Does anyone have any experience of septic tanks?
By katsalot1
@katsalot1 (1618)
May 25, 2010 9:27am CST
I'm in the UK, and thinking about buying a house that has a septic tank. I've looked on the internet to see if I can find out how people have got on with them. Mostly people seem to get on with them, although some have had a lot of trouble. The key thing seems to be being very careful about what goes into them. I would appreciate any feed-back on this, because I'm terrified that I might do the wrong thing and end up with sewage everywhere! Any tips?
1 response
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
25 May 10
When I was married, we had a septic tank and over 18 years it gave us trouble only once and that was because they need pumped out every ten years or so and we didn't know that. Our kids got a big kick out of the whole process!
The important thing about a septic system is to watch what you put in it! Once or twice a month you should buy a septic treatment--it contains healthy bacteria in granular form that you flush, it goes into the tank and grows, feeding on the waste down there and breaking it down so that everything stays liquid and leeches down into the ground. Don't flush hygiene items down the toilet or put egg shells in your garbage disposal.
That's really the gist of it. It's a living waste system that needs some maintenance every so often and some care but it's no big deal.
1 person likes this
@katsalot1 (1618)
•
25 May 10
Thanks for that. It is very reassuring to hear. Not entirely sure what sort of septic tank it is, but it is probably very old. The people who own it say that they have never had any trouble with it, so hope it continues that way.