If you’ve always had city sewage and water, if you move to a home with a septic system, you may not understand how the whole thing works. You might be told that you will have to have septic tank pumping in Petaluma, CA every so often and that there are certain things you shouldn’t put down the drains. But if you don’t know why, it might be harder for you to follow those rules. Here is some background on how septic tanks work so you can better understand what you need to do.
Septic tanks are a whole ecosystem of their own. They have bacteria in them that works full time in order to eat through the things that go into the tank. You will have heard that you are not to use anti-bacterial soaps or detergents with certain ingredients in them. That is because those items, when they get into the septic tank, will kill off the bacteria that is supposed to be working on breaking down the waste in the tank. When that happens, the tank fills up and pumping is necessary a lot more often. It will take a while for the system to balance out again and that can be costly for you.
Even if you never do anything you aren’t supposed to do with the septic system, it’s going to need to be pumped every now and then. Depending on how many people are in your house and how much wastewater is used and flushed down the drains, some families have to have the pumping done more often. Pumping is needed, quite simply, when the tank gets too full. If your tank is working well and everything is in balance, that won’t happen frequently. But the bacteria can only break down so much, so fast. Eventually, the tank just needs to be emptied out.
So you can see why it’s important not to put things down the tank that won’t break down. Things like paper towels, wet wipes, or anything that’s not toilet paper or waste can be very detrimental to the system as a whole. They won’t break down so they will cause the tank to fill up faster, which means you will have to get the system pumped out more often.
If you move into a house with a septic system, call experts and have things inspected so you know how things lie and what signs to look for when you might be in need of septic tank pumping in Petaluma, CA. The experts at American Sanitation are glad to tell you what you can and can’t do with your septic system to ensure that you keep the system as healthy as possible so you won’t need pumping nearly as frequently as you would otherwise. If you see signs that things are going awry, we can come out and take a look, issue repairs, or perhaps recommend pumping. You can also just call and ask questions about how things operate and what you should do.
