General Chat

We have a septic tank for our house, situated at the bottom of our long garden. There are three inspection chambers near the house.

Since owning the property for over seven years, we had it emptied two years since. There have been problems with the downstairs loo, when it fills up too far in the bowl, and OH grabs the drain rods, and has a session, which clears things.

But now, our downstairs loo has been out of action since the end of November, due to the water not getting away. OH had a look at the inspection chambers, and said they had water standing in them.

On Tuesday, he had another look at the inspection chambers and saw the water had risen hugely, so he dug out the septic tank, and was horrified to see it was full of water. The septic tank people came out and in half an hour it had been emptied - they were in the locality, and my bank balance was £140.00 lighter. We were hugely relieved, but not for long.

Today, after lunch, downstairs loo water was not getting away, so OH inspected the chambers near the house, and the septic tank. All full of water again.

No-one else in our row of four house is having problems, though I wouldn't ask neighbour who is less than co-operative with anything.

We have spoken to the Water Board, who say that as we are on mains drainage it is nothing to do with them! We have spoken to the septic tank company, whose boss went to France today, and if they empty it again, will charge us another £140.00. We have spoken to a drains company, who charge £58 per hour to come and have a look, after doing a survey. They have a camera, which is supposed to pinpoint where the fault is.

We are absolutely devastated, who wants raw sewage on their back yard?

No-one knows where the soak away is for the septic tank, if we knew, we would have been investigating.

There are no drains plans for these four houses. And in the meantime, the ground is thawing like mad, which we hope is the reason for the full pipes and tank.

We back onto farmland, and even the farmer doesn't know where the soak aways are situated. Each time we access the field, we ask his permission.

So, at the end of this long account, do any of you have a septic tank, and if so, are you having any problems?

This is not a good start to 2011, last year, it was major car problems, to the tune of 3K. Iron packed up last week, also an oil filled radiator. I realise that in the light of the dreadful event in Bristol, these are minor issues, but the septic tank is extremely serious, and needs to be sorted asap.

I would be grateful for any helpful advice.

Thanks Ice-Ice Baby, we have been on the internet, but I haven't googled septic tanks. Will do so now.

Just googled septic tanks, and came across a website called Garden Law, one of the topics was about septic tanks, just in case this will be useful to anyone else.

Most septic tanks and their soakaways have problems sooner or later, with the septic tank overflowing, drainage effluent appearing at ground level, seeping into ditches or backing-up the pipes. These are common problems.

There is some info on here, which might help

http://www.wte-ltd.co.uk/septictank.html

is it possible that the water table has risen?
thus instead of soaking away, the water table is soaking in?

Bob

Bob - we have wondered about the rise in the water table, due to the rain and snow, but even in the floods three and a half years ago, we did not have the problem with water in the septic tank and inspection chambers. Two of our neighbours say their chambers are not retaining water.

My freind has a septic tank and only needs it emptied every two years or so - but she lives on her won so its not a Family usuage. However, she found her was filling quicker the other year and had to have it emptied twice in a year. Someone inspected her tank and found a neighbours tank was overflowing into hers ...... she charged the neighbour for the repair, inspection and for one of the empties.

Right Maddie! Hope it isn't our neighbour's tank causing the problem. They are not known for their co-operation.

We are contacting the Clerk of the Parish Council after the Bank Holiday, to see if he has any old records of drain plans.

Our solicitor has checked our deeds and there is nothing relevant in them.

An update on our septic tank troubles. Many phone calls to Environment Agency, the Council, the Water Board, etc were a waste of time and energy. Contacted the Clerk of the Parish Council, but he had no information on the drains where we li ve.

However, brainwave yesterday afternoon, decided to phone the previous owner's nephew who had lived here as a young lad. He was working nearby, came and had a look at the tank, and rodded it. Our drain rods were not long enough, so this morning at 8.30 am he returned with an extra set of rods, and BINGO, it all cleared. I can run water down the kitchen sink, I can flush the upstairs toilet, we can use the downstairs one, without watching the water level rise perilously near the top. Wonderful.

One thing he and the Clerk of the Council, who is a farmer said is that the water table is not high in our area.

We are buying a second set of drain rods when we go shopping tomorrow.

Angelsone, glad your have finally got it sorted.
Years ago, we had a problem with drains, and it was always me that sorted it out. I always wanted me own set of rods. Funny thing a gal should want.
Best of Luck
Julia in Derbyshire

Glad its sorted....you can now look forward to 2011- jle

LOL all I wanted for Christmas......LOL a set of extralong drain rods


a friend of ours was having a similar problem with her drains, (communal)my rods werent long enough so she got a drain rod firm in..........
problem was...............
a wayward pair of calvin klien underpants

sorted......dunno who they belonged to though.......BOB

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Over here in France we put a packet of Tarax down our toilet every week and it helps keep ours working well. I also send packets over to my parents on the Isle of Man and they have noticed a big difference . There must be something similar sold in the UK ?
x Jill

Is that Tara with a kiss?- jl

Hi Angelsong, glad your problem seems sorted.

Just a few extra comments for you. We have a septic tank as there is no mains drainage here and we have it emptied and serviced every 12 to 18 months. The tank is big enough for 6 people and we are never more than 5.

The one we have is a Klargester; before that we had a 100 yr old septic tank that used to leak when full and that used to fill up when it rained so we were always having it emptied.

If you have mains drainage too why don't you have the septic tank capped off?

The deeds to all the houses in our road show all the soakaways. We had a new soakaway dug when the Klargester went in about 8 yeas ago and the holey pipe soon filled up with willow roots so that blocked the tank until we had that sorted.

But it's still cheaper than mains drainage!

We have a sixteen-person tank shared between 3 homes and have it emptied every year although there are only 10 of us in the three properties.
We just had a new soakaway built which cost just under £800 but thats ok as its split 3 ways and has n't been replaced in at least 20 years.
As for mains drains - no thank you. That would add the best part of a 1,000 pounds to the water bill here in devon. The tank costs less than 100 to be emptied, split between three.
You really have to be careful what goes in the drains / tank. No fat, no tampons or st's, no baby wipes and definately no nappies or incontinence pads.

A set of rods & fittings are only about £20.........better than £200+ for D*no- R*d.......

We had trouble with the drainage to our new church hall a few years ago and eventually found that the builders had not removed the plug that they put in to check the pipes for leakage!!!!

Glad you sorted your problem,For a good laugh, Look up a Record by "Blaster Bates" his method of clearing Septic Tanks will have you in stitches.**M**.