When your home is not on a municipal
sewer line, you need a private septic system to take care of the
liquid and solid wastes produced in your home. All the drains in your
home will flow to the main drain out of the house and into the septic
system. While this system is not very intricate, you do need to
understand how a septic system works and how the weather can affect
its performance.
How Your Septic System Works
There are two separate parts to a
septic system. The first part is the tank. The main drain connects to
the tank about ¾ up from the bottom, on one side. On the opposite
side of the tank, still about ¾ of the way up the side wall, is
another pipe. The second pipe allows liquid waste to flow out of the
tank and to the drain field.
In the top of the tank are a couple of
openings. One opening is large enough for a man to climb into the
tank for cleaning and maintenance. This opening is covered with a
heavy metal disc. The other openings are used to peer into the tank
for inspections, to measure how full the tank is, and to empty the
tank. Septic tanks also have a few vents along the top edge of the
tank.
The second part of the system is the
drain field. This is where the liquid waste flows to be absorbed into
the ground. To install a drain field, a sanitation company will dig a
trench and then fill it partially with gravel and loose soil to cover
a perforated pipe that releases liquid from the tank. The liquid
waste flows out of the tank, through the tank drainpipe, and into the
drain field where it is absorbed.
How Weather Affects Your Septic
System
During heavy periods of rain, the drain
field can become so saturated it cannot hold any more moisture until
the rain seeps into the water table below. Even though your tank may
not be full, you may need to have it emptied to prevent waste from
backing up. A completely empty tank will give you a few days or more
before the liquid starts to flow out again. Hopefully, the rain will
have stopped by then, and the drain field can absorb more moisture.
Melting snow will have the same effect
as a rain storm. If snowfall is an almost daily occurrence in your
area, you may end up with a full tank as the snow melts a bit each
day. Keep an eye on the temperature, and if it gets above freezing
during the day, you most likely have snow melting and saturating the
drain field as well as the tank.
Cold winter weather can also affect a
septic system. The bacteria that live in the tank may freeze and die.
If this happens, the solid waste in the tank will not decompose, and
the volume will increase quickly. You may be able to add bacteria to
the tank to help the problem, or you can have the tank emptied.
Even if the temperature is not cold
enough to kill the bacteria, it might be cold enough to slow down
their metabolism. When this happens, the sludge at the bottom of the
tank will build up faster than normal. Talk to a sanitation company
about buying and using some type of insulation for the septic tank to
keep it warm enough for the bacteria to thrive.
If you have any questions regarding
your septic system and waste, contact The
Nibbler Company. We will not only help you understand what may be
wrong with your system, we will also make sure that you have the
wastewater treatment system that is best for your home.
