This is a simple and effective upgrade to any standard septic system, but it’s hardly ever done. In fact, I’ve never heard of anyone else installing this feature until I started. I don’t know why because it makes regular maintenance of your leaching pipes and leaching bed a breeze. It takes a bit of work to find the ends of your leaching pipes as you prepare to jet them, then cut them open for jetting out with high pressure water. So why not make regular maintenance of your leaching pipes simple and easy? Retrofit the ends of each leaching pipe with a threaded cleanout fitting and you can get inside to jet out the pipes whenever you need to. You’ll still need to do a little digging to get down to the fittings, but not much. Mark the location of the end of each leaching pipe with a brick or stone set flush to the ground and you’ll eliminate any useless digging. Most leaching lines are some version of PVC pipe – typically 3” or 4” in diameter with 3/4” diameter holes drilled in the sides. You can get a PVC cleanout to match your leaching pipes, or you can switch to a tougher cleanout made of ABS. That’s my recommendation. I like ABS better. You’ll need a special transition fitting and cement to join PVC to ABS, but hardware stores everywhere have what you need. Watch the video up next to see the fittings you need and how to use them.
