Septic tanks are a vital part of the one’s family health and should be regulated and serviced as such. How often does one really think about their septic tank before a problem occurs? Not often enough is usually the answer, which is not good when the septic tank is arguably the most important part of one’s home. Septic tanks can potentially cause serious cosmetic damage if and when disaster occurs.
Septic tanks are divided into two separate parts: the drain field and the tank. The drain field is a maze of perforated pipes laid in gravel-filled trenches in the ground which rids of the waste once it has been treated and decomposed in the tank. The actual tank holds anything that goes down the toilet, shower, or sink drains and is decomposed by bacteria before reaching the drain field. Over time, the waste within the tank will separate into three layers. The top layer is the scum layer and it includes all of the floating solids. Next are a layer of water waste and finally the sludge layer which is a very heavy layer of solids. It is important to watch what is put into the drains because it will increase the sludge layer. When the sludge layer cannot decompose, the wastage will pump into the drain field or backup into the drain pipes connected to the house which can cause thousands of dollars of damage. septic pumping in Athens OH companies offer services to watch, monitor and prevent such occurrences from happening.
There is no specific timetable that one should check their tanks, but there are a few good indicators that one should be aware of which will tell when maintenance is needed. The smell of sewage is one of the first tell signs. When one can smell sewage in their home, it is coming from a break in the drain field line or there is a toilet backup, the second sign.
