Our drainfield lines below out septic tank frozen up...no snow cover

We had it pumped and the guy said "Reduce water flow"

wait until spring thaw.

Is there a way to thaw those pipes?

Thickly, composting mulch or manure over the clogged lines should help.

Keith

You could rent some concrete blankets....your frost line is Prolly alot deeper than here though

The only way I know of is to get right in the tank and try to steam the lines out. It is a HORRIBLE job and takes quite a while. I would think that if you put straw or sewer blankets down over the lines and upped the quantity of hot water going into your tank it MAY thaw itself out in time. These bitter cold temps and no snow are hard on septic systems.

Taco Bell........

Tarp and a space heater. Greenhouse with no floor over top. Plastic sheathing...just throwing out ideas!

Track hoe.

Lines are about 18" deep ,cover with anything you have and run a knipco best bet is LP The better the cover the faster the thaw.Worked for me ,good luck Start by knipco or heat source with tin so you dont start your cover on fire

I would think that even if you get the pipes thawed, the soil around the pipes will still be frozen and will not be permeable to the waste water.
Sounds like a huge problem.
I think what I would do is rely on a privy for human waste, and build a temporary drain line for grey water leading outside to a pit. This will require getting under the house and tapping into drain lines, hopefully ABS, PVC, etc. Not fun, but I can't think of any other way.

Been there.......done that.......back here in ohio........but our frost line is only 32 inches.........but it will work for you.....just takes a little longer....no digging......no waiting for spring thaw.....I'll post in detail if you want it.....if possible post a rough pencil drawing of...... 1) house..... 2) line to septic........3) drain field ......4) where exactly you think its frozen....5) is it draining at all ?..........I'm not on here 24/7......but if I see your return post with diagram I'll get back with info....

We used a fitting on the end of our pressure washer hose to open up frozen lines. Hot water is best but we've done it with cold. One nozzle sprays forward while 2 or 3 spray back, you just kinda help feed it through. Looks like this...

^ Those fittings are great to clear out clogged gutter spouts as well Shakeyjake.

Your cheapest/easiest option is to do what the pumper said. Use as little water as possible and wait. If you need, have the tank pumped again.

like the guys says, reduce water flow and get it pumped again when the tank is full. Might be the cheapest in the long run.

Cover the ground with straw and set it ablaze.

Build a hut over D-box and thaw w/propane heater. lift the cover to see what is going on, you should not have water in the laterals unless you have biomat buildup stopping flow from the laterals. Get a portable john for a few weeks to see what transpires.

Whenever we had cesspool trouble we always used a bucket till the troubles were over...

Probably too late for this season, but maybe cover the ground with straw, manure, bagged leaves what ever you got under a heavy black tarp for the future

do you know anyone with a bunch of old hay bails , or wood chips , and manure

maybe a horse barn not to far away

build yourself a big compost pile over your drain field

if you can put enough insulation on top of the ground the ground will slowly start to thaw from the bottom up.

down 48 inches it is not frozen , and if insulated from the cold that will slowly work it's way to the surface

I have seen everything be frozen and we move a bunch of half rotten bails off a spot and you could dig under that with a shovel not frozen

like was said cover with straw, blankets to thaw, i dont know where you are but i live in the country and my neighbor had same problem few years ago. we coverd his drain field ,then we dug a big hole beyone the drain field and pumped the water from tank into hole until drain field thawed out,you got to cover the hole whlle doing this . good luck.

like was said cover with straw, blankets to thaw, i dont know where you are but i live in the country and my neighbor had same problem few years ago. we coverd his drain field ,then we dug a big hole beyone the drain field and pumped the water from tank into hole until drain field thawed out,you got to cover the hole whlle doing this . good luck.