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There are several signs that can indicate your leach lines are broken, failing, or in need of repair, including puddles of water or a marshy consistency to the ground above or around the pipes, slow drainage or plumbing backups inside your home, and noticeable odors or gurgling sounds coming from your leach field. Keeping your septic system properly maintained, including having your septic tank pumped at regular intervals, can help ensure your leach lines stay in good working order for a long time.

On average, you should call a pro to pump your cesspool once per year. If you have a larger home with a lot of family members, you may need to pump more (up to six times per year). On the flip side, if you’re talking about a cesspool for a home you don’t use much or if you’re the only occupant in a home, you won’t have to pump nearly as much.

A gurgling toilet usually doesn’t mean that your septic tank is full. If waste can’t drain into a full septic tank, you’ll see water and sewage backing up into your fixtures, but the air that causes gurgling is a result of poor venting. You are more likely to have a clog in your vent stack or a damaged air admittance valve.

A leach field can take several days or weeks to dry out, even with help from additives designed to improve bacterial activity and promote draining. Because of the risks to health and the potential for wastewater to run off into drinking water sources, it’s better to hire a pro to fix a saturated drain field than try to wait for it to dry out.