Septic Tank Help

[Black Noir]

We are looking at putting an offer on a property out in the sticks, however we have been advised by the current owners that there isnt any mains sewerage and all waste goes into a septic tank/Cesspool in the garden.
They told us it works fine and havent needed to have it emptied for over 10 years.
Has anyone got one?
How often should they be checked/emptied and is it costly ?
I obviously want to avoid any issues later on.
Any advice or pearls of wisdom would be much appreciated.
BN x

[The Builder]

I guess it must be a septic tank. A cesspool is simply storage. It would have to have been emptied during 10 years.

Even a septic tank should be de-sludged. Once a year would be good, as it prevents any build up of pure solids which would cause the tank to stop working efficiently. If it's not emptied, solids will eventually get down the soakaway. A soakaway just carries water, to disperse it through the ground.

The secret of good operation is always to keep the soakaway running cleanly. If it does bung up, then the best thing is to dig a new one. The tank will be OK once it's de-sludged.

Ring a local company for a cost of emptying. It does vary a lot.

[corylus]

Ours needs emptying about every 2 years as the (lack of) fall of the land makes drainage from the soakaway slow in winter when the land is wet. Usually costs about £175, part of this is the cost of the drainage people, part for the disposal of the 'waste' at some council site or some other accredited site.

You'll probably get the drainage checked out as part of a survey, and/or get a local septic tank installer to do that. We had a new tank and soakaway installed soon after we moved here 20 years ago, it works OK but depending on weather conditions, (ie lots of rain on the land) does need emptying.

[Clanad]

Here in the rural western U.S., almost everyone is on a septic tank-leach field type of sanitary disposal.

Ours empties from the house into a concrete tank (underground) that's about 8 feet long, 5 feet wide and maybe 5 feet deep... it has a set of "dams" inside to help solids to fall to the bottom... the rest of the fluids eventually flows to the far end where it empties into a leach field ... a system of 4 inch perforated PVC pipes that are buried in individual trenches about 6 feet deep. The trench is filled with maybe a goot of gravel/sand, the perforated PVC placed on top of that , 'red rosin' paper on that and filled with gravel and finally a layer of soil.

The tank itself needs to be pumped out about once every two to three years since the sediment in the bottom will eventually build up. The bacteria is supposed to destroy the sludge in the bottom, but and only do that to a certain degree. We have pumping truck service that comes out to us and the neighbors on schedule and charges $125 (US) to each.

Apologies for the extensive description, but wanted to let you have a comparison to your system there...

[Black Noir]

Thanks guys thats really helpful :)

[coccinelle]

I also have a septic tank and it was first emptied after 20 years! There were only the 2 of us so all depends on how many in the household as to how often to empty. Here, out of curtesy, when you sell a property or leave a rented accomodation you empty it; after you don't want to be paying in a couple of years for someone else's **** to be removed!!!!
I use granules every 6 months which does help a lot and don't tip bleach water down the sink.
clanad; mine is the same system except that the tank isn't concrete it's plastic. And the trenches aren't 6 feet deep, I'd say 3ft.

[Clanad]

cocinelle... thanks... ours are buried that deep (as are the water pipes to the house) due to the exceptionally cold winters we can experience. I've seen the frost line down to 5 feet in a really cold winter...

[Maydup]

We have an old brick built tank and a brick build second chamber into which it soaks away. We have it emptied once a year just to avoid any problems but I dare say we could do it less. We pay £90 cash to a local company. The local authorities usually have a service too, but do compare prices.

Remember that you will have no sewage fees to pay to your water supplier, so that cost will be less than you are used to.

Nothing much else to know about them except to avoid using too much bleach or other strong chemicals and don't flush anything other than your natural waste and loo paper down the toilet.