Tree roots versus drain pipes

Hi all. It’s been a minute. The last post talked about how busy work had been, and it hasn’t slowed down. No complaints though. A short recap is that we moved the woodshop out of the house shop and into a commercial property. I ended up leasing 3 warehouses totaling 3600sf. 2000 sf is dedicated to the production of tambour panels. 800 sf is dedicated to laying up the tambour panels and 800sf is set up as a wood shop. I’ve been spending lots of time running electrical, ductwork, setting up machines, and building tables, carts, jigs, and other items necessary to hit the deadlines at hand.

We hit a major deadline

We just hit our first major deadline last Friday. The original order was for 400 panels due Friday 7/22. As we got started, we found out the order was increased to 540 panels with the same deadline. No pressure. The crew stepped up to the plate and made it happen. And by crew, I’ve got two full time employees now and Oceana has been joining us 3 days a week. We pushed really hard and were able to meet the deadline. So last Friday, after the panels shipped, we had some food truck barbeque and I sent the guys home early and gave them the weekend off.

A day off? Kind of…

Taking the weekend, or at least Saturday off, meant I had time to get to a project that got started a few weeks ago. The septic drain field. A few weeks ago Oceana said “the toilet won’t flush”. After a little troubleshooting I walked outside and liquid was pouring out of the top of the septic tank. Uh-oh. My first guess was a clogged discharge line. So I started digging until I found the discharge line at the tank. There was a clean out cut into the pipe so I opened it up and found no immediate issues.

Stupid tree

Next, I sent a snake down the discharge line. It made it about 15 feet before it stopped. After a bit of digging I was able to locate the pipe 15 feet away. I enlarge the hole until I saw the issue. A tree root. A very large tree root. Evidently the root grew up next to the pipe and wound up getting so big that it completely crushed the pipe. This may not have been an issue for years since nobody has been living in the house prior to us. However, we’ve had various times where the toilets wouldn’t fully flush. I could never figure out why. Well, now I know.

Temporary fix

I got the line cut back and cleared out and left it for the time being. I didn’t have time to get to a proper repair but for now at least it would be draining and functioning. Fast forward, since I would be taking Saturday off from work, it was time to make this project a priority. The proper repair required digging out a large trench, laying stone down, laying new drain pipe, covering it with stone, covering the stone with landscape fabric, and then putting the sand/soil back in place on top.

Time to dig

6AM on Saturday I made a Lowe’s run and picked up the necessary plumbing supplies. As soon as I got back Oceana and I started digging. And digging. And digging. We dug until we had a trench big enough for the pipes we were going to lay. Rather than doing one long run of pipe, Tom recommended that we split it into three and do three shorter runs. I liked that idea because it meant less digging in the root filled soil. Later that morning Tom stopped by to check on progress and I asked him to look over what I was planning to do. He approved and we continued on.

Oceana likes plumbing

Oceana helped me glue up the pipes in the driveway where we pre-assembled the entire drain assembly. We carried the whole thing into the trench and then leveled it out. It slopes, but we had to use a level to set the slope. We built up sand under the corners and in the middle to set it level and to give us open area under the pipes for the stone. Once the pipes were level, I made the final connections to the existing discharge pipe at the septic tank. The plumbing is done.

The stone

Monday morning Oceana ordered 3 yards of stone for the hole. They delivered the same day. Monday evening we got right back to it shoveling the stone. However, this stone was big and jagged. It did not like to be shoveled. Regardless, we moved the big pile of stone under the pipes and beside the pipes until the pipes were just covered. We then used landscape fabric to keep any roots from growing down into it. Lastly, we had to fill in the sand on top.

I got to play on a tractor

Tom was kind enough to lend us his small diesel tractor with a scrape blade on the back. I used the tractor to push the sand back into the hole and then to grade out the side yard to a halfway respectable grade. I then smoothed out the yard with a rake. This was Teak’s favorite part. He chased the rake across the yard and then chewed on grass clumps when they popped up. Done. I was wore out. So was Oceana. I’m glad to have the yard back together and a functioning septic system. Even though I would have preferred not to do this job, I’m glad that we did so we know we have one more system in the house functioning properly.

That’s all, folks

That’s all for now folks. Back to working 7 days a week until we get the second half of this massive order complete.