Advanced Septic Solutions is a full-service septic system company located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Owner and operator Clarke Watson has been working in the construction business since 1972, and was formerly the president of the Home Builders Association and the chairman of the State Commercial/Industrial Council. In this piece, Watson explains how homeowners should properly care for and maintain their drainfield.
Taking care of your drainfield essentially means not building anything over the top of it. Homeowners should not put driveways, pavers, or concrete on top of their drainfield.
When you start talking about planting, things become a little murkier. I recommend minimal planting over the top of a drainfield, but this is somewhat of an argument nationwide. Some experts say that homeowners should be able to plant a lawn over their drainfields, while others say that homeowners should not do that. Their reasoning is because when you plant a lawn, you are going to be watering it all the time.
In comparison, many septic system specialists, like myself, believe that planting minimal bushes or shrubbery is probably okay. Compared to when you plant a lawn, bushes take a lot less water to grow, so you don’t have to worry about excess water in that area like you would with a lawn.
The area about your drainfield needs the ability to wick, if you will, the heat from the sun. The heat from the sun is going to heat the soil in that area, even though the water is still going down for the most part, but a little of that water is still coming to the surface. So it wants to breathe. That’s one way of explaining what is going on in your drainfield or leech field.
Besides being careful about what you put over the top of it, homeowners don’t need to do to anything else to keep their drainfield working properly. As long as the area is of the proper size, no maintenance or upkeep is required to keep a leech field or drainfield in working order. Other than maintaining the septic tank, that is.
So, assuming that your leech area was installed in the proper position and built to the proper size, you really need to do nothings it up besides not planting trees next to it or building a driveway on top of it. A drainfield should ideally be self-maintaining.
