“Out of Sight, Out of Mind?”
That’s what most of us think about wastewater exiting our homes . . . until it doesn’t exit!
If left unattended, a septic system will eventually stop accepting wastewater. When this happens, we will receive a “notification” of this event, not on our iPhone, but in the form of a toilet not flushing or a shower floor drain backing up. This “notification” cannot be easily ignored simply by swiping left or right. Rather, it must be addressed if we would like to continue to use our toilets, sinks, showers, clothes-washer, or dish-washer.
If your home’s wastewater is processed by a septic system, it should be viewed as an integral part of your home, similar to a climate control system or electrical system. Taking steps to familiarize yourself with how your septic system works can prevent you from having to deal with unwanted emergencies and expenses.
Obviously, few of us have time to receive a full education on wastewater treatment and there are many, many variations to the design of a septic system, but in this post, we’ll narrow down the science to three basic common components you should be familiar with as a homeowner.
Collection Pipes
These are the pipes under or near your home. They all conduct wastewater away from plumbing fixtures, eventually converging their flow into a single “sewer” line. This “sewer” line directs all that wastewater into your septic tank.
Septic Tank
This is the tank buried underground on your property. All the wastewater coming from your home ends up here. In this tank, solids separate from liquid by either floating or settling to the bottom.
Drain Field
As liquid flows out of a septic tank, it is introduced to a drain field, also known as a leach field. This drain field spreads the wastewater through a series of buried pipes. These pipes have small holes throughout, which “leach” the wastewater out into several dozen cubic feet in the ground.
If you are experiencing issues with your system, it is most likely a problem with one of these three components. In the hundreds or thousands of septic systems we at BEELER have worked on over the years, we see a few common causes to the issues experienced. Here is a list in order of prevalence.
- Deferred maintenance (not pumping the tank often enough)
- Components breaking down due to age
- Nearby vegetation sending roots into the system
- Lack of quality work during the original installation
When experiencing such an issue, many homeowners worry that a costly system replacement will be needed. While this is the case in an extreme situation, seldom is it as bad as we initially imagine. Attention can be given just to the component having trouble; septic tanks can be pumped empty, collection pipes can be cleared, and drain fields can be rejuvenated.
So if you receive a “notification” that something is wrong with your septic system, don’t panic, give us a call.