I own a 50-year-old cinderblock house with a crawl space under it. The house is on a septic tank system. The washing machine is not connected to it. The washing machine started backing up several years ago. I noticed one day, while machine was running, that there was water pooling in the backyard. When I went out to look I found a hole that looked like it had been dug out with the garden hose. I have a handicap from falling 43 feet that affect my ankles and makes it very difficult and painful to use a shovel. I started digging and eventually found what I thought to be the top of a barrel. The water was coming out before it reached the barrel. Long story short, because I had dug a hole, the drainage problem went away. I just had a hole in the backyard that would fill whenever the washing machine would drain. Unfortunately the hole has filled in and I dug it out today and finally found about a 3 inch black plastic pipe going to what I suppose is a barrel buried in the ground. I cut about a 3 inch section of the pipe out and now have a temporary fix. I now needed advice as to how to provide a more permanent solution. The pipe is about three feet underground where it connects to the barrel.

Steve, first, sorry about your injury...

The problem appears to be that your soil around the barrel is not absorbing liquids as quickly as it should.

The barrel may be a liquid collection well connected to your septic system. See if you can investigate if that's the case. Or, perhaps, you may have a dedicated well just for your washing machine.

But in any case, you should have it pumped out.

Steve, sounds like somebody made a cistern just for the washer. Probably not code anywhere but it can work in rural areas. If you cann't dig on your own you will need to hire someone to help you because lots of digging needs to be done to figure out how this jury rigged system was put together. If a drain line comes from the house to the barrel and the black pipe goes from the barrel they tried to make a mini-septic tank. This is all junk and you should just pipe to your septic. A septic can handle sveral loads of wash per week and that barrel will rust out.