Septic Maintenance

[mikeduf]

Thanks all for that info,
that's good stuff to know.
I've been looking around the Northern California area around Sebastopol which is primarily Farm country and very old homes.
The few that I have seen on my last tour up there seemed pretty strange to me as far as modern septic systems go to my knowledge; Meaning a lot of hoses and pipes and valves and pump motors extruding out of the ground which makes me think of high maintenance, or perhaps these are much easier to maintain with external hardware.
The journey continues, but now I am armed with a little more knowledge.

 

[Donald]

Thanks all for that info,
that's good stuff to know.
I've been looking around the Northern California area around Sebastopol which is primarily Farm country and very old homes.
The few that I have seen on my last tour up there seemed pretty strange to me as far as modern septic systems go to my knowledge; Meaning a lot of hoses and pipes and valves and pump motors extruding out of the ground which makes me think of high maintenance, or perhaps these are much easier to maintain with external hardware.
The journey continues, but now I am armed with a little more knowledge.

Ask the town building inspector what kind of septic is required. A normal or engineered?

 

[Bighorn2500]

1250 gallon system here, one year after buying the house I had it sucked out. Was $385 then, I had to dig it up myself to avoid extra cost. It was dang near full, another item the previous owner lied about on the sales disclosure statement, “was done six months ago my a**”!

I Installed two risers off amazon right after they were done. I use the septic active bacteria packs monthly or the active dry yeast the inspector recommended. I should probably take a peek as it was about three years ago I think.

 

[walterjay]

Note to all:

When purchasing a house always have the septic system inspected and certified.

Have it done by a reputable septic system repair company. They know what to look for.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

So as I mentioned elsewhere I cut all the silly riser protective pipes down to closer to ground level. Much nicer!

The three end clean out pipe caps I inspected my unscrewing. Nothing note worthy. Will back flush in a few days.

For giggles I bought a Rid-X tablets box for monthly treatment and flushed all of them at once. I know, I know.

So then yesterday I decided to backflush. Open the cap with hose ready and there is a a decent amount of CRUD pushed up against one of the cap. Wow, was not there before!! The other two nothing. Was it the Rid-X??

Anyway I back flushed and I figured some stuff must have been washed out of the lines, better or worse, just back into the final receiving tank.

Last night I added a bottle of the Roebic drain line cleaner.

Next year is pump year, but that was fun.

What a crappy topic to start a multi-page thread on, Pablo. Isn’t there a new oil to talk about or something?

 

[Delta]

In my township I'm required to pump every 3 years. I think about 99% of homes on septic around here have risers. At some point someone did some home-made riser apparatus...

Looks just fine from the outside, but open it up and you can see the old home-made riser they did maaaany years ago. The old concrete lid fell apart and was replaced with the plastic style several years ago when they replaced the line from the house to the tank.

System is 60 years old and I try to get it pumped every two years. Old single line drainfield with possibly a drywell at the end. There's no county records to really know. Trying to keep this one going as the only system I can now install in my area is a sand mound type and those are some serious $$$$.

 

[Donald]

In my township I'm required to pump every 3 years. I think about 99% of homes on septic around here have risers. At some point someone did some home-made riser apparatus...

Looks just fine from the outside, but open it up and you can see the old home-made riser they did maaaany years ago. The old concrete lid fell apart and was replaced with the plastic style several years ago when they replaced the line from the house to the tank.

System is 60 years old and I try to get it pumped every two years. Old single line drainfield with possibly a drywell at the end. There's no county records to really know. Trying to keep this one going as the only system I can now install in my area is a sand mound type and those are some serious $$$$.

Sand mounds look ugly?

 

[Delta]

Sand mounds look ugly?

Very. It will pretty much make that portion of the yard un-usable. And the system is roughly $35,000-$40,000. All newer home or homes that have had a replacement are all sand mound. They could add a pump tank to my system, but the "trash" tank is iffy at this point in its life.

 

[Pablo]

Very. It will pretty much make that portion of the yard un-usable. And the system is roughly $35,000-$40,000. All newer home or homes that have had a replacement are all sand mound. They could add a pump tank to my system, but the "trash" tank is iffy at this point in its life.

We see ours, indeed can't grow trees on it for sure, but keep it green and it's just there, not scary ugly.

Agree on costs = crazy! Ours is gonna last!!

 

[walterjay]

The Amish say that you should throw a dead chicken into the tank on occasion to activate things. No kidding.

 

[Delta]

Funny this topic came up. I opened the lid to mine yesterday just to check on things. Been a year and 10 months and the top "crust" layer is waaay thick. Scheduled a pumping for Thursday. I did have an additional person here for 8 months that used an excess amount of toilet paper (even the cheap Scott 1 ply too) so I guess that came into play. It's like $250 around here and I'd rather pay that then a backup.

I can't imagine the people who don't periodically check the layers. I sure would have had a blockage in the inlet if I let it go. Guess I'm on the two year schedule...

And yes, I've already told the other person here stop using so much paper many times, but it falls on deaf ears...

 

[Snagglefoot]

I have a neighbour down the street with a concrete tank with the top of the tank just below ground level. The tank has a square concrete hatch right at the level of the grass. There is definitely a smell coming from the tank. I spoke with a retired septic installer and he mention any septic smells should be coming from the main riser of the house at the roof level and not from the tank. Anyone see a similar situation?

 

[Delta]

I have a neighbour down the street with a concrete tank with the top of the tank just below ground level. The tank has a square concrete hatch right at the level of the grass. There is definitely a smell coming from the tank. I spoke with a retired septic installer and he mention any septic smells should be coming from the main riser of the house at the roof level and not from the tank. Anyone see a similar situation?

IMO there shouldn't really be any foul smells coming from the riser unless there's something wrong. I can open the lid to mine and it doesn't even smell "bad".

It could be sealing poorly, or a sign of something wrong going on like too much cleaning chemicals being dumped down there and the bacteria in the tank not digesting all the organic material.

 

[4WD]

The Amish say that you should throw a dead chicken into the tank on occasion to activate things. No kidding.

Less cruel when they are dead … but, dogfood is cheaper

 

[JTK]

I have a neighbour down the street with a concrete tank with the top of the tank just below ground level. The tank has a square concrete hatch right at the level of the grass. There is definitely a smell coming from the tank. I spoke with a retired septic installer and he mention any septic smells should be coming from the main riser of the house at the roof level and not from the tank. Anyone see a similar situation?

I've not owned or helped someone work on a system where you couldn't smell it when you pop the lid off. Sealed up, there should be no smells on a good system.

Exposed lids or tanks can be a problem for winter climates. If anything freezes in there, it's going to block the in or out flow and cause backups. Climates with no freezing it's not a problem.

 

[Snagglefoot]

After a tank clean out, you’re supposed to eat Burritos.

 

[blain450]

My wife and I have been in our house for 25 years. We had the tank pumped and inspected before we closed on the house.
Since then I've added a clean out riser and we've had the tank pumped every 4-5 years, give or take.
I've settled in my mind to get it pumped out every leap year. It's regular enough and easy to remember.
Take care of your septic and it will take care of you.

On my second cap, I painted green to protect the plastic from UV rays. The first cap did degrade from the sun.