Okay, I just moved out to my late grandmother's home and after a few weeks an odor comes up in bathroom. I have put new toilet and pipes, sink and pipes and p trap for tub and sink. I need to know how to tell if house is connected to the original leach line or to a septic tank that was installed about 12 years ago. When looking down septic cleanout I do not see water or any odor. Some in family say connected to the septic some say never was. Can't afford to call the wrong type of plumber to help me so I am asking for any tips on how to be sure what house is actually connected to.

 

Do you know when the septic tank was last pumped?

If not known to be less than 2 years ago and you do not have records showing when it was pumped out it would be a good idea to have it pumped now.

You can delay having the hatch put back on and filled in until you have a chance to do tests like pour water down the drain and verify that the water pours into the septic tank.

 

Sorry, this is a little confusing.

You state that there is a smell, and to resolve you replaced and re-plumbed your entire bathroom?

What did all the re-plumbing and new fixtures have to do with the smell?

Now you are trying to determine if there is even a septic system? If you are in the city then probably connected to sewer system and should be getting bills, if out in the country then most likely a septic system.

If later, just call a septic pumping company and I'm sure they will be willing to come out and find the tank, pump, and confirm it's functioning.

 

Ok, let me try to be clearer. The house sits on 2600 acres in rural area of Wyoming. Grandmother only had a drain pipe going from house into a drainage area. Then 12 yrs ago mom put a new mobile home on property so she could come and check on grandma. When she put the mobile home in that's when a septic tank was put in. But grandma did not let them hook house to septic some say and other family says it is. I have been getting a weird odor for several weeks and was told that there was not a P trap on a tub-had one put in. But the smell is now worse and not always. I am trying to determine if the house is or is not connected to seltic. I did look down the septic cleanout and can't see anything but pipe and it's completely dry. Wouldnt the septic cleanoit be close to where the mobile home used to sit? Because it is much closer to the original homestead. Come on guys, I am a 50 yr old woman whose name is not Laura Ingalls! Need any help figuring out

 

And there is nothing wrong with this, just trying to better understand the situation.

OK, so there is a septic system that the mobil home is connected to but the question is if the house was ever connected?

If so should be easy to open up the tank and cleanout and run water in both locations to see what is flowing into the tank.

This will then help with other answers!

 

If you are in a remote area there likely were no inspections and enforced building to code. So, you could have anything and truthfully you're mostly on your own. Only you can look and see if all the fixtures have traps and where drain lines run.

The only way to know for sure is to uncover the lid for the infeed end of the septic tank. Watch the inlet pipe and have someone in the house flush a toilet. If after a minute you see a surge of water come into the septic tank then you know it's connected.

You can also do the toilet flush test while looking and listening at the cleanout but all that will tell you is that the house is connected to the cleanout. It won't tell you where the cleanout line runs.

 

If this is accurate and you've recently used the plumbing in the bathroom in question then then it's not connected to the septic tank.

 

Do you know where the tank is? Does it have risers on it for easy access to peek inside the tank?

I think your first order of business would be to find the tank, dig up if necessary the inlet side of the tank and open it up.

Run some water from the sink and keep it running while you go out to the tank and see if it comes out of the inlet pipe in the tank.

Do you have access to this "drainage area" where the old (or possibly current) pipe dumps it's waste? Was it into a dry well system?

 

The cleanout for the septic tank would logically have been between the mobile home it was designed to service and the tank itself. Is there any logic to having the cleanout also serve the old residence? Does not sound probable.

You referred to a drainage area. Do you know where that is? Could by chance grandma put in something like two 55 gallon drums and a dry well for the effluent.

As long as the goo is going somewhere you have part of the issue resolved but regardless of where its going its not going to create a smell inside the house if the plumbing is correct. Any chance a vent stack is clogged by birds, debris? Any chance one of the fixtures does not have a p-trap or s-trap? Why not keep several inches of water in all the sinks, and tubs for a while to see if the smell occurs?