Buying a home can be one of the most exciting life events that you'll experience. Unfortunately, it doesn't always go as smoothly as many new homeowners imagine. When septic issues arise in your new home, what do you do? How can you keep it from happening again? Here, you'll find some information that'll help you undo the damage of the previous owners and prevent issues from arising again in the future.
Contact a Professional
There's very little you can do about a septic issue without contacting a professional. Since you can't drain the tanks without a pumping truck, you won't be able to access the pumps or pipes inside, nor would you want to.
Contact a residential septic tank cleaning professional. Before anything else can be done, the tanks must be emptied. After the waste is emptied, the tanks can be cleaned and the pumps and pipes inspected. A lot of times, when tanks aren't pumped on a regular basis, every other year or so, the pump inside will fail. This happens because the solid waste that is supposed to layer on the bottom of the tank builds up so much that it reaches the pump. The pump can grind some solid waste, but it will not be able to keep up with an overloaded tank without burning up.
So, while you have the septic professional there, go ahead and set up a date to have your tanks emptied in two years, possibly three if you have large tanks and a small family. This way, you won't lose track of time and damage the pump again by forgetting to have the tanks pumped.
Watch What You Flush
Once you have the tanks cleaned, the new pump installed and everything working in good order, it's up to you to protect the system from damage. You do this by watching what you flush and rinse down the drains.
The best rule of thumb to follow is don't flush anything that's not human waste or septic-friendly toilet paper and don't rinse anything down the drains other than general body cleansers, dish soap, and dish water. Keep a waste bucket to dump the grease and other greasy food products into and put it in your general trash.
Talk with your residential septic tank cleaning professional for further details on protecting your septic system. It's an easy enough task that has huge consequences if you don't follow through.
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