Few Tips for Homeowners to Septic Tank Maintenance

Do you know that you need to pay $3,000 -$7,000 for replacing an average septic tank? Keeping this in mind, proper septic tank maintenance is necessary to keep your septic system running efficiently. Routine check helps in saving you from spending a good amount of money on costly repairs and helps you to have a healthy and safe lifestyle. From your shower and toilet to your washer and garbage disposal, whatever goes down your drain ultimately ends up in the septic tank. So, you must pay attention to what stuff you are putting down the drain. Below we describe a few steps on how to maintain your tank and if you follow the steps properly, it will help in preventing solid build-up and the system will be operating at peak efficiency for several years.

Regular Care, Maintenance, And Upkeep

When wastewater flows through the home and enters into the septic tank, regular care needs to be taken to make sure that those substances that belong in the system are reaching it. A method that you can follow for effective maintenance regularly is to think for at least a few seconds before flushing certain products, cleaners, or solids and consider how these materials will be affecting your system. An easy thumb rule you can follow when you need to dispose of certain solids is to place a trash can which will be immensely helpful to limit the solids from entering the pipe and into the system as much as possible. Food scraps, facial tissue, grease, paper towels or napkins, and sanitary products contribute to high sludge levels or damage in the tank and these harmful products must always be thrown away instead of flushing down the drain. Disinfectants and cleaners used in toilets or sinks must be used with proper care and household owners must ensure to go through the instructions and use these products as mentioned on the label. These cleaners are filled with toxic materials and if your tank is overexposed to hazardous toxins then the system will be more prone to damage.

Inspection

The most vital step in septic tank maintenance is a daily inspection and hiring a profession for inspecting your tank is a valuable resource when it is about knowing the health and the functionality of a particular system. For the majority of the systems, a single inspection annually is more than sufficient, however, if your system has moving parts then these inspections will be more frequent. During the inspection, the team will be checking all the components to ensure that the process is running properly and no potential hazards exist. The connections in the tank will be inspected thoroughly to make sure that all wastewater is entering into the system smoothly. This procedure is checked by flushing the toilets, running the shower or sink,  or running the washing machine with a quick cycle for making sure that there is no problem in the plumbing connection. Finally, you can keep records of repairs, tank placement, and inspection findings to keep track of the health of the septic tank.