Septic Tank Issue

Redgirl82

Ok, I have bought house. The house has septic tank but didn't see any issue.

Anyway I got friend to check a few weeks back and it was full, so called the local guy and he emptied it. When he was cleaning it he mentioned there is a lot of water in it. He said there could be issue with percolation? I have no idea

So of couple yesterday had issue with toilets so friend came over to fix, he said the tank is full again. Looks like full of water.

The tank is in garden and has never over flown. He said the tank looks like a block septic tank. Probably built into the ground.

I have no idea, do I need to replace the whole tank or just get percolation fixed?

I am due to get gardener in to do up garden so just wondering should I hold off till I get sorted

the_pen_turner

if its percolation or new tank then defiantly hold off doing any work in there. these are huge jobs that will destroy any garden.


open the lid on the tank and see if you can see the pipes going into and out of the tank . they should have a t piece on the end.
if the water level is above the outlet pipe then there is a blockage going to the percolation or the percolation is clogged.


how old is the house .

Redgirl82

the_pen_turner wrote: »

if its percolation or new tank then defiantly hold off doing any work in there. these are huge jobs that will destroy any garden.


open the lid on the tank and see if you can see the pipes going into and out of the tank . they should have a t piece on the end.
if the water level is above the outlet pipe then there is a blockage going to the percolation or the percolation is clogged.


how old is the house .

House was built in the 80's.....82 I think....renovations carried out on house in late 2000's, I don't have any contact with previous owners

Can't see anything when I open the tank, the water level is right up, I never bothered to check when it was empty.......

Would it just be a block structure in the ground? Or precast concrete dropped in?

Redgirl82

the_pen_turner wrote: »

if its percolation or new tank then defiantly hold off doing any work in there. these are huge jobs that will destroy any garden.


open the lid on the tank and see if you can see the pipes going into and out of the tank . they should have a t piece on the end.
if the water level is above the outlet pipe then there is a blockage going to the percolation or the percolation is clogged.


how old is the house .

Its not a lid, there is a steel cover....then a few row of brick or blocks then the tank, all you can see if water....hope that makes sense

I did find 2 pipes today, which had small steel covers with holes, they look to be there to allow air out of tank

Water John

There are two vertical holes on top of the tank. These are breathers. Other posters are talking of a sewer pipe coming in one side of the tank and another going out the other side. If the water level is over the one going out in to the percolation area, then the percolation is blocked. The pipe would be going into a distribution box/manifold and then percolating out along a number of fingers.

the_pen_turner

you might have to empty it again to check.
maybe a local farmer might empty it or suck it out and let it back in again.
I think there are regulations against them taking it away

if its in a town or close to a neighbour maybe a sludge pump could pump it into their tank


or dig down beside the tank and put an aces junction there. then you can rod it to see if its blocked.

Redgirl82

Water John wrote: »

There are two vertical holes on top of the tank. These are breathers. Other posters are talking of a sewer pipe coming in one side of the tank and another going out the other side. If the water level is over the one going out in to the percolation area, then the percolation is blocked. The pipe would be going into a distribution box/manifold and then percolating out along a number of fingers.

Ok that kind of makes sense, a friend said they would help and dig down tomor and see if they can find any pipes for percolation, would this help?

the_pen_turner

should help you find out if its blocked or not. get some rods and put them through the pipe and see if it fixes it

Lumen

I had this problem on my '87 tank recently. The T piece had come off and solids had entered the percolation area.

Got it jetted and now it's draining better.

Get a reputable company in to have a look.

I would NOT just start digging into your percolation area.

Redgirl82

I do remember now, when guy was cleaning it that he said "stuff" was draining back into the tank, he said it could be from percolation area, would this be correct?

Redgirl82

Lumen wrote: »

I had this problem on my '87 tank recently. The T piece had come off and solids had entered the percolation area.

Got it jetted and now it's draining better.

Get a reputable company in to have a look.

I would NOT just start digging into your percolation area.

What is a reputable company? In Dublin

Redgirl82

Photo attached

listermint

If it's filling up quickly is your roof water i.e gutters connected to the waste ?

the_pen_turner

how long from first empting to now

don't dig in the percolation , you will regret it , it will be stink,
dig beside the tank


no pic attached

if the water is flowing back in then it could be high water table or surrounding water going in through percolation, unlikely this winter it was so dry

the percolation is probably clogged up


is your washing machines etc going in aswell

Redgirl82

Picture attached there

There is no other spot to check percolation system.....the other man holes are the connections from the house

There is one pipe running from house for rain water to go into river but this looks to be only one section, other rain water is running into sewage system

No idea on dish water but I would guess it is all running in septic tank. Can't see where else it would be going.....

To explain, I bought house in Autumn last year. Never checked tank, checked it a few months back and it was full.

