View Single Post
Old 08-21-2008, 05:00 AM   #7 (permalink)
Tully Mars
Living in a Warmer Insanity
 
Tully Mars's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: Yucatan, Mexico
Here's what your septic system most likely looks likes:



That outlet leads to a drain field with likely several absorption trenches. Absorption trenches are a couple feet wide and depending on the size of your house, number of bathrooms could be 2, 4, 6 or even more and 20-30 feet long. If you do end up having the guys out to pump your tank make sure you do not have them drive over the drain field. The drain field is likely made up of glorified perforated PVC type pipe. If they crush those pipes with the weight of their truck you're going to need repairs. These repairs are going to cost a hell of a lot more then getting that tank pumped. If the guys that come out are actual septic system professionals they'll know this and will likely be able to look at your yard and know where the drain field is, or have a tool (a thin stainless steel bar) they push in the ground to find the trench piping. The half finished house I bought I could tell where the drain field was by simply looking at the yard. Erma Bombeck was kind of right, the grass is actually greener over the septic drain field.

Right now by the sound of it your system simple can not flow correctly. There just no where for the outlet material to leave the system. This can happen if if you have no standing water above ground. If the water table in the area is even near the surface and rises above the system outlet your system will back up. Speaking of water tables, it's completely possible once the flooding resided the system will begin working on it's own and the tank will not need to be pumped. It's completely possible once the drain field begins to drain the tank level will begin to go down and the system will begin working fine again.

On having your tanked pumped. I've had two houses in the last 20 years. Built one and finished the second (bought it from a guy that got tried of living in a half finished house) they both had septic systems. In 20 year I never pumped my tank once. There several products out there that will help keep your tank flowing smoothly. Rid-x is popular but I'm honestly not that impressed with them. Rid-x claims if your tank needs pumped and you use their product they'll pay for the pumping. I've known two people who tried to take them up on that and both times Rid-x found a reason not to do it. I think one guy didn't keep a written record on how much and when he added the stuff to his tank and the other guy didn't save all his receipts so he had no way of proving he'd been buying and using the stuff. For at least 15 years I added a cup of baker yeast to my system every other month. If you do this make sure you get real bakers yeast, from a bakery. I've been told there's a difference between what you buy on the shelf and what a professional bakery uses. I'm not sure if that's true- but I got my yeast from a bakery and never had to pump. Another key to tank up keep is what you put in it. Limit paper products, you can even buy tank friendly toilet paper. Also don't put fat down your toilet of sink disposable. Veggies and other organic food items down the disposable are fine, but fat and grease will clog the system.

Best of luck, hope life gets back to normal for you soon.
__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

Last edited by Tully Mars; 08-21-2008 at 05:09 AM.. Reason: Too many tpyo's even for me.
Tully Mars is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360