septic maintenance
- Thread starter sawduster
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- maintenance septic
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Rid-X. We have a garbage disposal so we use it a bit more than average, but regular use of rid-x is about it. I do think it is coming around time for us to get our septic tank pumped out though.
Best do it before it's too late. People don't realize a septic tank fails because the 'bugs' don't get the solids digested properly. The solids eventually fill the tank & then overflow into the leach field. Once there, they seal off the soil preventing percolation. Septic fields generally dispose of 50% of their water by percolation, the remainder by evaporation. This is important when you have wet periods like we've had lately. With the soil saturated & no sunlight, the water will sit atop the ground.
Yeast and Sugar- which are you making in your septic tank, beer or bread? The naturally occurring bacteria in your gut and fecal matter are all you need. Main thing for proper septic operation is to pump it when it reaches 35% bio-solids content. To measure this, you will need a "Sludge Judge." (These were originally made to measure the amount of pulp in apple juice.) Got one? I do. They will set you back about $100 now. Or you could just have tank pumped every 3-5 years.
I agree with Bruce that additives are not really needed. I did a lot of research on this subject when I moved to the country. Best info I found including a chart on recommended pumpout intervals is here: http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/pdf/ww/septic/pl_fall04.pdf You can read more on the subject at the site that PDF came from. Over the years people have tried everything from dead chickens to yeast/sugar combos but they are not helpful. :wsmile:
I have no idea if you need to throw in additives into your septic system or not. But I would like to share my recent septic ordeal and get your opinions. I am trying to pull a permit for my new shop but I must show them that I am not building on top of my tank or drain field. I have no idea where my tank or field is. I have been here since 1994 and have never had it pumped because the original owner/builder told me it was a closed system and would never need it - I now doubt if there is such a system. Anyhow my tank has never been leaned since 1979. I went to the Wake Country Environmental Services but they cannot find the original septic permit. I had B & D septic out but they could not find it, they spent over an hour pushing a four foot rod in the ground all over my back yard. For $100 the county will send someone out to look at my proposed building site to see if they think I am not on top of my field, but now I feel I should find the system and have it serviced.
:icon_scraAny thoughts on how I can find this tank or if I should just build and hope for the best
:icon_scraAny thoughts on how I can find this tank or if I should just build and hope for the best
we have put either a cake of yeast or a box of rid-x in our systems every month or two for years and have had nothing but water in our septic tank. it is to speed up the working of the bacteria to eat the solids. the only reason that we have ever had to dig them up was a clog between the house and tank every time was a clog of grease and laundry detergent (powdered). I have seen tanks that would have a significant amount of solids that were hard to break up and pump and it caused problems with the drain fields. a couple of bucks a month is better than several thousand later.
Just as soon as you start digging your footing you will find the septic system. DAMHIK!! Pay the hundred and let the county find it for you.
I would love to have the county find my system for $100. They told me that for $100 they will tell me where it "probably" will be safe to build, but will not tell me where the entire system is. Maybe I misunderstood them but they told me after a pumping service found the tank they could take a guess as to where the field is. It is the probably/guess that bothers me.
thanks
crawl under the house and find where your drain pipe leaves the crawl space. take note or the direction it appears to go. the tank probably wont be too far from the house and unless you have a pump system [if you havent had to service it in years then you probably dont] the drain field will be down hill from there. the field will be a good chunk of land :gar-Bi and the grass will be greener there.:icon_thum I had to locate mine a couple years ago. it was only 3' from the house and the field is most of the side yard below the tank.
This is part of our problem as well ....I do not know where the tank is :dontknow:
The county has a crude sketch on file but it looks like it was drawn on the back of a napkin and is really quite useless as far as I'm concerned :BangHead:
I would probably go ahead and get it pumped but I do not know where it is . Will a pumping crew find it or will that cost extra ?
There are only 2 of us and we have a minimal impact on the system as we are very careful what goes down the drain .....or more importantly what does not :eusa_thin
I would still rather be safe than sorry
The county has a crude sketch on file but it looks like it was drawn on the back of a napkin and is really quite useless as far as I'm concerned :BangHead:
I would probably go ahead and get it pumped but I do not know where it is . Will a pumping crew find it or will that cost extra ?
There are only 2 of us and we have a minimal impact on the system as we are very careful what goes down the drain .....or more importantly what does not :eusa_thin
I would still rather be safe than sorry
I agree with Fred on checking the direction of the outlet pipe from under the house. It can't be far from the house. IIRC the honey pumper fellers kept spiking a metal probe in the earth until they hit my concrete tank top. They aren't buried very deep, probably less than a foot of soil on top.
Roger
Roger
When I had to locate mine so that my property could be regraded without the bulldozer collapsing the tank
I started at the outlet and it was not far from the house and not deep at all. Ridgid makes a flushable transmitter and a receiver gizmo for locating pipes/tanks but I do not know how much location would cost by a plumber who has the setup. I would do some probing myself before paying a pumpout service or plumber to find it but then again I am very frugal. :gar-La;
I've been in on the installation, repair etc. of a couple hundred septic systems. However, all in Montana. Soils different, installation was probably different, etc. If you can find a clean-out or something under the house where the system exits the foundation you should be able to find your tank pretty easy. If you do have a cleanout, open it up, and you should be able to run a snake out from there. Take it easy pushing it out, and when you hit resistance, you've probably found where the outlet drops into the tank on a Tee. Pull out the snake and measure how much you had in the line. That's how far the tank from the house is. (Again, it depends on installation trends at the time, codes, etc) We always used either a 10' or 20' piece of pipe from the house out to the tank. Just made it easier later on to find them. Then a line will go out from there and the comments about different green grass, etc are a good clue. If it's old, you may even be able to smell a little if you get close to the ground. If there are any water witchers around, they can usually find a metal tank. If it's an old system, be very careful when you start digging for a tank. I've worked on systems that were installed with steel tanks and steel tops wayyy before concrete tanks. DAMHIKT, but you can step through a rusted lid. Yep, the smell stays on you for a lonnnnnnng time.
In regards to adding stuff to systems, I'll say that everyone is corect. Add stuff or don't add stuff. I've worked on systems that had been in the ground 44 years, never had a thing added, never had a tank pumped. If it's in good soil that percs well, you're conscious of what you put in the system, the bacteria will do their job. Some times we put a system in and adding a little "starter" in a year or two really helped. It depends. There's a lot of variables.
Good luck!!
Tom Swortzel
In regards to adding stuff to systems, I'll say that everyone is corect. Add stuff or don't add stuff. I've worked on systems that had been in the ground 44 years, never had a thing added, never had a tank pumped. If it's in good soil that percs well, you're conscious of what you put in the system, the bacteria will do their job. Some times we put a system in and adding a little "starter" in a year or two really helped. It depends. There's a lot of variables.
Good luck!!
Tom Swortzel
I used to work as a county sanitary inspector in a former life, and worked closely with the state division of sanitation. Now, granted, this was in Wisconsin, but while soil conditions vary, the basic principles are the same. Yeast won't help. Neither will brown sugar, and neither will Rid-x, regardless of what the commercials tell you. What does work is to keep enough organic degradable material (turds) in the system to allow it to break down. What you should not do is flood the system with a disproportionate amount of detergents, toxic junk and food waste. I know this is not convenient, but you really should not have a garbage disposal with a septic system. (no sawdust, either)
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