Septic

Since we live in an older house with no sewer service in the neighborhood, we have a septic tank buried in our backyard. Ever since we moved into this house almost four years ago, we have had issues with our septic system every so often. We had the septic tank drained shortly after moving in and found some very interesting items in there (Pantyhose?).

About a year later, we had to have it drained again, so we decided to dig up the drainfields to see if they needed to be replaced. The drainfields were mostly okay. The major problem was that a large root from one of our oak trees had grown through the junction box and crushed it. So, we replaced the junction box and the small section of the drainfield that had also been crushed, and all was good.

Until this past summer came along and we started having trouble again. We were having issues with the toilets overflowing whenever someone flushed because the septic tank was too full for it to drain into. Since we were having Katie's first birthday party at our house in August, we had to pay to have the septic tank drained out again so that our guests would be able to use our bathrooms without incident.

After that, things were good for a little while, but they got bad again over the past few months. It got so bad that we couldn't drain an entire bathtub full of water without it coming up from the bottom of the girls' bathroom toilet and getting all over the place.

So, today, finally, Phil decided to dig up the junction box and drainfields to see if he could find the problem.

Apparently, we're having more root issues. Those darn roots are just so destructive. And of course they're attracted to the septic system. Wouldn't you be if you were a root looking for some good nourishment?

So, I guess things are okay for now, but we'll probably have to do some more digging in the future when the roots grow through it again. These darn trees are such a pain in the @$$. I wish I could just have them all removed, but since there are so many of them, I'd probably have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it all. Oh, well, maybe I can just get that one pesky oak tree that keeps messing up our septic system removed. Eventually...

Update: After looking at my pictures again, I realized that it's actually two oak trees that are the problem.