Septic tank emptying cost/frequency?

[dislal]

I have lived in my house for 14 years and we have never had ours pumped yet. We don't even know where ours is, the guy we bought the place off of told us it was over there and pointed so when we had it refinanced last year and the lady from the bank came up I told her it was over there and pointed in the same general direction and she said ok


Anyone have any suggestions on how I would find it?

 

[marlynnp]

I have lived in my house for 14 years and we have never had ours pumped yet. We don't even know where ours is, the guy we bought the place off of told us it was over there and pointed so when we had it refinanced last year and the lady from the bank came up I told her it was over there and pointed in the same general direction and she said ok


Anyone have any suggestions on how I would find it?

Do you know where your waste pipe exits your house? Is there a vent pipe in your yard? If you draw a straight line between the two and continue past the vent pipe a few more feet should be the tank. You can then probe the ground (it will usually be 18-24" down) to find the lid (and it's edges). I'd try the center area first for the access lid. If you do dig to the lid and have it pumped, have a riser installed so it's easily accessible in the future.

 

[marlynnp]

We have ours done every 2-3 years. 500 gallon tank about $150.

 

[jjjmranch]

We have ours pumped at least every three years. The septic system is over 30 years old and there's always a chance that the arms can get clogged or baffles break. The leach field can fail if you have heavy rains too. The ground does get saturated with rain water and septic water. I'd rather pay the $160 it costs to get it pumped than to have it back up in our house, the dishwasher, the washer, etc. etc. Also have them check your pipe that connects from your house to the septic system. In Illinois, it's about 10 feet long.

 

[snowbunny]

You don't really have the tank "emptied" - the leach field takes care of the effluent - but the bottom sludge removed. If not done periodically (every couple of years), eventually there are problems of the types mentioned by jjjmranch.

 

[kpadalik]

We've been in our house for 7 years (brand new when we moved in) and we have only emptied it once maybe 2 years ago. It was about $150 if I remember correctly.

 

[kpadalik]

I think ours was last pumped about 7 years ago when my aunt flushed a pantyliner down the toilet, but other than that, it doesn't have to be pumped very often. My mom paid about $250 to have it done. Our house was built in 1950 and I don't know if it has ever been replaced or not.

We use Ridex every month, it is a bacteria that eats away the waste so you don't have to have it pumped often.

Suzanne

Also a pack of Fleischmanns yeast works too. This is what we do. A little cheaper than Ridex.

 

[jerseygirl81]

I once read on the disboards that someone was told by the man cleaning out their septic to put in buttermilk but I don't remember how much or how often. About 20 yrs ago we were told to put peroxide in our leach tank by the guy that put in our septic tank. Linda

 

[jerseygirl81]

Also a pack of Fleischmanns yeast works too. This is what we do. A little cheaper than Ridex.

Do you open the tank and put it in or do you put in down the drain with water? Linda

 

[tzolkin]

I have lived in my house for 14 years and we have never had ours pumped yet. We don't even know where ours is, the guy we bought the place off of told us it was over there and pointed so when we had it refinanced last year and the lady from the bank came up I told her it was over there and pointed in the same general direction and she said ok


Anyone have any suggestions on how I would find it?

We have about the same situation. We've had our house for six years. The people that owned the house before us bought it in 1940 (It's almost 200 years old), but we bought the house after they died and weren't even given any indication of where it is. There's a rectangular area of the yard where the grass turns brown if it's a really dry summer, so I assume that's where it is.

Every few months it crosses my mind that we should probably have it emptied, but we've never had any issues and then I forget about it again for a while.

Do you know where your waste pipe exits your house? Is there a vent pipe in your yard? If you draw a straight line between the two and continue past the vent pipe a few more feet should be the tank. You can then probe the ground (it will usually be 18-24" down) to find the lid (and it's edges). I'd try the center area first for the access lid. If you do dig to the lid and have it pumped, have a riser installed so it's easily accessible in the future.

We have no vent. I've sort of put off having it done because I don't want to dig all over to try to find the lid for the thing.
Any insight for me?

 

[snowbunny]

I've sort of put off having it done because I don't want to dig all over to try to find the lid for the thing. Any insight for me?

When we bought our house I had never had septic before and had no clue where it was or how it worked. We had the septic inspected though as part of the home inspection and the guy from the septic place (never been to the house before) found the lid in just a couple of minutes. They seem to know where it is.

Now after 10 years I know more about septic than I ever wanted to learn. (I hate it.)

 

[cukal6]

We just had ours pumped a couple of months ago. We live in a 100 year old farm house, and the septic tank is just as old. The guy said we should have it done every 1-3 years and it costs us right around $100. We didn't realize we were supposed to have it done so often and we let it go 5 years. It started backing up into the house!!!

 

[wall*e2008]

We have about the same situation. We've had our house for six years. The people that owned the house before us bought it in 1940 (It's almost 200 years old), but we bought the house after they died and weren't even given any indication of where it is. There's a rectangular area of the yard where the grass turns brown if it's a really dry summer, so I assume that's where it is.

Every few months it crosses my mind that we should probably have it emptied, but we've never had any issues and then I forget about it again for a while.



We have no vent. I've sort of put off having it done because I don't want to dig all over to try to find the lid for the thing.
Any insight for me?

The brown patch is your field not your tank. I cannot speak for older homes, but now the septic tank must be within 10 feet of the house (that is how far ours is). Find the place it leaves the house and figure it is 10-15 feet away, most likely in the same line as the pipe was going (no reason to run it any way but straight).

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

We have an early 70's brick ranch and have no clue where the septic system is. I have never seen a vent pipe either. We bought our home about 4 years ago and have never had the septic system pumped. We are considering it after reading this thread.

 

[wall*e2008]

We have an early 70's brick ranch and have no clue where the septic system is. I have never seen a vent pipe either. We bought our home about 4 years ago and have never had the septic system pumped. We are considering it after reading this thread.

The vent pipes will occur in the leach field of a sand mount type of leach field. There are also clean out pipes every 100 feet from the output of the septic tank. If the leach field is less than 100 feet away there will be no clean out pipe. There is also a distribution box at the start of the leach field. This may have a clean out. It is located underground.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Also a pack of Fleischmanns yeast works too. This is what we do. A little cheaper than Ridex.

Wow, I didn't know that and definitely cheaper than Rid-X. We just started doing this recently and since we have had some other minor issues, I didn't want to add septic tack problems to that.

That Rid-X looks nasty too

Do you open the tank and put it in or do you put in down the drain with water? Linda

You flush it down the toilet like you do with Rid-X, so it goes to the septic tank, not the toilet tank.

Suzanne

 

[corndog]

If it's working properly, you never have to have a septic system pumped. You should be diligent in alternating the leach fields, though, if that is an option for you.

 

[C.Ann]

I always paid $100 - and I believe the reccomendation from the Health Department was to have it pumped every 5 years..

Never heard of paying by the "pound"..

 

[NikiM20]

We have a Mo-Dad. Our waste goes through that and into a city sewage line. I have no idea why it is like this. The whole neighborhood is BUT we are not allowed by local ordinace to tie into the sewer line. So do I still need to pump?

 

[walkdmc]

We live near Philadelphia, in PA. I don't know the size of our tank but we have 5 bathrooms, 4 people and the house is 6 years old. The guy that pumps the tank recommended we have it emptied every 2 years. It costs us $225 every time.

Something of importance is the depth of the "lids" to the tank. If the septic tank pumpers need to dig to get tank access, that's an extra charge.