It took me 18 years to find my septic tank. I had no idea where it was. Sewage backed up into my house. Fortunately, a tree root blocked the inlet port before the tank filled up with solids. A plumber cleared the blockage, which he said was at the entrance of the septic tank. When he pushed through the blockage, the sound his snake made told him it was inside the septic tank. The plumber recommended I get the tank pumped out. I contacted another company and a guy in a tanker truck came out the next day. He used a rod to find the outline of the tank. He then determined where the openings were and dug down about a foot or more and found the bigger cover. He got the larger cover off and pumped it out. The tank was forty to fifty percent full of solids. He pulled on a narrow ribbon looking thing that had grown between the cover and tank. It turned out to be a tree root. When it came out, it had expanded inside the tank to the size of a Christmas tree. He said I was lucky that tree root caused a problem on the inlet side, because had I kept using it without ever pumping it out, it would have eventually clogged the field lines. There was nothing but water going out of the outlet. He checked that and showed me. I set up a schedule to have it pumped out every four years. He said I could probably go five years, but I said four was good. It cost $325 because he had to locate the tank and dig down to open it. He said I could save $25 by opening the lid myself next time. He pumped everything out. I could see the concrete bottom of the tank. Before he got into his truck and left, he suggested I cut down a tree I had planted ten years earlier that ended up right next to my septic tank. The hole I had dug for the tree had just barely missed the concrete tank. The tree had grown huge roots all across the top of the tank. We had to cut out several roots to get to the lids. Two days later I cut down the tree that had caused the problem. I dug out and cut out several roots. I put plastic over my cover and backfilled with dirt so it would be easier to dig next time. That was two years ago. Two more years to go before I do it again. Do not neglect your septic tank. I got lucky.
We're having problems with our toilets flushing. Our septic tank has been pump everything was going smoothly 1 week later it started again no flushing. What should I do?
@@cecy6s , the line going to the septic tank may be clogged. You need to find the opening to that line. It should be about a foot from the edge of your house foundation directly inline with the sewage line under your house. Dig down, locate the screw off cap and open that cap. If the line is stopped up, water will overflow that opening when you removed the cap. That opening is where the plumber inserts the clean out snake to clear out any roots growing inside the line.
Unfortunately, a tile probe won't help if your soil is full of rocks. We wound up getting the original permit from the county which diagrammed where the tank is.
We had to do the same here in Arizona. We went to the county website and found the septic details from the builder's permit that had the septic mapped out exactly where it was placed on our property. My poor hubby found it but had to dig through 2 feet of rock to reach the septic lids. So now we need to install risers so he doesn't have to go through all that again!
Just get a large lawn decoration if it's below grade most do that but unfortunately don't tell the next homeowner that's what that is but they don't figure out that flat stone they let grow over was a marker... probably.... careful people do same for gas service
I bought a lot that had a mobile home on it and was removed maybe 10 years ago. I tried to probe for the tank and haven't found anything. The lot is heavily treed so Google Earth wont help. Its kind of like looking for burred treasure, about $5k worth. Yar!
Where could I purchase one of those electronic things you mentioned, to flush down the toilet, and use a device or smart phone to find my septic tank ? Thank you 😁
How far back can you go on Google Earth? "Earth Engine is a platform for scientific analysis and visualization of geospatial datasets, for academic, non-profit, business and government users. Earth Engine hosts satellite imagery and stores it in a public data archive that includes historical earth images going back more than forty years."
