Clothes Washer/dishwasher drainage

I'm having intermittant problems with odors coming from the roof vent [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] . We have a 1000 gallon septic system that seems to be installed correctly in a "perkable" area. The septic gets a lot of drainage from frequently used clothes washing and a dish washer. A lot of people around here are suggesting that my problem may be the result of over drainage of soap, detergent, and bleach into the septic system. Any thoughts?

If this is so, I thought about creating a "grey water" drainage system around the septic system. Any suggestions here?

Thank you [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ,

Not sure if they are legal anymore or not, but a lot of older houses (my last one included) have a seperate system for the washing machine drain...mine was simply a 55 gallon drum full of holes and filled with rocks/gravel.

Takes some of the strain of the septic system as long as it is in a seperate area (i.e. no sense putting it right next to the existing leach field). I'd do it again at this house if it was accomplished easily because the last thing I want to spend my money on is putting in a new leach field if I can avoid it.

Not sure it would solve your problem or not, but might be worth a try?

Rob,

We were told by our builder that we should stagger our laundry cycles and not just do them one after another on a Saturday (my wife's normal process). We have tried to do this with laundry as well as dishwashing. So far no problems.

Over here on this side of the pond, only our black water (crap) goes into septic tanks, and all the grey water goes elsewhere.

I guess it is to avoid overloading like you say.

I can't imagine the amount of grey water we produce being handled by a septic tank the size of what we appear to have.

Cheers

njrgs,

Thats why most of us over hear have septic tanks that are ~1000 gallons. Also some have pretty large leach fields.

Rob:
In my area you can do a gray water system in addition to the septic tank. Only out in the county. City inspectors would freak out.
I had my house setup so that the grey water drains outside sperately from the black water. I then tied them togheter and ran it into a septic tank. In this way I can always seperate the gray water.

Your problem may be that you are killing the bacteria that are suppose to eat the bad stuff in the septic tank. Bleach will do that and I have heard that some soaps will. Maybe if you cut back on the bleach and get a septic freindly soap the problem may go away.

Fred

Not to be an alarmist, but how old is the tank and when was it last pumped? We just had ours pumped (seven years old - this was the first pumping), and the gentleman who serviced it stated that usually people call him after it's too late, i.e. after their leach fields had been damaged. He went on to say that many people subscribe to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" theory, but that it was in the end, for most of them, a very expensive subscription. I asked him what percentage of his calls are from those with irreparable damage. He said about 85%. I don't know much except that I sure don't want to have to pay to replace a field.