thing watertight. They knocked out a hole
in the side of the cement block wall, put the perf pipe in, threw some
cement around it. That was it and it worked, with nothing happening
at ground level.

I agree with trader.
If you have water coming up, the field is clogged or you have a broken
pipe from the tank to the distribution box or the leads going out from
there. Have the tank pumped and watch the "out" lead as the water
drops. If water is coming back, you have a problem in the field or the
distribution. How long it pours back will give you an idea of how far
the water is getting before the problem. If it is right there in the
distribution, you will not get a lot of water coming back. If the
whole field is slugged water may come back for quite a while.

I just did a field here. I know more about this than I want to ;-)
I went with a "chamber system" and did it myself, with the help of a
hired mini excavator and some day labor.