Septic Tank Maintenance: Inside and Outside Your Home

For homeowners with a septic system in place, routine septic tank maintenance is the best way to keep it functioning smoothly. Knowing and controlling what gets into the septic tank is a preventative measure designed to keep problems from starting in the first place. Both inside and outside your home, there are habits to get into with regard to the septic tank. Maintenance involves more than the biannual pumping of the system. It requires water conservation and the proper use of the tank inside of the home as well as avoiding building or planting around the tank outside of the home. 

Indoor Maintenance

A septic tank system, when properly maintained from inside the home, will cause a homeowner few problems. Indoor septic maintenance does not involve anything more than being fully aware of what is going into the tank. The only 3 things that should ever get deposited into a septic tank are human waste, bath tissue and waste water including gray and black water. Accidents happen, whether it's a cotton swab that fell into the toilet or a small toy that got sucked down the drain, but care should be taken to avoid those occurrences in the future. 

Water Conservation

Solids in septic tanks work to absorb the liquids that pass into the container. To reduce the amount of liquids passing into a tank, work out a water conservation plan. Conserving water is the most cost effective way to keep a septic tank system working properly. When looking for ways to conserve water, try to reduce water use a little bit everywhere rather than try to curtail a single, major form of water use. Take shorter showers, turn off running water when lathering up soap, brushing your teeth or washing dishes and run the wash only when full. Consider installing water-saving devices on shower heads or in the toilet tank. Repairing any leaks that cause water to run into the tank needlessly is a good idea as well. 

Reduce Solids

To reduce the amount of solid materials flowing into a septic tank, use the garbage disposal less often and only for items that are completely pulverized by the machine. Never pour grease down the sink. Instead, store it in a sealable glass jar next to the sink. Avoid putting any paper products besides bath tissue down the toilet drain, and never use the septic tank as a repository for insecticides, paint or any other toxic product. 

Outside Maintenance

Outdoors, septic tank maintenance mainly involves considering the area immediately above and around where the septic tank is buried. Avoid landscaping around the tank or drain field. Roots can stop up drain holes and cause a system to back up. The drain field for the septic system should not be covered on the ground level with concrete, brick or any other kind of permanent structure. Otherwise, the rate of water evaporation could be negatively affected. The area above the drain field should be free of depressions that could cause water to pool up. It should also be as sunny as possible. 

By taking care of what goes into a septic tank and by conserving water inside the home, a septic tank should never be overloaded. By allowing for maximum liquid evaporation outside the home in and around the drain field, backups will not likely occur at that end either.