Properly maintaining a septic system?

[woodlot]

How do these people know that thier systems are "working great"? In order to say that I hope they have tested thier well water for cloriform and nitrates, and the tests were negative. 50 years and no pumping, is the tank even still there?

 

[HomeBrew2]

Here! Here! Ditto. After reading some of the doom and gloom on this and other forums, I had my tank pumped, for the first time, this year. Home built 1993, 3 br 2-1/4 bath. The septic guy laughed when he determined my tank's sludge level was only 4 inches (something like 3'+ deep concrete tank) and overall was functioning perfectly. I had a similar experience with my prior property when I had it pumped prior to sale. I do mostly follow the previously mentioned guidelines about stuff not to put down the drain.
Cheers!

 

[TonyV]

Where I live there is a law (county ordinance I believe) that requires that the septic system be pumped out upon sale of a property. Better to be safe than sorry I suppose, and at least this gives some assurance that the system is working properly, if nothing else. Other than that, to pump or not to pump, that is the question. In my old farm house, I'm only there about 2 days out of the week, and I've never pumped out the septic system. The load on this system just wouldn't require it. And that to me is really the determining factor. How many people are in the house? How much laundry is done? Do you use a lot of anti-bacterial soaps and detergents? Do you have a garbage disposal? These are all determing factors that must be addressed on an individual basis. I'll be putting up a new home on a different property next year and I do plan on having a garbage disposal. All this means is that I will have to pump out the system on a regular basis...every other year at least, but perhaps even annualy. For the 125 bucks that it cost to have one pumped out it would be worth it to me, and is cheap insurance in making sure that all is well.

...Tony

 

[getut]

Maybe not everywhere, but load around here is taken into account at build time.

Number of bathrooms and bedrooms go into the calculation for size of tank and field. Many tanks and leech fields here are far oversized to begin with.

There is one statistic that I left out of the top post. I know of one mobile home that had standing water on top of their leech field almost from the very beginning, but it was due to an improper install right from the start.

I know there is pumping that happens here, because I occasionally see the trucks, but it is FAR from the norm and I have not met anyone yet (locally I mean) that has had to have it done.

 

[kensfarm]

Actually they do make disposals for septic systems.. it releases enzymes every time you use the disposal. I've had mine for almost 6 years now. It's nice to have.. but I don't jam large amounts of food scraps in it either.

The biggest no-no that's caused me problems.. grease!

 

[SPIKER]

yes # 1 reason grease is a no-no is due to the fact the grease will coat the surface of the water in the tank this effectivly seals the bactiria into the tank and it drounds, it HAS to have access to O2 to live and breath. as grease coats the top the gas exchange stops and the water stagnates and every thing dies, then all new bactiria put in will quickly die as well.

other item bactiral soaps are bad but bleach is worse. anything that quickly kills bactiria will do in the tank quickly and a build up will occure. once it is dead only a few artificial means will revive it one being pumping out the grease coated waste and natural refilling of tank. adding new bacteria with out removing the nasty stuff will not help a lot. there are some grease eating bactira out there but not sure if any tests were done to see if that could help a grease clogged system??? stuff like grease eater for driveways ect.?

anyhwo like others said depending on how the system was set up orriginally it may not need to be pumped for 20 or more years or then it could clog & die with in a few short months if the wrong stuff was used and then the solid wastes will penetrate into the leach lines and clog them once that happens call you're fav (or if you want LEAST fav escavator ) to ahve them re-do the system /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif


MarkM

 

[Highbeam]

"it HAS to have access to O2 to live and breath"

Not so, the bacteria in the septic tank are anaerobic, need no oxygen. The top layer of scum it fat, oil, and grease. We call it FOG, go figure. Anyway it is natural since every time you bathe, you will be adding oils to the system. Take a doodoo and the fat goes there. What did you think happened to the bacon fat you ate? Don't go dumping FOG in there but know that it will occur and know that it will slowly decompose, slower than the rest. Scum on top, sludge on bottom.

Loads of laundry won't hurt it. Laundry is almost all water which will pass through to the drainfield. Too much extra laundry/water will overwhelm the drainfield but will not cause damage beyond backup or ponding if the ground is too slow to soak it up.

The waste load to the septic is the solids, and these solids need to be decomposed after settling out or floating up in the tank.

 

[NevadaSmith]

ditto on all that is said...but I have one thing to add...and its only my theory. I have seen a few septic tanks fail right after they were pumped. Our county codes require you to pump your system when you sell the house. In both cases the homes never had their septics pumped in 10+ years, so there was no reason for them to fail after being pumped. So....best I can figure is that the deposit in the D tank and leach lines hardened while it took the homeowners to replace the hundreds of gallons of water needed to fill both sides of the system. The sediments hardened like concrete without the water. So my theory is....when you get pumped...fill the system back up with water so that it stays "wet".

NevadaSmith

 

[Inspector507]

If there's that much sediment in the leach lines, the system already was in trouble. The ground should stay fairly damp down around where the lines are for quite some time.

 

[Highbeam]

It is a good idea to fill the tank with water, 1000 gallons, in all cases. The tank relies on flotation to settle solids and float scums. The system will immediately begin to work if you fill with water.

Another reason is flotation. If the groundwater is high where the tank is buried, the empty tank can pop right out of the ground like a bobber. Really it happens, even with concrete tanks.