Wet over the septic tank

[YanmarFever]

In our town there is a septic pumper who is not to popular.
If you call him out for a quote or to pump your system he will turn you in to the county if he sees any problems with your tank or lines if he doesnt get the job first.
He turned in a friend of ours to the county. So try to find someone that is reputable, ask your neighbors who they have used in the past.

 

[JJT]

N80, Around here $125 for the 1st 1000 gallons and $100/1000 after that. Pay cash and you get a 10% discount. Tie the guy up digging holes because you don't know where your tank is and you'll pay him by the hour, plus the pump out. I have 2 1000 gallon tanks, 4 people in the house and do a pump out every election year, (really easy to remember when it needs pumping....).

 

[frank_f15]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I might even be mistake about where the tank is, but I know its close because that is where the line out from under the house is pointing.
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You really need to start digging , so you know exactly what you are dealing with, and exactly where your tank is. things are not always what they seem.

 

[Highbeam]

The tank may be 4 feet down. These days our county requires lids to the surface but I have seen people dig 4 feet or more to find the lid. Four feet of clay sounds like no fun to me, especially if it is wet and heavy.

 

[N80]

Four feet! Ugh. I sure hope not. The one for my cabin is no more than 18" but I have no idea about this one. I may get a ground rod and see if I can find it with that.

Or, given that I have about zero free time right now I may just pay the septic guy to do it all.

 

[MikeD74T]

In '67 -'68 I was in High School and worked part time for a utilities contractor. He also ran a septic truck, an old oil truck with a mud sucker diaphram pump. I would go out with a neat "old" (early sixties) man who had been in septage since his school days. He told of working with a horse drawn wagon with an open wooden tank. They bailed with buckets into a half barrel with handles then lifted it onto the wagon & dumped it into the tank. Since the septic tanks then were wood or steel the entire cover was removed. They climbed into the tank & scraped the sides for a thorough job. His stories were endless and made a discusting job fun.
Whether the leach field started with a distribution box or a was a drywell we alsays flushed the line between to make sure it wasn't plugged. Clyde would sound (probe) for the covers with a 6' X 3/8" steel rod to minimize digging. From that experience I learned to map the location & depth of all covers & check them when I have my tanks pumped. A plugged leach field may first show as a full tank which reoccurs a few days after pumping. This necessitates another pumping. A few minutes worth of digging can return hundreds if not thousands of dollars to your own pocket.
Most pumpers recommend a 2 year schedule. I pump every 4 years. The only repairs on my 50 year old system has been replacing the 47 year old cast iron pipe that had reduced to 2 1/2" from hard deposits.
You (and your have downhill neighbors) are the only one that benefits fromr good septic system maintenance .
When I watch "Dirty Jobs" I remember the fun I had pumping septic tanks with Clyde Marsh.

 

[tawilson]

I went to my town zoning office, and they had on file a sketch of my septic and the sizes of the tanks. Pretty "sketchy", and not to scale, but it gave me something to start with. And when I said start digging, I meant start by hand, if no luck then get a backhoe in there. And don't expect the septic guy to come out there and do miracles if you don't know where anything is or how deep. Do you know if it's a metal or concrete tank? If metal, maybe a metal detector would help. Oh, even though I had a sketch and a backhoe, I still had a heck of a time figuring out what I had and locating it. There's been some oddball stuff installed over the years.

 

[VA_Joe]

One thing the septic tank guys are good at is seeing the subtle depressions/changes in grade that indicate the location of the leech lines and tank (hey - they do it for a living). When I moved into my house a while back - I had no idea where the septic tank was. The pump guy found it in about two minutes.

If you can't find it by eyeing it - then get a metal detector. The lids will have steel handles that can be used to find them (BTW - the tank will also have steel lift hooks at the ends). Locate both doors on the top of the tank and have both sides inspected/pumped.

Joe

 

[5030]

I wonder if that was me, but I live in S.E. Michigan.

Some years ago, I was mowing my lawn with the L3710 Kubota I had and I had done it many times before but this time I went right through the top of the poop tank. I put the rear wheels into it right up to the axles and I was real careful when I got off. It took my 350 Ford in 4L and a big chain to get her out. Living in the country, I made a new, complete lid from 1/4" thick steel diamond plate with cross gussets of 3x3 angle iron. I then coated the whole thing with tar and covered it up. I did cut two holes and put on lids which my honey wagon guy seems happy with.
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[N80]

Going off topic, a bit, we had a lake cabin that my grandfather built in the early fifties. The sewer line was terra cotta and the septic system was two cylindrical. One flowed into the other.

We constantly had to roto rooter the terra cotta line. We used an old guy wire from a telephone pole with the strands undone and folded over like a pointy umbrella frame and it worked great. But one day that wasn't enough and we had to climb in and clean both tanks by hand (shovel and bucket).

That was a truly nasty job but the odd thing is that after a short time you get used to it.