Conserve Water and Help Your Septic Tank Work More Efficiently
Admin • February 28, 2018
Your septic system gives you many years of service if you care for it properly and have it cleaned on schedule. One important step in septic tank maintenance that you may not think of is water conservation.
Conserving water is useful for a number of reasons — for example, it’s better for the environment — but it also prolongs the life of your septic system. Here's a look at why water conservation is helpful and what you can do to cut down the amount of water you use at home.
How Waste Water Flows Through Your Septic Tank
The waste in your septic tank separates into layers. The heavy solids fall to the bottom where they decompose and form sludge, while the light material such as fat and oil floats to the top and forms a scum layer. Wastewater is sandwiched between these two layers.
The waste in your septic tank separates into layers. The heavy solids fall to the bottom where they decompose and form sludge, while the light material such as fat and oil floats to the top and forms a scum layer. Wastewater is sandwiched between these two layers.
Waste enters one side of the tank and separates into layers, and then wastewater flows out the other side. Sludge and scum are trapped in the tank to be pumped out later. The rate at which water leaves the tank depends on how much water you flush down your drains.
If you use a lot of water, water flows through the tank and empties into the drainfield quicker. Ideally, wastewater has enough time to sit in the tank for solids and scum to separate before the water is pushed out. This protects the drainfield and tank from being clogged by bits of solids or clumps of grease.
How to Conserve Water and Protect Your Septic System
There are several ways to conserve water in your home, and some don't require any money at all. For instance, you can take shorter showers and turn off the water when you brush your teeth and between rinsing dishes. Limit running the dishwasher and clothes washer to times when you have full loads and avoid running multiple loads of wash one after the other.
Consider how your water use affects the septic tank. By being aware of your actions, you can space your water usage apart to allow time for the waste to separate in the tank. Other water conservation methods require investing in new plumbing supplies.
You can put aerators on your faucets and have low-flow shower heads installed in your bathrooms. These are relatively inexpensive ways to cut down on the amount of water you use without even trying. Another good way to reduce water use automatically is to buy high-efficiency appliances.
You can buy many types of appliances that are made to use less water, including toilets and washing machines. While it can be expensive to replace all your appliances at once, consider buying high-efficiency models when you're ready to upgrade. Other practices you'll want to avoid include draining a hot tub or swimming pool into a drain or over the drainfield.
Instead, drain all that excess water away from your septic system and house so it doesn't impact the tank or stress the field. Also, you'll want to repair plumbing leaks promptly. A leaky faucet or running toilet wastes a surprising amount of water over the course of the day, and it drains straight into your septic tank.
By allowing the wastewater to settle properly, the septic system can work as it is designed. Proper settling is the first step in the treatment of waste that leaves your home. It's necessary so the drainfield can do its important job of filtering the water as it seeps through the soil.
Conserving water helps your system work better, and it helps you avoid unnecessary septic system repairs. Call C.E. Taylor and Son, Inc., when your septic tank needs attention. We can clean, repair, or replace the tank or drainfield as needed to get your system back in shape.
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Some trees are more aggressive towards pipes than other trees are, and some have much larger root systems and much thirstier water-guzzling habits than others. So not every tree poses the same threat, but as a rule, you'll want to keep trees as far away from both your water and septic pipes as possible. As a quick back-of-the-hand estimate, you can use the tree's own size to check for correct placement. Find out what kinds of trees you have and what their mature height should be, and use that number as a guideline — if there's a pipe within that distance, the tree is too close. This goes for not only your clean water lines and the pipe to your septic tank, but also the entire septic drain field system (also known as the leach field), which is primarily composed of pipes. If you're wondering why it's so important to keep trees away from your pipes, that's because tree root systems can cause damage to pipes in a number of ways. Here are four of them. 1. Causing Bellied Pipes "Bellied" pipes refer to pipes that have a sunken section where the regular downward slope has been interrupted. This generally happens because the ground under the pipe has eroded, crumbled or settled, but tree roots can play a part in bellying as well. Anything that destabilizes the ground under a section of pipe, undermining the pipe's support in that section, can cause it to belly. 2. Prying Open Cracks Tree roots are experts at searching for traces of water. A miniscule crack or even a nearly-perfect joint that doesn't leak enough water to cause a problem can be like blood in the water for a tree root. And once it's found the source of the water, the root will head straight for the tiny crack and force its way in, growing thicker as it does so. As you can imagine, this can make cracks wider and allow more water to escape. 3. Creating Blockages Some trees have fast-growing roots that can grow through a crack and then grow at such speeds that they curl around and around inside the pipe until they've formed a mat that nothing can get through. This blockage can create problems for the rest of the system, including septic backups and flooding in your home (in a worst-case scenario). 4. Bursting Pipes The problem with roots is that they don't know when to stop. Once they've entered a pipe, they'll just keep going and going. If the root mass doesn't incapacitate the septic system, it will continue growing and may even burst the pipe from the inside. Tree roots can get huge and woody over weeks and months of growth, so they could end up taking over yards and yards of your pipes before they're discovered and removed. If caught in time, tree roots can often be removed with special equipment that cuts the roots out of the pipe from the inside. However, if the pipes are too damaged — for example, if they're burst from the inside — it may be necessary to dig up large sections of the pipes for replacement. So keeping trees away from your septic system is the best way to prevent these expensive types of damage. Whether you're looking for tree root removal, tips on protecting your system from roots or more information on how to tell if you have a root problem, we'd love to talk to you! Feel free to contact us today and ask about our repair and maintenance services. You can call us or simply use our online form !
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