Anybody use septic tanks?

[BillyVance 35]

I just got to thinking about this. I've lived in my house for 8 1/2 years. We use a septic tank buried in the back yard. I do not remember when it was last pumped out but it was before we took ownership of the house. No we are not having any problems with our septic tank. I was just wondering how long it takes to fill one up. We spent the first 6 years in this house alone, just the two of us, so that's not a lot of output. Hell, it took an average of 2 weeks just to fill up the garbage container. Not much has really changed with a nearly 3 year old kid except for the amount of soiled diapers.

How long does it typically take to fill up a septic tank, assuming that I have the standard size, which is how big? And, are there any warning signs to look for when it is nearly full so I can take the steps needed to have it pumped out?

How much have you paid for this service? I know prices may vary wherever you are, but again, I know nothing about personal home septic systems.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Misternatural 0]

Glad you recovered from the swingset

Basic rule for an avg family 4 years @1000 gal tank.

on the safe side:
http://www.inspect-ny.com/septic/tankpump.htm


I thought it was funny that the company in the picture is named FLOOD'S


You should have it inspected by a pumping company to determine the size, and the function. help them out by digging up the cover- but don't remove it.

pump cost around $300 avg.

failure= back ups, stinky soapy water coming up outside in the yard, patches of really green grass over the leach field.

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[CSpenceFLY 1]

We had ours opened because of a clog when it was about 10 yrs old. We had it pumped just cause it was open but it was not needed.

If you don't put alot of stuff in there that shouldn't be (greese,female products,heavy cleaner) it should never fill up. When they pumped mine it had maybe 5 in. of stuff in the bottom. I made sure to show the wife where all that greese she put down the drain went. Broke her of that habit.

[CSpenceFLY 1]

It is normal to have green grass over the leach field.

That is the most fertile soil in your yard.

[usedtajump 1]

Don't know if yours is the same concept as the one we have, rather old, but the service I talked to about it said that as long as it drains/percolates in the manner it was designed it shouldn't need to be pumped out. If there was a problem with the tank, blockage, leaking, overflowing, then it would need to be pumped out for repair or servicing.

The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

[BillyVance 35]

Quote

We had ours opened because of a clog when it was about 10 yrs old. We had it pumped just cause it was open but it was not needed.

If you don't put alot of stuff in there that shouldn't be (greese,female products,heavy cleaner) it should never fill up. When they pumped mine it had maybe 5 in. of stuff in the bottom. I made sure to show the wife where all that greese she put down the drain went. Broke her of that habit.

As we don't have a sinkerator, not much goes down the kitchen sink. I pour bacon grease and the like in jars and throw them out when full, and only the residue left on the pan gets washed down. Nothing but toilet paper, shit and piss goes into the septic tank. All female products, q-tips, paper towels etc go in the waste basket.

So I guess I have nothing to worry about if I maintain this habit?

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Misternatural 0]

>>So I guess I have nothing to worry about if I maintain this habit?


Don't put your swing set over the tank and you should be fine.

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[jdpml 0]

"And, are there any warning signs to look for when it is nearly full."

Yes there are some warning signs to look for,the first one is large pieces of poop floating in the living room.
(sorry,It had to be said)

[Squeak 17]

When i was in your country I used them for accommodation, entertainment, vehicular transport, general conversation and other things.
I found Septics to be generally nice and often useful and/or entertaining

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[Andrewwhyte 1]

My father's is over 30 years old, never serviced.

[Nutz 0]

Quote

When i was in your country I used them for accommodation, entertainment, vehicular transport, general conversation and other things.
I found Septics to be generally nice and often useful and/or entertaining

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

When I moved into my house last year my neighbor told me to have my septic tank pumped every two years. I was like, what???? She was serious. Like others have said, if you do not pour grease and the like down the drain it should never need pumping. There were nine of us when I was growing up and the tank filled up after about fifteen years. It had a foot of grease on the top. We started draining the kitchen sink off into the woods, the washer too. Your washer should be on it's on field line, that is the way they do those in modern times. That one will fill up with dirt and detergent after some time, the last one I had took twenty years with four people using it.

"Don't! Get! Eliminated!"

[jonstark 8]

Billy,

If you keep the right bugs and enzymes cooking in there it'll never need pumped out. Don't let your exterminator dump his leftover insecticide in your toilet. That'll mess it up. I caught my guy doing that and told him to stop. He got all bent outta shape so I bought Combat traps and fired him. No more bugs and a happy septic system...

jon

[Misternatural 0]

>Don't let your exterminator dump his leftover insecticide in your toilet.

What?!?

What kind of a maroon does that?? I'm pretty sure thats illegal and a threat to ground water- not to mention your family's ass cheeks, unless the stuff was a non toxic biological.


excessive bleach is another tank microbe killer.

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[regulator 0]

My dad uses a septic system that gathers up the liquid and waits for a unoportunistic time to dump it out to an automatic sprinkler system in the yard. Its rather foolproof and a good plan. Unless you're my dad and youre out mowing the 5 acre yard they have and suddenly the sprinklers turn on and you get week old piss shot in your face.

[billvon 3,120]

>My dad uses a septic system that gathers up the liquid and waits for a
>unoportunistic time to dump it out to an automatic sprinkler system in
>the yard.

