Unearthing the cover on my septic tank. Is it OK to use the backhoe?

Delmer said:

That had to be a fatberg, right? did it smell like tacos?

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Lol. Actually, it didn't have much smell. Like a crusted shell. Dried out 8" or more on top. I know, odd.

Now a 1,000 gallon or more grease trap? THAT smells!

yes they do, when fresh. I did a replacement where I had to pump and abandon a backwards 10,000 gallon interceptor. It was backwards, meaning the smaller side of the baffle was the inlet. So there was about 3000 gallons of water and grease to deal with, and it was many years in there cooking down so it was not the usual horrid stench.

There is no reason to pump a tank every two years. none. It does nothing for you.
If the baffles are OK then you are good to go for pumping it " on condition" as described by the professional tank pumper here in the thread ( @JCinNC ). If you insist on pumping it so often, then I would strongly suggest a riser kit so you can just pop the lid and get it done. They serve the other purpose of keeping from driving over it.

Funny thing is that when my parents owned the house, they never pumped in 30 years. They were anally retentive about what they put down the drain, and the tank wasn't even full when I bought the house and pumped.

What does on condition mean? How often should you pump?

The size of tank and no. of people living in the house + what you put down the drain has a lot to do with how regular the tank should be pumped. You don't want the sludge in the bottom to build up more than 1/3 of the tanks depth approx. 3' . Any deeper and it can get stirred up when clothes are washed and get into the drain field and plug it up.
Like mentioned installing a riser or risers on the tank is always a good idea. You can check the depth of the sludge with a pole and a towel rapped around it by poking it in the rank down to the bottom.

Also check the thickness of the scum layer on top. You don't want the scum deep enough to run out into the field either.

All excellent advise!and don’t forget to add bacteria ( RIDEX ect) after you have it pumped!

If you put risers on it you can check the condition. take a hunk of small diameter pipe and probe for the heavy sludge level @Billrog is talking about and also check that top layer. You could check it every few years and I think you'd be surprised. You can probably run 10 to 15 years without any problems at all. Put that money in your pocket!

emmett518 said:

Funny thing is that when my parents owned the house, they never pumped in 30 years. They were anally retentive about what they put down the drain, and the tank wasn't even full when I bought the house and pumped.

What does on condition mean? How often should you pump?

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"On condition" means the solids that develop in the tank over time. The time interval for solids accumulation varies for each application so it can get aggravating to give blanket recommendations or have an ironclad equation.

Think about it. Five people living in a 4 bedroom 4 bath house full time and have people over often will be putting more waste into their tank than two people in a 2 bedroom 1 bath house that don't entertain much.

Meanwhile, these two houses will commonly have the same size tank. The 4 bedroom house may have a larger drain field/longer lines but the same tank.

That's why you'll hear stories of not pumping in 30 years and things looking fine and another one not pumped in 10 years and tank locked up tight. Different use by different people.

With that said, you don't want solids in your tank to become too abundant and begin to accumulate in the liquid i.e. outlet side. That can begin to overcome the outlet trap sometimes referred to as the T-pipe and go into your drain field. That begins to damage your drain field and then, in short, everything starts giving bigger and more expensive problems.

You want to pump at a reasonable interval to protect your drain field lines. The drain field does the majority of the work.

So my recommendation is work with your pumper and ask them about putting risers on both ends. It's even required in some areas for new installations now. Three foot deep is really too much to be practical and risers are more widely available. Sometimes you can even bring them to just below ground if you don't want to see them. Four inches of cover is a lot better than three feet for future maintenance.

And as far as a pumping cycle? There's no perfect answer. 5 years seems to work pretty well. So plan every 5 years and if you don't have many solids at 5 years you might be able to extend it out to 10. Just have to check it good at the 5 year mark and see.

One thing you mention that kind of flags to me is you said that the tank wasn't even full when you bought the house and had it pumped. If the house was being lived in, a tank, if not leaking, is ALWAYS full to the bottom of the outlet pipe. But that can be 12"+- down. Over the outlet pipe? Then you have more problems.

