You wake up one morning and all of the sudden you get that whiff of septic odor from your front yard, and then your heart starts pounding! You're worried because you know deep in your gut that your leach fields are probably crapping the bed, literally! Your septic drain fields are the front line of your septic system, and when they begin to fail it's a sure sign of trouble ahead, and most likely needs emergency repair work done immediately.

Drainfields typically fail because too much wastewater has been flushed into them, keeping them constantly saturated. When too much water sits in the drain lines constantly, a bacterial mat forms along the trench walls. This slimy mat doesn't allow water to seep through it, and therefore the trenches no longer can handle the wastewater. A properly designed septic system is designed to handle a specific amount of wastewater. This is determined by how many people are in the house. A number of people are calculated by the number of bedrooms – figuring two people per bedroom. If a household overloads a system, i.e. uses way too much water each day, the drain lines never have time to dry out.

Signs of this drain gurgling, draining slowly, water coming up through the lower house level floor drains, and wet spots in the yard. Usually, these problems are most noticeable when you use a lot of water, like on laundry day. That's why it's imperative that you space your laundry loads and conserve water! Short showers, never leaving water run down a drain while washing dishes, full wash loads only (or adjusting the water level for a small load), and never doing back to back loads of laundry will all help conserve water, and therefore the amount of wastewater going into the system.

Be aware of your septic system's needs and maintain it on a yearly basis. Also, it's a good idea to have a professional septic service do a thorough septic tank and leach field inspection every three years.