How often to clean out the septic tank?

[mommytotwo]

Originally Posted by smarty

How often one should pump depends on how one use the septic tank. It is recommended that to pump once every 2 years for newer system (less than 10-15 yrs); once a year for older system. If you take really good care of it, you can easily extend it from 2 yrs to 3-4 years.

Septic is design to deal with excrete waste from our body only. You need to pump more often if
you throw many non-biodegradable stuff;
you use a lot of cooking oil
you use bleach
you use garbage disposal

Cost is usually ~$150-200 depending on how easy it is to get to the opening.

To know where the septic opening is... the best time is during winter after snow storm. As you take hot showers, the heat will melt the snow... You can see the opening with snow melted in the middle of nowhere... If not, you'll find the opening simply by looking in your basement which direction the drain goes out. Then, use metal detector to find the opening.

Grass grows very fast, you will not even notice 1-2weeks after you dig it.

mommytotwo experience is due the stupidity of the previous owner to build a deck on top of a septic. In general, one has to dig 3-5 feet to put a concrete post to support the deck. I wonder how they pass inspection.

The tank is half under the deck, half out. The posts supporting the deck are just before the tank and just after. It's really not a problem unless you are just plain dumb and do something like plant rose bushes on top of them and they grow for years intertwining in the latticework and through the railings of the deck. Then it becomes very inconvenient. I ripped up all the bushes and am going to plant grass there. I am going to put the lattice back because that is easy enough to put on and off.

It's not a great deck, so it's not like they spent $30,000 on it.

Originally Posted by Beijing66

Thanks mommytotwo and smarty, so basically every time you have your septic system pumped you have to dig (and possibly destroy the lawn or flower bed or whatever that is above it) out the covers and the riser? That means you have to reseed that part of the lawn every time you do it? What a pain in the you know where!

Yes, I wouldn't try to put lawn on it. Like I said my neighbor has two or three concreted discs, about 1-1.5 feet in diameter each, that cover his septic. He has a beautiful lawn, and the two concrete covers don't look bad at all. Frankly it's a great idea so that you can always find your covers and you never have to dig.....

[katequincy]

I just got a quote today for a 1000 gallon tank - on the Cape where things are always a bit more expensive
The least expensive was .....$100 to pump/dig and 8cents per gallon of waster removed
Hope that helps
Kate

[hutbephotmb24h]

Originally Posted by Beijing66

Our house comes with a private septic system when we moved in in August 2007. Only my wife and I, two people live here. How often do I need to clean out our septic tank? How much are we expected to pay? Just some ballpark figures would be fine. Thank you!

With the amount of waste discharged into the septic tank of the couple, about 4 years to clean the septic tank once.

[MMS02760]

I have been in my home for ten years. I live alone and the septic system was replaced prior to me moving in (house was also empty at the time). I went six years before I had it pumped and never treated it. The company told me I could have went longer. Told that since I was the only occupant and out of the house most of the time, I did not need to do it all that frequently. Was told that if I used a garbage disposal and had more people living there, would have to have it done more regularly.