Septic System Repair in Clemmons, NC

Why Clemmons drain fields clog in Piedmont clay

A septic system has two parts, a tank and a drain field. Solids settle in the tank, and the liquid runs out to perforated lines in gravel trenches. That liquid has to soak into the soil around those lines. In Clemmons the soil is the part that gives out first.

The village sits in the Northwestern Piedmont section of Forsyth County. USDA soil records put Pacolet soils on Piedmont uplands across North Carolina and four nearby states. Pacolet carries a red clay subsoil, and its slopes commonly run 15 to 25 percent. Water moves through a clay subsoil far more slowly than it moves through sand.

NC State Extension says a site with clayey, slowly permeable soils needs a larger drain field than a sandy site. It also describes a layer called biomat in the top 1 to 6 inches of soil below the trench. When too much solid material reaches the trenches, that biomat thickens and seals the soil. Drain field restoration goes after that layer instead of digging a new field.

An aeration and bacteria unit goes inside the tank through its access opening. A small air pump outside pushes air through a fine-bubble diffuser in the unit. With oxygen in the tank, the bacteria digest solids instead of storing them. Treated effluent then carries those bacteria into the field, where they eat the biomat.

Where sewer stops in Clemmons and what that leaves

The Village of Clemmons does not run its own water and sewer. Its public works page lists water and sewer service as contracted out. Forsyth County Environmental Health states the rule for everywhere else. Build where public or community sewer does not reach, and the lot needs a septic tank system.

Clemmons keeps growing. Census estimates put the village at about 21,600 people, up about 1,500 residents between the 2018 and 2023 five-year estimates. The village list of homeowner associations names Waterford, Clemmons West, Springfield Village and Asbury Place. Village development files track newer projects near Lewisville-Clemmons Road, Harper Road and Gentry Lane.

Older houses come with older tanks. Census figures count 9,616 housing units in Clemmons, and about two thirds were built before 2000. About 44 percent were built before 1990, and Waterford dates to 1985. A tank set with a house that old was often buried, with no riser and no filter on the outlet.

Septic Samurai adds riser access at ground level when a tank sits buried. With the lids reachable, nobody has to dig to open the tank for service. We also fit a filter on the tank outlet, which keeps hair and undigested solids out of the field. Older tanks here rarely have one, because there was no way to reach it.

Muddy Creek, the Yadkin River and septic near the water

Clemmons runs its own stormwater program under an EPA Phase II permit. The village says runoff picks up pollutants from hard surfaces and carries them to streams, lakes and the Yadkin River. Muddy Creek is listed as impaired, under a plan aimed at cutting suspended solids and turbidity.

Septic is named in that work. The village says a load allocation may apply to septic tanks, fertilizer runoff and construction sediment. A drain field that has stopped absorbing sends that water somewhere, and downhill is a creek.

The EPA says household wastewater carries disease causing bacteria and viruses, plus high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. It also says malfunctioning septic systems release bacteria, viruses and chemicals toxic to local waterways. Tanglewood Park on Clemmons Road runs a Yadkin River Nature Trail, so the river is close by. A field that has quit absorbing near water like that is worth catching early.

Forsyth County rules and how a Clemmons job runs

Septic in Clemmons runs through Environmental Health at the Forsyth County Department of Public Health. Staff there issue or deny septic tank system permits and inspect septic tank systems. The office sits on North Highland Avenue in Winston-Salem. Septic Samurai is a North Carolina certified septic installer.

The county lists four questions for a system in trouble. Is sewage or effluent reaching the ground surface, or backing up into the home? Is effluent within three inches of finished grade, or does the tank need pumping more than once a month? A yes to any one of those means a malfunctioning septic tank system, in the county's words.

From there the county asks for an Application for Authorization for Wastewater System Construction. Its own FAQ says the health department provides the plan and paperwork on how to fix the system. The homeowner hires someone to do the actual work. State rule 15A NCAC 18E .1303 says the owner shall contact the local health department when a system is malfunctioning.

We say up front if the county health department needs to be involved. Septic Samurai starts with a diagnostic look inside the tank and at the field. That is not a real estate or point-of-sale inspection, which in North Carolina needs a state-certified inspector. The work itself is a retrofit inside the tank you own, so nothing is replaced or expanded.

We call NC 811 at nc811.org before the shallow air line is trenched. Most installs are finished in a day, and year one of service visits comes with the install.