Solving a Problem
About Me
 Solving a Problem

A few weeks ago, my husband and I met with a general contractor. We talked with this professional about building an addition onto our small home. At this time, he informed us about a problem with our septic tank. We learned we would have to relocate a couple of septic lines before construction could begin on our home. Are you considering building an addition onto your house or business? Before you get too far along in this complex process, think about consulting with someone from a reputable septic service in your area. An expert from a septic service can inform you if your current septic tank will be large enough to accommodate the addition. On this blog, I hope you will discover the most common tasks performed by septic services. Enjoy!

Tags

Solving a Problem

Do These Five Things To Prevent Unnecessary Septic System Repair And Maintenance Costs

Debra Chapman

If you are having to pump out your home's septic tank more often than your neighbors are doing this chore, then the following are five simple things you can do to protect the septic system from requiring this excessive pumping.

Stop Using Drain Cleaners 

Drain cleaning products are very harsh and will kill the helpful bacteria in your septic tank. Once the bacteria dies, then the tank doesn't have any way to process solid materials and becomes clogged with them. The excessive solids require a pump out to remove them, and this problem can be avoided by using plungers and drain augers instead of harsh drain cleaning products.

Stop Bleaching Your Laundry

Each time you add bleach to a load of laundry, it washes down into your home's septic tank after bleaching your clothing. The bleach then kills off a percentage of the bacteria in the tank. Rather than introducing chlorine bleach into your septic tank, opt to use a safer oxygenated bleach instead.

Stop Using So Much Toilet Paper

One of the biggest clogging agents in most residential septic tanks is toilet paper. The cellulose fibers in toilet paper take time to break down and using a lot of toilet paper simply compounds the problem.

If everyone in your household simply vows to be more mindful of using just the proper amount of toilet paper necessary to do the job it needs to do, this will go a long way towards unnecessarily clogging up the system with cellulose fibers that will need to be pumped out at a future date.

Don't Use a Garbage Disposal

Septic systems are designed to use natural bacteria to break down solid materials. While this process works very well on human waste and cellulose fibers, it does not work at all on things like ground up chicken bones and fats from meats. For this reason, you should not use a garbage disposal in a home with a septic system. Scrape all of your dishes into the trash before washing them and keep as much food waste as possible out of your septic tank.

Never Pour Grease Down a Drain

Finally, grease and oils are not able to be processed in your septic tank. Additionally, the big sticky oil and grease molecules will stick to the sides of the septic tank and mix with detergents and turn into a nasty goo. To prevent your this gunk from coating your septic tank and requiring a premature pump-out, never dump grease or oil down a drain and into your septic tank.

Contact a service, like River City Septic & Excavating, for more help.


Share