no loon it is smelly work, really smelly my buddy down road had issue when he was deployed, wife new baby and 6 year old at home got to add an extra couple lines to a " working system" to get him buy. but his wife paid a guy to climb into septic tank to chisel out for a effluent filter thank heavens I am over 6 foot and 220 pounds cause I didn't fit guy charged 25 an hour to do it but no he got spare lines in case 1 goes bad. I do not know about Canada but here VT that's is OK because it's an upgrade
I do use the "enzymes" in my septic. I tend to only treat when I'm going to be gone for at least a weekend. The "Rid-X" brand that I use, is formulated to break down the "solids" and "papers" and "greases/oils" into the fine silty stuff that's on the bottom of your main tank. That's why the tanks need to be pumped every so often...............to get rid of the silty stuff on the bottom of the tank and of course the "scum" layer on the top so that stuff doesn't get past the baffles and into your leech field.
He cracks me up!! But when I first joined here I thought his avatar was a craft beer bottle. I looked closer later and cracked up again!
I'm not an expert by any means, but I live in a fairly low area with a high water table and heavy clay soils, so I keep a pretty close eye on my leach field. My leach field runs pretty well when it's frozen outside and there's no free moisture in the ground complicating things. On the other hand, there's more water in the leach field than I'd like to see in the spring and in the fall. Summer is obviously no problem.
I keep a round paver on the lawn that is just above the access lid to the tank. We dig it out and have it ready for the kaka sucker. Saves a few bucks. Septic system needs monitoring. I'm after my wife all the time to not use chemicals that get flushed.
When I had the tank dug up, I installed a piece of 6" PVC for a clean out and put a screw cap on it. Planted some ornamental grass next to it and can't even tell it's there. We're careful about what we send down the drain, but don't use any special soaps or TP or cleaners. I think the biggest factor in having a system function properly, is the amount of people using it. One of the advantages of living in a hilly area is that everything flows down, no matter how much water is in the ground.
Good thread, digging my tank today to get pumped next week. House was built in 03 and septic was new at that time, have done nothing to it since, and had no problems. Was told at some point in my life that a properly designed and functioning septic system needs no attention, probably would have just kept on believing that if I hadn't read this thread.
Good move Dave. Money well spent for sure. Systems do not last forever... that tank will fill up with honey chunks...
Yup, I was expecting to see a funny sign back there. I've seen; "We haul milk on the weekends." and "We're #1 in the #2 business." et.al.
