No water in septic tank

[MikeD74T]

Most tanks also have a drain hole in the bottom to prevent filling with rainwater before installation i.e. in the manufacturers yard. This hole is filled & tarred at installation. Maybe your's wasn't plugged. Also if you have 3' of sludge maybe the joint between the top & botton of the tank wasn't sealed w/tar or the joint has failed. Plugging the drain or sealing the joint are easier than changing a tank. Ventilate the tank thoroughly before going in. Use fans or fill w/ water & pump down a couple of times. MikeD74T

 

[Highbeam]

Three feet of solids is way too much on a typical tank. It needs pumping even if working perfectly. Too many folks don't maintain the system until it fails.

The three feet of dried poo will eventually harden like concrete and be impossible to suck up. It would be cheaper to replace at that point.

It should not have dried up either.

 

[VABlue]

Pay for the pump out. Let the guys who do it all the time do the dirty work. They have the right equipment and experience to knock it out quickly and figure out what's wrong. My guess would be that it was never sealed right to begin with.

The counties in northern VA (around DC) now have pump out requirements every 5 years. The sewage companies are responsible for sending a copy of the billing reciept to the commissioner to ensure compliance. Another case of big brother, but at least peoples septic systems should remain better maintained...

 

[spryde]

Thanks for all the comments. I am heading down there tomorrow and will do a cursory inspection before making the calls.

As an aside, I have had two different septic companies out to locate the tank that failed to find it. This guy spends 20 minutes in my yard, finds it, digs up the cover location and fails me.

I am going to find a different company than the ones previously called.

 

[plowking]

Glad the inspector found your tank. I use a probe bar to sound for tank covers. If a tank can't be found with conventional methods, there is a device that is flushed down toilet ,when it gets to tank, it beeps and signal is picked up by a receiver. This only works in unclogged lines. Clogged lines prevent the device from getting to tank. plowking

 

[450EXC]

I would not go in the tank unless you had someone there with a meter to test the atmosphere. It's rare, but the consequences could be disasterious.

The last one I read, if I remember right, was a farmer who went into a empty manuer pit and died. I think it was low oxygen. His wife went in to rescue - died, daughter went in to rescue - died, helper guy went in - died. 5 year old daughter ran away and survived.

I don't think it would cost that much to have a septic company come with a meter.

 

[spryde]

Alrighty, I hate it when people don't follow up on posts so I made it a point to post the resolution when I had it.

The tank is fine. We had not used any water for nearly two months so the water level was low but present underneath all the solids. The pumper is pumping AND cleaning it out now.

As an aside, I use to work at the DC Water and Sewer Authority (Unofficial Motto: We deal with the finest grade of #$@$ in the world.) and I know the hazards of the gasses. Never went down in the galleys without full hazmat suits + detectors.

That was a stinky job.

SP

 

[spryde]

Looking back, I seem to like asides quite a bit...

 

[VABlue]

Glad its not damaged! That should make inspectors happy, and I'm sure you're thrilled that you don't need a costly repair job!

 

[RobJ]

At least one installer ( in a non-inspected Texas County) would put a hole in the bottom of the tank so it will not float. When "they" were installing my septic I heard one guy tell the other to knock a hole in the bottom, I quickly intervened and told them I did not want a hole in the bottom and I filled it up with water so it would not float if a rain came before it filled with sewer.

That doesn't happen with concrete. This is 1 of 2 500 gallon tanks I was unloading. No holes in the bottom, just a 10" or so inspection hole in the top cover. They were actually much cheaper than the plastic tanks.