Welcome to my site. My name is Jorge. The septic company sent a notice to my home recently about pumping out the tank. After living in my home for a few years, it was time to service the septic tank to keep it in good condition for years afterward. I watched in awe as the septic truck cleared the tank and restored the function of the system. I will use this site to discuss the process of servicing the septic tank. I will also talk about repairs commonly performed on the septic components. I hope you will visit often to learn more.
Rose Austin
Have you recently moved to a home with a septic tank? Are you used to using a home that's hooked up to a city sewer system so you're not sure how to handle a septic tank? Fortunately, using a septic tank isn't all that different from using a regular city sewer system. But there are definitely some things that you'll want to remember about having a septic tank that aren't true about being connected to a city sewer system. Some of these things include:
Regular cleaning: Although the waste water line leading to the city sewer can sometimes get clogged and need to be cleaned out, that's not the same as a residential septic tank cleaning. A septic tank is designed to filter the septic solids from the liquid waste. The liquid is allowed to seep into the surrounding soil and the solids are collected by the tank itself. If the tank has been correctly sized for the household that it's connected to, a cleaning should only be necessary every two or three years at most. But unless you know for certain that the tank was emptied recently, it's a good idea to have it cleaned out as soon as possible just so you know it was done.
Changing laundry habits: A septic tank requires a variety of beneficial bacteria to process the waste properly. Unfortunately, if you have a habit of doing a dozen loads of laundry all on one Saturday, the relatively sterile laundry water can flush most of the good bacteria out of the tank. The tank may then need several days to fully recover, during which time the waste will not be processed as efficiently as it was. By the time it recovers, you're doing another dozen loads of laundry. Cycles like this can cause the solids to build up faster than they ordinarily would, requiring you to call a residential septic tank cleaning company much sooner than you should have to. Instead of doing all of your laundry on one day, try to spread the laundry out over the course of the whole week.
Avoid certain materials: You probably already know that cat litter or baby wipes are bad to flush down a toilet since they don't break down and can result in a clog in your sewer line whether you're hooked up to a city sewer line or to a septic tank. However, you may not realize that things like grease or paper towels can be just as bad. Paper towels can take a long time to break down, resulting in a premature build-up of solid waste. Grease, on the other hand, floats on top of the liquid waste layer. A little grease or fat, such as from rinsing out your pot roast pan, is fine. But pouring leftover fryer grease down the kitchen sink can result in a thick layer of oil in your septic tank. This oil layer will prevent oxygen from reaching the beneficial bacteria in your tank, causing them to die off and for solids to accumulate much more quickly. If you want to avoid having to pay for a residential septic tank cleaning, you'll need to find other ways to dispose of these materials.