Owning a home with a septic system is much different than if the home is connected to the municipal sewer system. Although both systems serve the same purpose, a septic system requires you to take additional steps to ensure it is working properly. You’ll also need to be extra careful about what you flush down the toilet or wash down the drain to prevent damage to the system. If you’re planning on moving into a home with a septic system and you’ve never used one before, you’ll need to make sure you know how to maintain the system properly.
Keeping Your Septic Tank Healthy
The septic tank is a large concrete reservoir that all of the waste from the plumbing system drains into. Septic systems are designed so that solid waste stays inside the tank and wastewater flows out into the leach field to be treated. Inside the tank lives beneficial bacteria that work to break the solids down into sludge. Without these bacteria to break down the solids, the tank would need to be pumped out much more often, or else it could overflow.
This makes it important that you take steps to ensure the bacteria inside the tank remain healthy. Enzyme treatments can help with this by introducing more bacteria into the tank. That being said, the best way you can protect the bacteria is by being careful about what goes into the tank. This means never putting bleach or any other chemicals into the septic system as these will kill off much of the bacteria.
The Importance of Septic Pumping
Pumping is an important part of septic tank maintenance. Although the bacteria will break down toilet paper and solid waste so that it doesn’t take up as much space inside the tank, you will still need to have the resulting sludge pumped out occasionally to prevent the tank from overflowing. It is generally recommended that you have your septic tank pumped once every three to five years, but the specific time scale depends on how large the tank is and how many people are using the system.
Protecting the Leach Field
The leach field is located underground a short distance away from the tank. It consists of perforated pipes buried a few feet underneath the surface. Any time more wastewater is added to the tank, an equal amount of water flows into the leach field. As the water seeps out of the pipes, the surrounding soil then filters it to remove any contaminants.
However, the leach field won’t work if the soil above or around it becomes too compacted or waterlogged. This is why it is important that you never drive over the field or put any heavy buildings or equipment on top of it. You also need to make sure that no water from your landscaping or gutters drains into the field.
At the end of the day, maintaining a septic system is fairly easy and straightforward. All you need to do is be careful about what goes into the system and take appropriate steps to ensure the tank and leach field are working properly.
