Septic tanks

s7ryf3925pivug

Looking at a house with a septic tank in the garden. Know little about them.

How much is annual maintenance? About €260?
Do you need to keep kids away from them? How much of a concern are fumes?
There are houses near it on the main wastewater system. How expensive and how much hassle might it be to connect to it instead? It already has mains water.
Any other things to think about?

gozunda

Ryker Long Pinhole wrote: »

Looking at a house with a septic tank in the garden. Know little about them.

How much is annual maintenance? About €260?
Do you need to keep kids away from them? How much of a concern are fumes?
There are houses near it on the main wastewater system. How expensive and how much hassle might it be to connect to it instead? It already has mains water.
Any other things to think about?

You need to know what type of septic tank your dealing with first.

Also.

Is it the old two chambered septic tank or a more modern bicycle type unit?

When was it last emptied / maintained?

How far is it from the house?

Does it have percolation pipes? What are the ground conditions like in the percolation area?

Is the septic tank system contained fully within the bounds of the property?

_Brian

If a tank is working well and not abused then there is essentially no annual maintenance.

More important is the percolation area, 99.9% or problems happen when the water can’t exit the tank because the percolation area has become saturated or was too small to start with, it often comes to show when wet weather goes on for a long time.

Using lots of bleach and loo products kills allot of the bacteria and while using them at normal rates is fine, going bezerk with them can be a problem. If you use lots and lots then there are products to boost bacteria or just throw in some roadkill - does the same job.

Our First tank was emptied once since 1995, about 15 years ago. At our current house it’s been 11 years without being touched. Large deep percolation areas are the key.

No fumes from them at all.

Safe for kids, I presume it’s structurally sound, they are vented from the top but I wouldn’t encourage kids to play on them either.

Lots of older tanks were quite small and the grey water from the house was plumbed past the tank straight to the percolation area. Now in the era of non stop washing machines and diswashers on twice a day they can put further pressure on percolation areas.

s7ryf3925pivug

Biocycle. Quite centrally located in big garden so i would say it is very likely self contained. Dont remember how far from house, maybe 20m. Dont know about other points. Ground in the area in general tends to be swampy. Doesnt smell.

A structural survey would flag any issues with it - right?

_Brian

A lot of ground is swampy at the moment.

If the percolation area is in trouble it will be localised and have considerably lusher grass growth in the area too.

T-Maxx

If you have any concerns rather get a qualified site assessor to have a look than a structural engineer.

gozunda

Beware - any planning application to extend / renovate the property will must likely carry an automatic requirement for a septic tank survey. Fail that and you're in deep do-do....

Graces7

_Brian wrote: »

A lot of ground is swampy at the moment.

If the percolation area is in trouble it will be localised and have considerably lusher grass growth in the area too.

Was seeking the tank here but the field is all totally overgrown and not a sign of it so I am not worrying; council responsibility anyways.

uck51js9zml2yt

Since we're talking septic tanks...how far from a house should it be..
I'm looking at houses in the country and know nothing about them.
Last time I heard mention if one was 40 years ago and my parents got it emptied onto the vegetable garden!

Where can I get information.

Would boggy ground be a problem?