But it sounds like your folks' system has been working well and should do the same for you.

Hope this helps.

J.C.

yeah that half full thing is a can of worms I wouldn't want to touch.

If you are sure of how deep it is, and your operating abilities, dig slow, and when you get closer, use the heel of the bucket instead of the teeth. As said above, when it doubt, poke around with a shovel. Had an old fella here. Retired now, Saturday morning digging close to a 24 inch forced main sewer line. " there's the stone, I'll shovel....move young fella, I'll just take one more bucket...." Glad I wasn't in the hole.

probably AC pipe too.

emmett518 said:

I now pump every two years just to be safe.

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A healthy septic system really should never need pumping. There are enzymes hard at work eating away at the solids in your septic tank. Avoid pouring things like Draino and bleach down the drain. Mine is 30 years old, never been pumped a single time.

We were told it's good to get septic tanks pumped every couple of years or so they last longer without problems. Seems like it would be good for piece of mind. You don't want problems when it's -30.

emmett518 said:

Funny thing is that when my parents owned the house, they never pumped in 30 years. They were anally retentive about what they put down the drain, and the tank wasn't even full when I bought the house and pumped.

What does on condition mean? How often should you pump?

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Think of the definition of anally retentive, these people don't poop. When they do poop, it's in the form of burdening some poor service worker with an impossible demand. Oh, & the price better be less than free! These people don't use, or need toilet paper. Now, if we are discussing the practice of pi$$ing & moaning, the anal retentive don't do that in a toilet. They pi$$ & moan on everybody who comes to shovel their snow, mow their grass, move their furniture, deliver their mail, haul away their trash, sweep their floors, & brush their teeth.

No need for the anally retentive to pump. Their $hit is given to the servants to take home with them.

Willie B said:

Think of the definition of anally retentive, these people don't poop. When they do poop, it's in the form of burdening some poor service worker with an impossible demand. Oh, & the price better be less than free! These people don't use, or need toilet paper. Now, if we are discussing the practice of pi$$ing & moaning, the anal retentive don't do that in a toilet. They pi$$ & moan on everybody who comes to shovel their snow, mow their grass, move their furniture, deliver their mail, haul away their trash, sweep their floors, & brush their teeth.

No need for the anally retentive to pump. Their $hit is given to the servants to take home with them.

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I digress!
I apologize!

Another thing that may be relevant to some here , no old pills down the drain eg. penicillin . the waste from anyone in the home taking chemo treatment will kill all bacterial action and require more frequent
pumping.

JL Sargent said:

A healthy septic system really should never need pumping. There are enzymes hard at work eating away at the solids in your septic tank. Avoid pouring things like Draino and bleach down the drain. Mine is 30 years old, never been pumped a single time.

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You are correct. A "healthy" tank is in balance as yours and shouldn't need much, if any, pumping.
I've found probably less than 5% operating in this balance though.

The amount of use by the amount of people, soaps, other cleaners, chemicals, different paper products, etc. are used enough by the majority of folks that this isn't achieved.

Willie B said:

Think of the definition of anally retentive, these people don't poop. When they do poop, it's in the form of burdening some poor service worker with an impossible demand. Oh, & the price better be less than free! These people don't use, or need toilet paper. Now, if we are discussing the practice of pi$$ing & moaning, the anal retentive don't do that in a toilet. They pi$$ & moan on everybody who comes to shovel their snow, mow their grass, move their furniture, deliver their mail, haul away their trash, sweep their floors, & brush their teeth.

No need for the anally retentive to pump. Their $hit is given to the servants to take home with them.

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Too funny!

Billrog said:

Another thing that may be relevant to some here , no old pills down the drain eg. penicillin . the waste from anyone in the home taking chemo treatment will kill all bacterial action and require more frequent
pumping.

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I never knew that.
In the 1990s the pumped "mound systems" grew exponentially. Those occupied by smokers had an alarming fail rate. Turned out, the spray holes in the leach field was just right for a cigarette filter to plug. Now they are required to have a filter to trap butts.