DIY Septic Tank Outlet Baffle Repair

all right so we were out at this home yesterday to do a septic tank cleaning and we found that the outlet baffle was deteriorated and so we're back out today to do the repair so I wanted to give a little information on what that entails so what we did here is we we dug up the outlet lid so this is an inspection lid that's over the outlet of the tank where it goes out to the drain field and we'll get that pulled here in just a second and show you exactly what the issue was [Music] okay and this is a perfect example so see if I can get an angle where you can actually see this here so you can see from this side you see the pipe that's going out to the drain field right here there we go so there's the outlet line so that's where the water leaves the tank goes out to the drain field we need what we call an outlet device there's several different styles this was originally built with a precast concrete baffle now you can see the remaining part of the baffle is right here so it's kind of like a concrete box you can see down inside the tank there that originally extended all the way up to the top of the tank so you can see where there's a gap here that would be covered up by that concrete baffle and what that's there to do is it stops any solids that are floating on top of the water now the normal water level will be right at the bottom of that pipe right there so anything floating on top of there would get stopped by that concrete baffle and held back in the tank and then this baffle might be a little hard to see extends down into the middle part of the tank and that's where the cleanest water is so that that clean middle zone that clean water can come up the bottom of that outlet baffle go out the pipe down to the drain field and then we're holding back the solids in the tank and what happens is over time the gases in the tank will eat away at that concrete on the top of the baffle there and it'll it'll start to deteriorate so what we're going to replace this with today is a PVC tee and the first step we're going to need to go ahead and remove the old concrete baffle below there so we have room to attach our new PVC tee outlet device okay so we just use this bar here we use it for several things but it has this nice pointed end on this side and this works out nice for us to remove tank lids we can get it right down in the corner especially on these square lids it works nice and then on the other end it's got this this flat end and so that can be helpful getting lids out when it's really nice for knocking these outlet baffles out of the cake for us so see if I get set up here and get you a good angle at this so I just wanted to show you where I hid these to knock them out so I'll try and get it hit it on an angle like this and it's gonna take two hands so I'm not sure I'm gonna be able get this on video for you how I have it set up here but you know let's take smack in this a few times and that remaining part of the baffle will fall down at the bottom of the tank all right so now you can see we removed most of that baffle this outlet line you know the review of that is a little bit on angle coming into the tank so we'll have enough room to get by that little piece of concrete sticking out there I couldn't get a good angle on that to catch it but you only need to remove enough that you can get the the new outlet device in there without catching on the concrete so we'll go ahead and put the sir put the outlet device together okay so here are the materials that we'll need for this installation of the new outlet device we're gonna have some schedule 40 PVC pipe and we'll have a this is four inch pipe and then a four inch schedule 40 sanitary tee this piece here is you needed on some installations and I'll explain more about that in a little bit this is called in extent and lock and it's made by Polly Locke and I'll put a link for where you can find this piece down the description will need PVC saw you could use a sawzall as well that's going to be used to cut down this piece of PVC pipe and then we'll need glue and primer we use this rain or shine glue that will set up even in wet conditions so in the septic tank it's really important to use that rain or shine glue so that it'll set up in any conditions even when it's wet so what we're gonna do I'll kind of show you above-ground here what's going to happen is we're going to take this extended lock piece and it's going to get tapped back in to the pipe that's going out of the tank so the reason that we're using it is because there's not enough pipe sticking into the tank in order to attach our T to that pipe okay so since the the wall of the tank is about right here on that pipe you know there's not enough for this to grab so what we do is we'll tap this extend and lock piece back into that pipe and these threads here will help lock that in and then that gives us the end here which is the same size as the schedule 40 pipe that we'll be able to glue this T onto okay so that's how it's going to look and then there's going to be about 12 to 18 inches of pipe glued into the bottom of the tee here and so this is going to do the exact same job as that concrete baffle the water level in the tank is going to be right here at the bottom of this line going out of the tank all right and this top the T here is going to stop any of the solids that are floating on the top of the tank we leave the top of the pipe open for ventilation so it can't create a siphon and suck too much water out of the tank and then the pipe that we have off the bottom here is going to extend into that middle clear zone so the clean water will be able to come from the center part of the tank up the bottom of the outlet device and then flow out to the drain field and then we're holding back any of those solids that are on the top of the tank which will be stopped by the outlet device here and then any sludge in the bottom of the tank will be left on the bottom so we'll go ahead and get this set up and ready to install and we'll go back over to the tank and show you how it goes together and so you want to remove these burrs from the end of the cut end of the pipe here make sure that it goes together okay for your in your fittings so make sure you use a glove because that could cut you so this is going to be the bottom of the outlet device part that goes off the bottom of the T so we can go ahead and glue the entire outlet device together here before we go over the tape a quick tip with your glue and primer a lot of times especially when you buy it fresh from the store or especially with the glue after you've been using it a little bit the lids will get your C's down to the top all I do is is just find an edge on something happen a few times and it'll pop open rather than fighting it with the wrench sometimes just happen in a few times is all it takes to get that loose so we're gonna go ahead and prime our pieces that are going to get glued together so again that outlet device is going to be up this way so we're going to be gluing in this end to that extended lock and