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OK. Who has a septic system, not city sewers?


maddmaxx

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Me. 
Yes.  I had to have the one at my old house partly redone when part of the pipe in the drain field collapsed. It never backed up though. 
The one at the big house served us well for 45 years, and then it didn’t. The bathrooms were out for about a week before the new system was in. The folks packed up and went to the beach for that week. 
The honey wagon stunk to high hell btw. Mephitic would be the word. 

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Of course...  but I don't have a choice.

My old home had a leach field that just died.  It was not big enough for 3 people.  The area turned into a swamp, and there was no more room for a larger leach field.   We had to install a self contained sewage plant.  One that could (at the time) do surface discharge.  The septic tank was pumped at least twice maybe 3 times.  And the self contained sewage plant needed to be cleaned and maintained each year.  The septic tank emptied into the self contained sewage plant.   Which was a good thing,   That reduced the work for the self contained sewage plant.

We don't have a garbage disposal in our new home just to be sure we don't add a bunch of material that won't 'digest'.  And Rid-X is used to help keep things working. But eventually pumping the tank will need to be done.

So did your's die??    If your tank plugged up (or septic field) that would be bad   Not being able to flush would be a problem.

 

 

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I'll know more Tuesday when they snake a camera out from the tank.  I drove my mower over the location where I think the distribution box is the other day and suddenly began sinking into a mud hole.  It's a 50 year old system and I suspect that this is going to be another blow to my retirement plans.

Anybody hiring a 74 year old prototype ckt board designer/tech who does micro soldering in lieu of a robot?

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7 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

Have you contemplated what happens when it stops working correctly?

With us being so close to the lake, if our conventional septic fails, the county will probably make us replace it with a $10,000 mound system. Or worse, a holding tank that will need to be pumped when filled. There's already a few homes with mounds, and two with holding tanks in our neighborhood.

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I have a sand mound system. It works pretty good. One of the connections blew apart in the sand mound one time. The pipes are near the top of the mound, I just dug it up with a shovel and re-cemented it. Another time the trash pump quit working. I bought a new pump and when I uncovered the gray water tank I discovered a wiring connection had shorted out. The pump was fine but I already had the new pump so I changed them.

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We had a septic out at chickenville.  It gave us problem free service for 20 years, and ten of those were with renters in it.  I have no idea what they were putting down the drain lines.  I have no idea if they added the digesting enzyme that I asked them to use, and even provided for them free of charge.  We tend to pump a septic out at least once every 4-5 years.  When your septic lines go bad, you have a replacement field that you can utilize.  The tank is plastic and just needs to get pumped.

Our new home will have a septic again.  

I hope we have the same experience with our new place.

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8 hours ago, Dottles said:

I have a septic, senor.  If it stops working, I stop shitting.

 

3 hours ago, Parr8hed said:

We have the septic pumped every 2-3 years to try and eliminate any problems.  I like to be able to poop whenever I wish.

This is why there is a recommendation to get it pumped every 3-4 years.  Ooops.  I mean Pooops.  This is why there's a recommendation to get it pumped every 2-3 years.

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1 hour ago, Dirtyhip said:

We had a septic out at chickenville.  It gave us problem free service for 20 years, and ten of those were with renters in it.  I have no idea what they were putting down the drain lines.  I have no idea if they added the digesting enzyme that I asked them to use, and even provided for them free of charge.  We tend to pump a septic out at least once every 4-5 years.  When your septic lines go bad, you have a replacement field that you can utilize.  The tank is plastic and just needs to get pumped.

Our new home will have a septic again.  

I hope we have the same experience with our new place.

Good luck.  A happy poop field is important.

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12 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

Have you contemplated what happens when it stops working correctly?

I know exactly what happens when it stops working correctly: I make one phone call, they come and fix it - in and out in one day - and life goes on.

Did exactly that last April.  Roots from a shitty Box Elder and Lilacs that I should have cut down long ago, plugged one “run” of the leach field. I noticed wet grass with a whitish residue and a sewer smell. The came and added another “run”, a D-box (there wasn’t one) and rejiggered how the  other two take water. $1500 and $350 of that was to pump the tank.

Put a leach field of this stuff in 20 years ago and until now, it has been working like a champ...and I live in a swamp, with heavy clay soils and the water table is only about 6’ down. It has never been pumped. Arguably, the problem we just had was my fault for not getting around to taking the damned shrubs down that caused the problem.

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I have an old block tank that's over 50 years old.  I get it pumped every 4 or 5 years.  I've never really had a problem with it.  My biggest fear is that I'll have to replace it one day, and then they'll put a sanitary line down my road and try and make me tie in. 

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31 minutes ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

I know exactly what happens when it stops working correctly: I make one phone call, they come and fix it - in and out in one day - and life goes on.

Did exactly that last April.  Roots from a shitty Box Elder and Lilacs that I should have cut down long ago, plugged one “run” of the leach field. I noticed wet grass with a whitish residue and a sewer smell. The came and added another “run”, a D-box (there wasn’t one) and rejiggered how the  other two take water. $1500 and $350 of that was to pump the tank.

Put a leach field of this stuff in 20 years ago and until now, it has been working like a champ...and I live in a swamp, with heavy clay soils and the water table is only about 6’ down. It has never been pumped. Arguably, the problem we just had was my fault for not getting around to taking the damned shrubs down that caused the problem.

Could be me.  We planted a very small bush too near the dbox and it's no longer small.

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3 minutes ago, sheep_herder said:

Did you interpret this correctly, or is she saying sewer service was only provided once in her life?

County provided service once in my life. You know when you flush and have no idea where it goes. Otherwise septic and well.  

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20 minutes ago, sheep_herder said:

Did you interpret this correctly, or is she saying sewer service was only provided once in her life?

I got it wrong.  Fighting with two toilets this morning has left my brain in elder mode.  Sorry Air.  You country folk have my condolences.   I had city water, sewer and underground electric lines at my first house.  It was glorious and I could tell my neighbor that across the 10 feet or so separating us from them.  :whistle:

 

:nodhead: Damn the well and the septic tank I still like country living.

 

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