I have a soggy problem with soil.

[JasperFrank]

Had to dig out my feed line to a septic tank. Got that fixed, but in the back fill I'm having problems. What ever i put on this is mushy. Its rained here for 2 months continuously, and even the worms are leaving ground. I want to be able to dig this back out at some time. What is the best mix of dirt, and sand or what ever that will drain, that I can later hand dig out? Right now the dug out is like a tub that just holds water.

 

[oosik]

If you put the original soil back would it not eventually drain/dry out? Then the future dig out would be with the same soil - same conditions. You start mixing sand/gravel with the original soil - it's going to encourage water to come to the ditch and remain soggy.

No idea where you are located. Does it get cold enough to freeze. Put a shallow covering of dry soil over pipe - wait for the area to dry out - complete the job with the original soil.

 

[nybirdman]

NO problem here this morning like that;-15F.

 

[kthompson]

Is it lower than the area around it?

 

[old and tired]

...Right now the dug out is like a tub that just holds water.

Doesn't matter too much what you put in there but you need it higher than what's around it. If it's a tub and holding water, it will stay that way. Adding more dirt on top so the water runs away from there, is what will dry out the area.

 

[kthompson]

Do you have any idea what the soil is like a few feet down? If you have a post hole digger, dig as deep as you and and watch the soil as the auger is pushing it out. If you don't have a powered post hold digger you can use the good old manual ones or if you must a shovel. But pay very careful to the soil as you are digging. If you have a sand layer in the ground with say a heavy clay layer over it, it might drain if you can open up the heavy soil so the water and penetrate to the sand layer and drain. Here we often have a layer of sand even under our gumbo clay and on our first house had to dig a good size hole through the gumbo to the sand layer and back fill with rock to get the septic tank to drain. If you find a sand layer the deeper it is the harder it will be to probably drain to that layer. If you find a layer of sand would suggest you dig into to get idea of how thick that layer is and leave it open to see if waters is draining or if the water if filling the hole.

Farmers will experience this often in fields and use subsoilers to crack or open the "hardpan" so the water can penetrate and the roots also can.

 

[JasperFrank]

The sub-soil is called Philomath Clay. It is a reddish clay. Workable, yet messy, most of the year but not in summers when it turns in to concrete. The nightmare of my home site is that just below this clay is fractured basalt. We've named the house Casa de Pietre. I wish I had known a bit more about soil types before I bought the property. Over twenty years I've uncovered and moved well over hundreds of tons of rather large basalt rocks..... poor tractor has really gotten a thrashing, moving these around. You can't conventionally dig at all in summer. I've resorted to using high pressure water like an old time miner. Soil around the house is complicated because I've imported hundreds of cubic yards of AAA fill dirt from the valley. So I have rocks, then clay and then "real" imported "soil on top. If I win the lotto, there is a strange impulse to just bury the whole site 3 feet deep with real dirt. I guess my question is, what can I add to the valley dirt I import that will let it drain better and be more firm when wet, but is still dig-gable when dry? So far I've had good success with river sand, mixed in with the valley dirt. And some success with adding 1/4 minus quarry to the fill dirt, in traffic areas to make it less of a mud fest. But then there are those **** rocks that seem to percolate very year and we've killed many of hand mowers hitting these things. I've seen other Vids that people just use sand. Wondering if this is the best overall option.

 

[Ford850]

If you have that original large hole surrounded by dense clay, back filled with good loam soil, you do have a tub that holds water. It will eventually settle and aerate better, but as mentioned above you need to have the surface raised enough to shed water. Right now if you let water settle to that area it's acting like a sponge and the clay can't percolate fast enough.

 

[Sonny580]

Kinda sounds like a bunch of fill would be needed to cover the "tub area" to get it above the high point so rain will run either off or around your septic area. This don't help if you later have to hand dig the area.--- one thing for sure is that you will have to divert top water from the area.

 

[JasperFrank]

Fortunately i knew exactly where the hatch was, so the dig was trivial. What I did find out is that the contractors that i had entrusted to do a good job were idiots, when I could not be on site for weeks at a time. They took advantage of that, to be idiots. When i dug it out, 20 years later it became clear that you can't leave a build site, an leave it to others to do it right. You have to be there. They left the entire line unsupported, then just filled with rocks and no base support for the feed line. It had dropped 6 inches off the feed line So it snapped off from the tank coupling when things settled. I'm absolutely amazed this even worked for the 15 years before it started failing, but I didn't know why it was failing till I dug it out. The lesson is, if you contract out, you have to be there. All the principles are now dead or gone in my case. It does make a funny photo. Wife says, "last time we had a Salesman."