Sewage Smell

[Patrick Green]

This last month I had a plumber replace my drainage tile that was crushed in the backyard. The plumber could not replace the last 10 feet which leads into my house because of a concrete patio however water is flowing thru. The night after the tile was replaced we started to smell a strong odor of sewage inside of the house after running large amounts of water (washer / shower). The plumber came back out and installed a trap on the new tile he installed. The smell has continued and is very strong from the clean outs on the new tile. When I leave the clean outs uncapped outside it drastically helps with sewage smell. The plumber has also put dye to see if septic is leaking and did not see any in new tile. I was also told septic tank does not need pumped. Iam at a loss and don’t know what to do from here. Thanks for your help!!

 

[Jeff Handy]

What exactly was replaced?
It does not sound like drain tile.
Drain tile would be around your foundation to collect rain water, or out in the yard to catch surface water and divert it from the house.

Do you actually mean the sewage line from the house to the septic tank?

Or did part of the leach field get replaced after being crushed?

 

[Patrick Green]

What exactly was replaced?
It does not sound like drain tile.
Drain tile would be around your foundation to collect rain water, or out in the yard to catch surface water and divert it from the house.

Do you actually mean the sewage line from the house to the septic tank?

Or did part of the leach field get replaced after being crushed?

To clarify they dug up 135 feet of corrugated tile that was for my sump out of the crawl space. I had water backing into the crawl space due to the tile being crushed. I was told that they did not touch the septic.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Sure sounds (and smells) like they created a connection from the septic drain line to your new drain tile.

Or maybe the septic drain has a crack or opening underground, and it has been leaking into the soil near the foundation for a long time, and that soil is saturated with sewage stink.

And now running lots of water through the septic drain is letting more water escape through the septic drain break, and it is eventually running down into your new functioning foundation drain tile.
So you are getting sewage stink from the sump pit in the crawl space.

With the old collapsed drain tile, the septic drain leak could not make its way into the sump pit, but now it can.

You should probably have the entire septic drain line camera inspected, but if there is a break it likely is close to the house.

There is also the chance that the drain tile guys did break your septic drain line.
Either way, a camera should find a failure in the septic drain.

Meanwhile, putting an air tight cover over the sump pit should help, it should also have a vent pipe going to your vent system out the roof.
Like you would have for an ejector pump pit.

Or at least run a vent out of the house somewhere easier, but that shortcut might not be legal, but it is commonly done like that.

If the foundation drain gets really loaded with sewage effluent, it can eventually seep into the gravel under your foundation, and stink can constantly escape from the joints at the walls.