the bottom to this piece of pipe that we just cut and then we're going to prime this pipe that we're going to glue into the bottom of the teeth and then we'll go ahead and glue this into the bottom of the tea so make sure you make sure you double check how you're holding that that teen you don't stick it in the wrong end usually once you once this glue sets up it's it it sets up very quickly so you will never get it back apart so you'll waste your waste you're fitting in your pipe so put a little bit of glue on each side so you get good coverage and then as we slide it in we'll spin it and that just will distribute that glue all the way around the fitting and make sure we have a good seal I just hold it because sometimes it'll want to slide back out and just hold it for a few seconds and it'll start to set up and really 15 30 seconds it becomes pretty pretty solid I can't even turn this anymore so we're good there so this is what's that outlet device is going to look like so the outlet line is going to be here going out of the tank we're going to tap in that extended lock piece here so that I'll extend that pipe out so we have something to attach the tea to and we're going to glue this tea right to that extend and lock and it's that simple okay so we're gonna see if I can do this one-handed here forever so we're going to slide this extended lock piece right into that outlet line okay so it slides right it let me taste it take a hammer in this hammer I just take the side it shouldn't take a whole lot of effort tap it in all the way and then that's locked in with those threads and then what I'm going to do real quick I wanted before I go to put the glue on I want to make sure this T is gonna fit in there for me sometimes you'll get in a situation where the pipe is in the way or something else is in the way i I just want to drive in it and make sure it's gonna go together so it is gonna fit and it's going to get past that concrete that's still hanging there so we're good to go there so we're going to go ahead and prime the that extended lock piece the pipe in that we're going to attach to now the one hand move on the can isn't working very good for me there we go all right so got our primer get down here and prime all the way around obviously you want to be very careful you're not gonna let yourself slip down into the tank please use some help if you need it all right so that's primed we've already primed the fitting here on the tee so we're that's ready to go I always just a tip on the inside of the pipe here you can grab right here it's there's kind of a lip you can grab and you can really control that pipe a lot easier than trying to hold it on the outside somehow and that will help you you know first of all not drop it down in the tank and help you be able to get it attached to that extend and lock now again the reason we're using that extended lock is because there wasn't enough pipe sticking into the tank so we needed to extend it out in order to attach to it if that pipe was sticking far enough into the tank we would be okay to not use it extended lock and we could just glue the tee directly to that line all right so we're going to go ahead and glue this tee to the extended lock so again we need to hang down here be very careful not to knock anything down in the tank so I'm gonna get some glue on the extended lock extension all the way around and then the same way in the fitting on the tee that we're gonna attach so the more good coverage you get in there obviously is gonna seal better it's also going to lubricate that fitting so it's going to slide on a little bit easier for you so now it's as simple as sliding them together so if you kind of go back and forth and then you want to get this straight up and down as you can we can use the hammer if needed you don't want to hit too hard because you can break that to make sure you get it seated all the way down as far as you can and then that will set up so that is how you replace an outlet device in the septic tank so again what we had we started with concrete baffle and I will get some picture pictures put up here of what that originally looked like when it was in a good condition but again the gas is in the tank up above the water level and again the the water level is right at the bottom of the outlet line here where it goes through the wall so once this tank is filled back up we just cleaned it yesterday but once they use enough water to fill this tank back up the that water level will stay at a consistent level right at the bottom of that outlet line and so those gases above that water line will deteriorate that concrete causing it to fall apart once that happens any solids floating on top of that water level can get right out of the tank and get out to the drain field and that defeats the whole purpose of why we have a septic tank the whole point of this system is set up to hold the solids back in the tank let the clean water from the center part of the tank get out to the drain field so we knocked the remaining part of that concrete baffle out of our way so we can have enough room to install the new outlet device and we've replaced it with this PVC tee and again we had to use that extended lock because we didn't have enough pipe sticking into the tank and now we are good to go that T is going to be holding that top layer of solids back in the tank and it extends down into the middle clear zone so the clean water can come up go out to the drain field and then any sludge that forms on the bottom of the tank will be left in there so we're protecting the drain field now I don't have a filter with me but this is also a spot where a filter could be installed so I will get a picture and a link for a simple screen filter that we will install sometimes and this that can be it slides just slides right down inside the top of this tee and that's just a an added protection for the drain field any solids that might be getting pushed up out of the outlet device will get caught in that filter and so a lot of counties that is now code for any new installations of the system the filter is required so I appreciate you guys watching the video here and hopefully that can help you out if you ever find yourself in the scenario where your pumper comes out let you know that the the outlet concrete baffle is deteriorated or for whatever reason the outlet device is missing or has been broken off it's not a not a complicated procedure to replace as long as you're willing to get down and dirty a little bit it's a fairly inexpensive and pretty simple just putting a couple pieces of pipe together and again I'll throw a couple links down in the description and where you can find that extended lock and then that filter that we were talking about and so I hope this helps out and let us know if you have any questions alright have a great day we'll see you

Channel: AskThePumperdude

Views: 95,805

Rating: 4.8853974 out of 5

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Id: l8UvTkgmFsc

Length: 19min 48sec (1188 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 14 2020