I got it cleaned out by company about 3 weeks ago now, for life of me can't find receipt....at most 4 weeks

the_pen_turner

I think your first job is to stop the rain water going into it. if its a really small roof like a porch etc then it is doing no harm.

the pic shows the manhole on top of the tank is probably in the center of the tank. it doesn't really show the outlets.

you wil have to dig down and find the pipe.


you mentioned vents. where are they in relation to he manhole on the tank.


if you lift one of the manhole lids before the tank is there water in it and how deep is the pipe at the bottom.

listermint

You need to divert the roof rainwater to the a ground drain the same on the other is using.

None of your gutters should be feeding to the waste it's much for the tank to handle and thus will impact the natural function of the tank.

Any large rain like yesterdays will cause overflow

Redgirl82

Ok the rain water I am not 100% sure of, I think some of it might be going in but no idea,

The septic tank has never over flown or anything, I am just concerned 2 weeks after filling that it is so full of water again...

I talked to my dad, he said as I give the kids a bath every evening this could be filling it up and the percolation system is not fit for it...

Also that better to do now than fix the garden and have to dig up again, he Is talking about mini digger, load of stones and run some pipes away from the septic tank, same as the guy emptying it mentioned.....

I guess this is best way forward?

There is 2 vents, about 30cm either side of main hole which I took picture of....you can see nothing down them apart from the water in tank

We did try to dig earlier, down about 3 ft and no sign of getting to the tank

Water John

To explain the workings. Sewage, solids and flushing water comes into the tank. Remember, s**te floats. There is a T piece onto the exit pipe. The exit pipe does not take the top of the water, as the solids are there. The solids brew over time by aerobic digestion.
So the tank is always mostly full.
If the T piece is missing or has fallen off, solids will go out the exit pipe and block it.
The rain and grey water also may be took much and overwhelm the percolation area.

my3cents

OP septic tanks fill up with water thats how they are.

You judge how full a septic tank is by the amount of solids in it. I know this is an american publication but take a look at http://extension.missouri.edu/p/EQ401 and near the end it has a simple way to check if your septic tank needs emptying.

If the toilets are flushing there are no bad smells hanging around the place and no areas where s h one t is coming out of the ground then your OK.

Being new to the world with having a septic tank do check up the do's and don't of what you can put down the drains. You wouldn't get much sympathy from me if you use biological washing products, toilet ducks and masses if bleach and then complain you have septic tank problems.

Donadea lad

hi,
this might seem like ba stupid question. why would i need a percolitation system with a raised bed and not a septic tank.

my3cents

Donadea lad wrote: »

hi,
this might seem like ba stupid question. why would i need a percolitation system with a raised bed and not a septic tank.

My understanding of the term raised bed is that it is a possible solution where a normal below ground percolation system won't work.

You still have a septic tank and that drains into a holding tank and the liquid is then pumped up to a raised bed which is just a fancy above ground percolation system.

Don't even know if they are allowed here http://inspectapedia.com/septic/Raised_Bed_Septic_Design.php gives the design I'm thinking of unless you mean "reed bed".

sydthebeat

Donadea lad wrote: »

hi,
this might seem like ba stupid question. why would i need a percolitation system with a raised bed and not a septic tank.

they are not exclusive

septic tanks / effluent treatment systems are Primary systems for treating effluent

percolation areas / raised beds / polishing filters etc are Secondary systems for treating effluent

you generally need both a primary and secondary system

in some extreme cases you might also need Tertiary systems such as reed beds etc

Donadea lad

I got a test hole dug the other day on our site and i was told that i will need a raised percolitation, but that does take up about 12 square metres of the garden

cyrils foxpit

Water John wrote: »

To explain the workings. Sewage, solids and flushing water comes into the tank. Remember, s**te floats. There is a T piece onto the exit pipe. The exit pipe does not take the top of the water, as the solids are there. The solids brew over time by aerobic digestion.
So the tank is always mostly full.
If the T piece is missing or has fallen off, solids will go out the exit pipe and block it.
The rain and grey water also may be took much and overwhelm the percolation area.

so my pipes and bio system has being giving no problems at all...when I inspected the hatch just on a whim I noticed it was very full...so this doesn't necessarily mean it needs emptying and I should investigate more ?

Metric Tensor

To the raised percolation person:

I'd say it takes up a lot more than 12 square metres!

Do you mean 144 square metres - i.e 12m x 12m? It probably means that there isn't sufficient soil between you and the groundwater / rock.

my3cents

cyrils foxpit wrote: »

so my pipes and bio system has being giving no problems at all...when I inspected the hatch just on a whim I noticed it was very full...so this doesn't necessarily mean it needs emptying and I should investigate more ?

Follow the instructions in the link I gave earlier to see how full your tank really is. There is normally a scum or crust on the top then a layer of water then solids on the bottom if the water accounts for less than 50% of the depth of the tank then its needs emptying.

sydthebeat

Donadea lad wrote: »

I got a test hole dug the other day on our site and i was told that i will need a raised percolitation, but that does take up about 12 square metres of the garden

no problem at all... a raised bed in a rural garden is completely negligible.
just locate it properly and landscape it.

if its the difference between getting permission or not, isnt it a small inconvienence

Water John

You can practice your golf putting for split level greens on your lawn with a raised bed!!!