I figure that this is a little tongue in cheek, but we tried that and it doesn't really work all that well. Clogs really easily. We have a graywater system (shower and washing machine) that drains out a hose to our trees. We have an inline filter but it still clogs occasionally, around once a year.

[futuredivot 0]

We've been in our house just over 10 years and have never pumped the tank. Keep in mind that there's only two of us and the clothes that I wear four days a week (at least, sometimes more-company wear) go to the laundry, not home.

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[usedtajump 1]

Quote

My dad uses a septic system that gathers up the liquid and waits for a unoportunistic time to dump it out to an automatic sprinkler system in the yard. Its rather foolproof and a good plan. Unless you're my dad and youre out mowing the 5 acre yard they have and suddenly the sprinklers turn on and you get week old piss shot in your face.

They had one of those at Skydive Dallas. Never knew when the doo doo water would start spraying and it would drench part of the landing area.

The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

[DavidB 0]

First time septic user here. The system is almost 6 years old. I had it pumped last summer just to see what had accumulated in 5 years. Based on that experience, I may have the tank pumped in another 10 or 15 years.

BTW, I WISH I could legally install a gray water system for everything but the toilets, but you can't in NJ.

Billy, if you've been there over 8 years, I'd think the $200-$300 pump charge would offer considerable peace of mind considering you have NO idea what was dumped into the system before you. Besides, that's considerable less than replacing the system would cost because it got plugged.

When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

[Amazon 7]

Quote

Quote

We had ours opened because of a clog when it was about 10 yrs old. We had it pumped just cause it was open but it was not needed.

If you don't put alot of stuff in there that shouldn't be (greese,female products,heavy cleaner) it should never fill up. When they pumped mine it had maybe 5 in. of stuff in the bottom. I made sure to show the wife where all that greese she put down the drain went. Broke her of that habit.

As we don't have a sinkerator, not much goes down the kitchen sink. I pour bacon grease and the like in jars and throw them out when full, and only the residue left on the pan gets washed down. Nothing but toilet paper, shit and piss goes into the septic tank. All female products, q-tips, paper towels etc go in the waste basket.

So I guess I have nothing to worry about if I maintain this habit?

You might think of feeding the tank some Rid-X every omnce in a while.... make the good little bugs work for you...

OH and dont put Anti-bacterial soap down it a lot.. and bleach in the washer is bad juju too.

Good idea to replace the bugs frequently..

[monkycndo 0]

Lots of septic maintenance guys say stay away from ridex. It can cause problems. Was on a septic system for 10 years with a family of 5. Never used anything. It was pumped once and the guy driving the shitsucker truck said it didn't need it.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[Misternatural 0]

>My dad uses a septic system...automatic sprinkler



Around here we call that a STINKler system, they used it up in the mountains near ski areas.

Hiking there was a real bitch in the Summer.

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[mnealtx 0]

Ha, ha.

Aren't you supposed to be riding that Moto Guzzi of yours or something?

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[DanG 1]

From someone who spent about $4,000 fixing a screwed up tank and field: go ahead and have it pumped. The real benefit to having it pumped is that it gets inspected at the same time. We had broken leech field pipes and didn't know it until the toilet backed up. Oh, this was the day before the home inspection on our house that we were selling. The rush repairs (and threats from the County that we would be forced to install a new alternate system at the cost of over $25k) made for a very stressful week.

Go ahead and get it pumped. It's cheap and could save you a ton of money and headache in the future.

By the way, as someone else posted, the tank was not full of our crap, it was already screwed up when we bought the house four years earlier and took that long to get critical.

- Dan G

[BillyVance 35]

Okay, looks like I will just go ahead and have it done sometime this year. I remember when we were looking over the original house plans and documents during our first year here, I wondered exactly where the septic tank is, because we kept talking about building a deck all the way across the back side of the house. I told my wife I didn't want to build it if the tank was going to be in the way and digging it up would mean taking the deck apart. We were told that we could go to the county health department and find the record as they would have the location on file. One problem... they only file under the original home-owner's name. They don't change it when the house gets sold, and we are the 4th owners. The people who sold it to us didn't know who the original owner was.

Anyway, I have been in the crawl space several times working on the wires and plumbing and know exactly where the drain pipe goes through the foundation wall. I figure I'll just start digging 2 or 3 feet away from the wall right where the pipe should be and uncover from there just enough to expose the hatch.

I do know there are 3 leach lines, and one of them may have collapsed because there was sort of a mini-ditch running in an "L" pattern for a short distance which was a pain in the ass mowing over on the riding mower so I back filled it to make it smooth.

I don't use bleach all that much in washing the white clothes. Sometimes I don't use it at all. There was a time when one of the bath tubs was draining very very slowly and I poured several jugs of hydrogen peroxide in there to see if that would loosen up any blockage in the pipes, but that didn't work, and I know it's most likely that the drain lever on the tub needs to be adjusted. I have an article in one of my Handyman magazines showing how to do it, I just need to do it.

If I wanted to add shit-eating bacteria to the septic tank, is there a product I can buy and just flush it down the toilet?

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[CSpenceFLY 1]

Your leech line is probably fine. I had a couple of places that settled in mine. As for finding the tank, I am surprised that you can not see it in the yard when it gets hot and dry in the summer. Usually that will be the only green grass in my yard in the dead of summer.