Septic tank help!

[Pitstop1986]

Dows anyone know anything about septic tanks?

Ours fills to the brim and backs up every couple of months, so we have to schedule it to be emptied regularly. We got a quote to connect to mains draining, but it was £30,000 as the connection point is so far away and they'd have to dig the road up as part of the job, not to mention we'd have to get our driveway re-paved afterwards.

DH says that it's the tail pipes that are blocked due to tree roots growing around them. I honestly have no idea about septic tanks or how they work. Can we get the tail pipes fixed? Is there a way for us to remedy the problem without having to remortgage the house? We don't have much garden, so not a lot of space to play with.

I would get a specialist septic tank people out to find the problem and get it fixed. A new system would cost less than £30000 and your on going sewage costs would be less than being connected to the mains.
And that is at the worse, they may well be able to fix it for less.
You may not be compliant with up to date regs anyway, so this will be sorted then for if you sell in the future. (Mine only gets emptied about every 9 months)

I don't have personal experience, but have done an amount of research as I was looking at a property with private drainage.

It seems that the best option is to install a sewage treatment plant. This sounds complicated, but ultimately involves digging a big hole and dropping in the tank.

I am afraid that having private drainage involves cost and disruption periodically, so I'd wager you are in with some expense. For this reason I elected not to buy in the end.

You don’t need to connect to the mains. Clearly there is a problem with the tank or pipes, so get any of the local companies who install them in to have a look and quote to resolve, you may need it all replacing/moving, but you shouldn’t pay more than 15 grand.

This happened to mine.

The people who empty it came out and and put a jet washer into the pipes that feed the drainage field, they had blocked with hard crud.

Yes tree roots can damage the pipes but you'd really need to put a camera in there to prove that, mine was next to several pine trees and a bloody great Sycamore but roots weren't an issue.

Rules have changed on septic tanks but as far as i'm aware, you can replace like with like.

I'm assuming you ve the "onion" type tank (made of fibre glass and not a square concrete hole in the ground with an over flow for liquid?

Yes, the company who empties it should be able to investigate.

Some will, others are happy to take the money for constantly emptying it.....

Sounds like your system needs updating
get price for new system and compare with connecting to mains drain

main people have well managed and maintained septic tanks with no problems

Usually they provide a more comprehensive service though, all the ones round here do.

we changed ours to a water treatment plant. But it was a couple of hundred quid if I wished a camera down there to investigate what was going on.

You need to get a camera down the pipes to find out. It's not expensive and the company that empties it should offer this service, if not then find a better company!

I am sure it was a couple of hundred, when we had a quote.

We have the exact same problem and are now connecting to the mains. We are currently spending £400 every three weeks to clear our tank.

The problem is the soak away isn't working anymore. Our tank is extremely old and leaking too. (Groundwater is ingressing through the concrete walls of the tank.)

Regulations about new soakaways are more restrictive now, so if that is your problem it might not be easy to dig out a new one.

You can look at a water treatment plant for your tank. It is cheaper than connecting to the mains and might make your tank work better.

@KitchenSinkLlama it sounds like you have the same problem as us. There's also ground water ingress into our tank as after a heavy spell of rainfall, the tank seems to fill up so much more quickly. During the winter, we have to empty it much more frequently.

DH is ringing around trying to get people to come and give us advice and quotes on how to remedy the problem