You will not receive any notification from your septic tank that it is filling up. No warning light, no alert on your phone, no automatic reminder. It simply accumulates over time as you go about your life without realising it, until it’s full and the warning signs become increasingly inescapable.
The problem is, when most people find out their tank requires pumping, it’s already been working hard for awhile. The first symptoms are easily ignored. A slow-moving drain. An odor from outside that you think is due to something else. A toilet that takes 1 to 2 seconds longer than usual to flush. None of these are urgent individually, so people tend to wait.
The costs begin to add up when you wait, though. The tank that was pumped 6 months ago is now stressing your drain field. The drain field is a very common place to experience blockage under these conditions. Once the drain field goes, you are not looking at a pumping bill anymore. You’re looking at something much bigger and much more expensive.
Here are the indicators that the tank is full. Some of them are subtle, some of them are not difficult to notice and all of them are to be taken seriously.
Your Drains Are Slower Than Normal
This is typically what people notice first, and they typically blame it on something else. A slow drain can be readily blamed on a clog, hair buildup in the shower, or clogging of the grease filter under the kitchen sink. Sometimes, that’s just the situation. However, if more than one drain is backed-up at the same time and plunging and drain cleaners are not working, the issue is probably deeper in the system.
As a septic tank fills, the sludge at the bottom and the scum at the top begin to consume the available tank volume for the liquid effluent to flow. The tank becomes ineffective in processing and water backs up up the system. You end up noticing it at the furthest point from the tank, which is usually the lowest fixtures in the house.
If all drains in your home are slow and no efforts you make seem to make a long-term difference, the tank is the first place worth checking.
Toilets Are Gurgling or Flushing Poorly
A healthy septic system won’t make any noise. Water goes down and nothing comes back, nothing makes unusual sounds. During tank filling, air is being pushed back in the pipes because the system is struggling to flow the wastewater through the pipes. This air is released through the nearest opening, usually through the toilet.
If you hear the water gurgling when it is flushing or the water takes a long time to flush the bowl, the system is saying something! It’s not extreme and not constant enough, and that’s why people don’t really pay it much attention. It is not a quirk. This is a warning not to be ignored.
There Is a Bad Smell Around the Property
A healthy septic system should not smell. The tank itself is covered, and all gases are vented from the stack with no gases escaping at ground level. If you begin to notice a sewage smell persistently in the garden, especially around the area of the tank lid or over the drain field area, the system is running beyond its comfortable capacity.
If there is a smell around the tank, generally gases are escaping, which should not be. If you smell odours coming from the drain field, it could indicate that the field is receiving a higher flow than it can process. In either case, an odor that wasn’t present previously is not something that is to be ignored or assumed to be a temporary annoyance. It tends to get worse, not better.
If sewage odors remain in the house, even if no one has been using it recently, it is likely that the pressure in the system is forcing gas back up through the pipelines. This is another warning from the tank that it is in need of attention again.
Water Is Pooling in Your Garden
The biggest clue that septic system issues may be occurring is when people notice standing water around the drain field following a dry spell. The principle of the drain field is to slowly disperse treated effluent into the surrounding soil. If the tank is being overfilled and the water is being pumped into the field too fast, the soil will not absorb the water.
The soil on top of the drain field may be spongy even if it hasn’t rained in a while. Patches of unusually green and growing grass may be observed in that area as the effluent is a source of nutrients for the grass over it. These are not good signs. They indicate that there is a lot of pressure on the system, and that it requires urgent action.
If there is actual water pooling in this area and it has a smell, early intervention is not the domain here. Get a professional out as soon as possible.
Your Tank Has Not Been Pumped in Years
At times, there are no dramatic symptoms. Everything seems fine. The drains run, the toilets flush, there are no smells and no pooling water. However, when was the last time the tank was pumped?
The answer is every 3-5 years, depending on the number of people living in the home and the capacity of the tank. Families with an average-sized tank will need to pump around every three years. A couple with the same property may extend it to 5. Anything beyond that is where troubles begin to arise, even if there is no apparent issue at the moment.
No matter what you’re doing wrong, sludge continues to build. It is just the nature of how a septic system works. Solids that are not biodegradable will settle at the bottom of the tank and accumulate over time. Once this layer has built up enough, the tank will no longer operate as intended and the rest of the system begins to deteriorate.
When you can’t remember when the tank was last pumped or if you’ve moved into the property without that information, booking a pump and inspection makes sense. Know what lies ahead instead of learning the hard way.
What Happens When You Ignore It
When a septic tank is completely full and not pumped, there is a predictable sequence of events. The tank backs up into the drain field. Solids clog the drain field and it begins to fail. Effluent backs up into the house or surfaces in the garden. A simple pumping service is a much bigger and more disruptive job than repairing or replacing a drain field.
The environmental aspect is also there. A septic system that is not working properly releases untreated sewage into the soil and may be causing contamination of the water supply. This is bad for the surrounding environment and may be a compliance problem, depending on your location.
It is important to remember that the difference between paying to pump a tank when it is needed and experiencing its consequences after a prolonged time is quite large. Pumping is a normal maintenance procedure. The rest that follows if it is omitted is not.
If you are experiencing any of the symptoms described here, or if you don’t know when the tank was last serviced, OK Eco Pump is here to help. Schedule a pump and inspection to get a better understanding of your system before it turns into an emergency.